New guy looking for bass?

[milehisnk]

Hey everyone, I'm looking for some help. I am going on a fishing trip with my wife. One place I wanted to go was Flaming Gorge, but I don't own a boat (that I can bring, the trailer won't make it). We might be renting a small fishing boat, but don't know where to start. I'm coming from Colorado where we don't have lakes this big, and I'm a die-hard bass guy. Where should I look for good smallies? And is there anywhere that I can reach SMB from shore this time of year?

Thanks in advance.

-Sean

 

[liketrolling]

I don't fish for SMB but if you want a ton of 5" SMB look in the bays east of Mustang Ridge which is north of the Dam
Most of the bass are on the Utah side

 

[jurkneyes]

I Stopped by the dam about a week ago on a family trip. Did not bring the boat so fished the shore around the dam and mustang area. Caught a bunch of SM but just know that their not going to be all that big. You may get a few up around 12" -13" but most are going to be under 10". But I find it to be fun fishing. Any where on the UT side is going to have willing SM, so if you rent a boat or you fish from shore you should have plenty of action and you may even luck into a couple bigger fish. Also something to consider is fishing Sheep Creek Bay, the SM are a little larger size in that area of the lake and you can access it from the shore. I have not been able to locate any SM on the WY side this year however you can give it a go. I honestly did not put a lot of effort in to the WY SM fishing this year, but they will be bigger if you an find any.

Heading up this weekend to get after the Kokes myself but will probably take a brake mid day to chase some SM on the UT side.

 

[milehisnk]

Thanks for the suggestions. I constantly heard of the great smallmouth there, and didn't realize it had dropped off so much. I didn't know about the burbot problem until now. But it seems like the SMB that survive the burbot are bigger ones, so finding them is the only tough part. They are still SMB though, so they should still have the same habits I would think.