Jordanelle Smallmouth

Jordanelle Map

By Scott Stowers, Anglers Inn Warmwater Specialist

Jordanelle is hot for smallmouth bass! People have been telling me that for some weeks and so I decided to get over there and find out what was up.

I invited Cal Robertson from Robertson's Marine (who brought one of his new Skeeter bass boats up for a demo ride), Dave Scadden, general manager for Anglers Inn, and my friend Steve Baty, a local bass tournament angler. We all met at 6 a.m. at the launch ramp of the state park and loaded our boats into the water.

We decided to head down to the dam area first and then veered to the left side where there is a little cove full of trees and brush. We tried several different topwaters but only had a few rises by small fish.

Next Steve and I tried the little cove right at the dam while Cal and Dave headed a little further uplake to a good looking rock pile. On the third cast Steve pulled up a nice pound-and-a-half fish on a Kalin brown grub and I pulled up his two brother on a Tazzer worm rigged Carolina style, using a G. Loomis spinning rod.

By the time we came to the end of the cove we had both boated and released 14 fish, all in the 1-2 pound category. Cal and Dave came around the corner and informed us they had done about the same on the rock pile.

We decided to try the Provo River arm and pulled up into the first cove. Steve and I kept using the same baits and concentrated our efforts on small points and rocky stretches of bank. About the third cast we both started picking up larger, more aggressive fish over two pounds. We continued with this pattern for the next two hours, picking up fish after fish. We tried both sides of the lake and the fish were on the same pattern on both.

Around 10 a.m. the wind started to pick up and I tied on a Poe deep diver crankbait in a firetiger color and on the fourth cast nailed my biggest fish of the day, a nice three pounder.

Steve tied on a Bomber Model A crankbait in a firetiger color and he also nailed a nice one. We proceeded to concentrate on points using crankbaits and continued to catch three or four nice fish in the 2-3 pound range on every point, with the largest, 3.5 pounder, going to Steve.

At 11:30 a.m. Cal and Dave joined us. They had also switched to fishing points with crankbaits and were most successful with the Bomber Model A in a rainbow trout pattern.

We all had to get back to work and wished we could stay and fish some more, but duty called and off to work we went.

Jordanelle is turning out to be a great fishery for smallmouth bass and trout. If you can get away during the week, when there is not as much pressure, you will be in for a great experience.