Blue Lake Utah Bass Fishing proved to be an epic spot for using my Airhead SUP Fishing Inflatable Stand Up Paddle Board. My friend and I caught around a half dozen bass in our morning of fishing. The Bonefish 1132 Stand up Paddle board proved to be a fun tool to level up our game on blue lake. Here are the details of the trip, what we learned about fishing blue lake, and how we used a stand up paddle board to sneak in on those clear water bass. Sit back, and enjoy this post!
Blue Lake Utah Bass Fishing - Paddle Board Style
Blue Lake Utah bass fishing from my Airhead SUP iSUP (Inflatable Stand Up Paddle Board) was one of my favorite trips of the year so far. The water was crystal clear, so we could use the paddle board to locate the bass. Then we would try and sneak in on them, and get the bass to bite. The cool part of the trip was all the bass were sitting shallow because they had just finished up spawning. We actually found a couple sitting on spawning beds that we were able to catch too. Here's the rundown of the trip of what we used, the conditions, and additional tips of what we learned while fishing blue lake to help you on your next adventure.
Blue Lake Utah - Bass Fishing Gear & Tackle
We started out the trip thinking moving baits would be the ticket on Blue Lake, but quickly learned to switch it up. Listed below were the best two baits we found to work for us after rifling through a bunch of stuff. In Addition, the Airhead SUP iSUP proved invaluable to help us locate fish. Included in this section is a little bit about how we set up the Airhead iSUP to get us "Kraken" bass. Paddle boarding while bass fishing was a ton of fun.
Airhead iSUP - Bonefish 1132
The Airhead Bonefish 1132 iSUP was perfect for bass fishing on Blue Lake. This iSUP is inflatable, so it made it easy to carry down to the lake. We set it up with two sets of Airhead SUP Fishing Racks, and a carbon light collapsible paddle. Everything fit neatly into the car, and in 10 minutes we were out paddling while chasing bass. Using the paddle board helped us locate the bass sitting on beds. We found kneeling on the board to be an way effective to help keep a low profile, and not spook the fish.
Yamamoto Senko
The Natural Shad 5" Yamamoto Senko worked well in this crystal clear water for those jittery shallow bass. We rigged it up on texas rig weightless with a 3/0 zoneloc hook. We didn't miss any fish, but the bites were tough. Every hit on the senko was way out in front of the paddle board at the end of your cast. I threw the senko on a spinning rod set up, to be able to get even further distance and not spook the fish.
Jackall Flick Shake
The 4.8 Jackall Flick Shake, in green pumpkin pepper, caught a fair amount of fish for us on the trip. We set the flick shake up on a drop shot rig to get those bass holding tight to their spawning beds to bite. This setup also worked well casting to those areas we knew held fish after we spotted them from our paddleboards.
Blue Lake Utah - Fishing Conditions
Our Bass fishing excursion on Blue Lake took place on a Friday May 5th, 2017. It took us 2.5 hours to drive out from Salt Lake City, Utah. We fished and played around on the paddle board from 8:30 am to 1:00 pm for a total of about 4 hours of fishing time.
WeatherBright Sunny Skies, Air Temp High of 80 degrees.
Wind0 - 7 mph. Started calm, and an occasional breeze would blow through.
Water Temperature70 Degrees, Perfect Swimming Temps.
Water ClarityBlue Lake Utah - Bass Fishing Spots
Here's a map of the best spots we found, and where we saw fish from the paddle board. The bass definitely weren't everywhere on blue lake. They seemed to hold in certain key areas. All you have to do is enter your name and email to view the map below, or subscribe if you haven't already in the form below. Let me know if you have any troubles viewing it. Hope this map will help you know the best spots to "Krak" bass!
Blue Lake Utah - Bass Fishing Report
I was surprised by the number of empty spawning beds we saw while cruising around on the Airhead SUP iSUP. The bass were all laying up shallow recovering from the spawn. There were still a few males hanging out guarding the baby bass fry next to those beds. It was cool to watch them eye your bait down, before they would eat it. We saw several bass chasing off bluegills and tilapia.
Even though the bass were easy to spot they were definitely tough to catch. The big females especially had a case of lockjaw even though we through a smattering of baits at them. The best action was definitely at first light in the morning when we got there. The bass we did catch were aggressive males still protecting beds. It made the trip go by fast when you are constantly engaged and can see the fish. It proved challenging, but we ended the morning with about a half dozen bass between us.
Blue Lake Utah - Bass Fishing Video
Here's a video of some of the highlights of our trip. It started out with us trying to do a fishing challenge of the senko vs. the swimbait. We wound up abandoning those patterns almost entirely when we saw fish on spawning beds. Hopefully, this video will help you get a better feel for how fishing from a paddle board works. Plus, see the other details of how we caught fish on Blue Lake.
Hope you enjoyed this post! Make sure to subscribe to the blog for some more awesome trip reports bass fishing from a Stand Up Paddle Board. Feel free to reach out to me in the comments below if you have any questions about this trip. My goal is to try and help you get outside with your friends and family, so you can spend more time catching fish and less time wondering why they won’t bite. If you haven't yet, check out my bait selection chart tool below, to further help you take the guess work out of bass fishing.
As Always,
Stay Stoked!!!