Here is a trip report of my excursion in the middle of March on Sand Hollow. This is one of my favorite lakes in Utah for catching bass. There never is such a thing as a bad time on the water here. We didn’t catch a lot of fish, but we did find a good pattern to put some in the boat by the end of the day. It was a lot of fun. Here is what the conditions of the lake were, the places we fished, what we used, and how we did doing some Sand Hollow pre-spawn fishing.

Sand Hollow Pre-Spawn Fishing

Conditions:

Here are what the conditions were on the water  Saturday afternoon from 2 – 6:30 pm.

Water Temp:  52 degrees 

Weather: Bright and Sunny with 0 – 8 mph winds. The wind started picking up later in the evening.

Water Clarity: Crystal Clear you could see 12 feet down.

Where we Fished:

Here is map of some of the different areas we fished:
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What we used:

We used a smattering of baits even though we were only on the water for a little while. I spent the majority of my time throwing a swim jig. I was hoping to get a reaction bite out of those bass laying up in the 12 – 15 ft brush piles. I also tried throwing a neko rig finesse worm, and that didn’t seem to get  bass to bite either. The best bait option wound up being a classic shaky head rig. We fished the shaky head rig with a senko, and a trigger x finesse worm.  The fish weren’t very aggresive because the water was still pretty cold. The less movement on your shaky head the better. A slow drag of the bait on the bottom was the key to get those bass to bite. Here is one of the nice fish my brother caught on a shaky head:

How we did:

I started out throwing a swim jig around brush piles hoping to get a beast to bite. I tried all kinds of different retrieves with it, and couldn’t seem to get anything to crunch down on it. I only had a few hours to fish, so after an hour I gave up on the Swim Jig. Then I tried throwing a neko rig finesse worm. We saw some fish moving in along the dyke, but couldn’t  get those fish to bite the finesse worm either. My dad wound up crushing one on a weightless texas rigged senko. I followed suit, got bit, and missed him. We were running out of time, so we decided to drift along the east shore because the wind had picked up. I threw a big football jig at this point, and after hanging it up, I decided to abandon it. Then things turned around for us. We got on one of the points along the shoreline, and the shaky head started blowing up. We wound up catching 4 bass in a few hours. Nothing really big but it was fun to catch some bass! Wish we would of had some more time to try a few more things, but we did finally figure something out to get us “Kraken” Bass!

Hope this helps for your next trip out on the water. I would love to hear your comments about your experience with Sand Hollow Pre-Spawn fishing. Feel free to leave them below.

As Always,

Stay Stoked!

Gear used:

Here are some links from my affiliate sponsors to the gear & tackle we used on this trip.

Spinning Setup-
Abu Garcia Spinning Reel
Shimano Convergence 7’2″ Medium Heavy Spinning Worm Rod
6-Pound Test Fluorocarbon Fishing Line
Spiderwire Stealth Braid 300-Yard Spool Moss Green 15lbs.

Baitcasting Setup-
Spiderwire Stealth Braid 300-Yard Spool Moss Gree 30lbs.
Sufix Invisiline Casting Flourocarbon 200-Yards Spool Size Fishing Line 12-Pound
Shimano Sellus Medium Heavy Worm and Jig Cast Rod 7’2″
Quantum Fishing Smoke 9 Bearing Baitcast Reel 7:3:1 ratio

Baits-
Shaky Head Rig      TriggerX Probe Worm 5.5″: Emererald Oil         Yamamoto Senko      Swim Jig Bait (Blue Gill, 0.3125-Ounce)     Roboworm FX Straight Tail Worm Bait