I went out on a warm summer morning to do some Sand Hollow shore fishing on the 4th of July. I only had an hour or two, but wound up “Kraking” half a dozen bass. Here are the conditions, what I used, and where I crushed some fish from the shore at Sand Hollow.
Here were the condtions on friday July 4th from 6:15 am to 8:15am Sand Hollow shore fishing.
I only fished a small section of shoreline. Here is the map for you to see where I caught bass.
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I tried three different baits. The first was a buzz bait
hoping I’d get a nice top-water strike. Then I tied on a drop shot with a green pumpkin smallie beaver
. A little trick I like to do is dip the tail of the beaver in chartreuse soft plastic dye
. I feel like it makes the bait look more like a bluegill with the chartreuse tips. I also used a pink (morning dawn) roboworm
on the drop shot rig. The smallie beaver and the roboworm caught all of my fish.
I pulled up to the far north end of the parking lot, and took two rods with me down to the water. One with a topwater bait tied on, and the other had a drop shot rig set up on it. Usually early morning in the summer you can get some decent top-water action, but when I got there the wind was howling. I’ve found topwaters are better in calm conditions, so I tied on the buzzbait hoping it could produce a strike even in the wind chop.
I threw the buzzbait for about 30 minutes without any strikes. I spoke with a guy in a personal pontoon as he came floating by me while I was fishing. He said he caught a few fish off the rocks. I could tell he was fishing deep along the bottom, so I abandoned the buzzbait and tied on a drop shot with the smallie beaver.
On my first cast with the smallie beaver my line swam off, and I set the hook. I was stoked when I felt the drag zing with a bass at the end of the line. The bass really took me for all I was worth, and then hung me up behind a rock. I let my line go slack for what felt like an eternity hoping he would unlodge himself on his own. There was no way I could pull him out with my light spinning gear. Eventually, he swam out from behind the rock, and the fight was back on! I was blown away by what I saw when I landed him. He wasn’t really that big, but he had a giant gash in the back of his head. Check this bass out in the picture below, I couldn’t believe he was alive. I let him go, and he still swam off like a champion after our struggle. He was one tough stud.
After the battle was over with the stud, I threw to the same spot and caught another one! I was feeling really stoked. I tried a few more casts in that general area, but before I moved spots I decided to try the pink roboworm in the same place.
On my first cast where I’d already fished I caught another bass on the roboworm. Then on the next cast I whacked another! I wound up catching six bass in one spot. I was really impressed with the roboworm it was on fire. I wanted to stay longer, but the 4th of July band was playing, so I went to go celebrate. Here is a selfie of one of the good ones I caught on the roboworm.
Feel free to leave your thoughts or questions about the trip in the comments below. Hope this helps you with your Sand Hollow shore fishing, so you can “Krak” some bass!
As Always,
Stay Stoked!
This is the main gear I used to catch fish on this trip:
Spinning Rod & Reel Set up:
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. 
Terminal Tackle:
Drop Shot Weight 1/4 oz. 
Gamakatsu Drop Shot Hook-Pack Of 25 (Black, 2)
Baits:
Roboworm Straight Worm – Aaron’s Morning Dawn
Green Pumpkin Smallie Beaver
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19 Responses
Nice. The morning dawn Roboworm has been a go to bait for me during the hot summer months since 2007, mainly AZ desert reservoirs. I have been shore fishing Gunlock for the last 2 months and was surprised to see how big the LBG are. I just purchased a 1987 16′ Lund set up for bass fishing and will be planning some trips to Quail and Sand Hollow soon. Are there any good topo maps available for these reservoirs? Thanks for this awesome site. Todd
Gunlock for sure has some beasts! I haven’t found any good topo’s. You can check out some of my maps on my different posts to figure out some of my favorite spots. The lakes are pretty small, so if you have some good electronics in your boat you should be able to get things dialed pretty quick. I’ve used the Navionics website, and google earth to find good spots. Here is the link to Navionics sometimes it has lakes and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s a good resource to try. http://www.navionics.com/en/webapp
Thanks for the support!
Thanks JB. I will send you a report. Hopefully next weekend.
I’ll be stoked to here how it goes!
It looks like Sunday will be the first trip out on this boat. What lake do you recommend for weekend fishing? I know Sand Hollow gets pretty busy on the weekends.
I would still go to Sand Hollow, there are so many bass in that place. It’s really hot right now, so you don’t get a lot of fisherman on the water. I would stay on a deep water pattern around 20 feet deep or deeper. Early Morning late evening try topwater. You should have a good time! Love to here how you do!
Had a great day at Sand Hollow Sunday. Got on the lake later than planned, 7:30 or so. My father hooked up on the first cast. I rigged him up drop shot with a 4″ watermelon CREEK CRITTER single tail worm. My go to robo morning dawn did zilch. I only had 4 of the C.C. baits from 2008 left in the box. It seems they are no longer in biz. Rigged my son and myself up with the same bait. The bass pounded that color all morning. We fished the east shoreline near the dam at 15-30 feet and caught a few suspended fish. Largest fish was 3 lbs or so. Thinking of hitting Quail tomorrow morning, any tips on Quail. Thanks.
Stoked you found some bass! That east side is money!
Hit Quail this morning. 2 words, HOG HEAVEN!!! I was not prepared for the size of fish in that lake. Been putting off putting fresh 6 lb mono on my reels, I won’t do that again. The smallest fish was a 4 pounder and the biggest fish I was able to boat was just under 6 lb. Broke off some bigger fish.
I was the only fishing boat on the lake, lots off @%#holes that don’t know the boating laws. It was a good day for first time trip. Morning dawn was the color they wanted. Bonus fish was a 17″ FAT rainbow. Never caught a trout while fishing for bass. 20′-25′ was the hot zone.
That’s legit!!! Thanks for the update! Keep on “Kraken!”
LBG? OOOPS. LMB 😉
Good article, funny about that fish with the gash. I’ve pulled two out of Sand Hollow that had big chunks missing from the same spot. Both were good sized and appeared health except for the big chunk being gone. Keep the reports coming!
I wonder what’s causing that. Bizzare.
Wow. I cant believe that bass was still living. Nice work!
Man, I’m loving these write-ups. Level of detail is awesome, I felt like I was there at Sand Hollow participating in the action! Nice catch out there. Krak away.
Hey JB, my wife and I are planning to drive down to SH at the end of April hoping to get lucky on some shore fishing. If you had to go to only one or two places to catch some pigs this time of year, where would you go? We are probably going to fish in the evenings. What do you think?
Should be dope! I’ll email you a sample page of my Sand Hollow Guide Book about Shore Fishing. Let me know what you think, and it should help you out a ton.
I am going to hit up Sandy Hollow tomorrow afternoon and Quail Creek the next morning if no luck at Sandy. I get the feeling you live in the area considering you have fished these waters so many times. If you want to join me, send me a message. Your website is outstanding!
Thanks for the invite man! My family lives in St. George, and I come there for work once a month. I always try to go out when I’m down. I still live in Salt Lake though. Go tear em up!