Thanks for tuning into KSL Outdoors, I’m Adam Eakle and welcome to Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. Here just outside the town of Escalante. We are going to show you tonight Wide Hollow Reservoir. A place I’ve never fished before. My good buddy Steve from Salina brought us down here to show us how to catch some of the big bass here.
(Steve) You know Adam, when I get out here like this it just makes me feel like a little boy. I want to go play with the frogs.
I’ve been hunting with Steve for over two decades. He’s been my mentor when it comes to hunting bull elk. But, he’s also one heck of a good bass fisherman. When he told me how good the top water frog bite is at Wide Hollow, I just had to try it.
(Steve) the mats are usually more thick than this, it’s a real good frog bite. We’ll be throwing some flukes, plastic baits, spinner bait like you’ve got. Maybe some plastic worms here in a while as soon as we find out where they are located at. It’s pretty warm, water temperature is about 76 degrees right now. So they should have spawned probably close to a month ago. So they should be on a post spawn bite. They take about two weeks sulking I call it. Then after that it’s feed on.
(Steve) One of the deals on frogs is you don’t set the hook until you feel the fish. When you see them blow up, don’t set the hook. 99% of the time you’ll pull it right out of their mouth. So when a fish blows up on it. You can actually feel it on your rod, just like a bite, then lay the wood to them.
(Steve) Yeah you usually figure out a cadence that they might like. I usually pop it two three times, let it sit, pop it two or three times and let it sit for a second. As warm as it is, you shouldn’t have to let it sit for very long.
(Adam) I got excited. Let them take it. He blew up on that and…well I won’t tell you what flinched. But something flinched. But that’s what I’m saying, you get anxious. That’s the biggest thing on the frog, let them take it under.
(Steve) GOT HIM! (adam) good one? (steve) I don’t know. They all feel good in that moss. Probably not. oh he’s off. There you go, just like that. They get in that moss, they will pull off.
Oh he hit it. There’s a fish! You got bit? And I waited! I waited like three seconds. Oh he’s got me in the weeds.
I waited for like three seconds before I reeled down on him. (steve) it’s hard to do huh? (adam) yeah. I think I still got him. He’s a little guy. That’s alright he’s one. That’s one.
(Steve) there he comes. (fish jumps) jumping yimminee. He’s mean. On the frog? Yeah.
(Steve) It’s a revolution frog, it’s made by Reaction Strike. You get them at Sportsman’s. We make them in several different sizes. The one we were catching them on today is the sixty five.
(Steve) What I like to do is take it and throw it right on the weed mats. If you will. We didn’t have the real thick, dense mats like we normally have here. But I like to walk them right across the mats. Them fish will blow right up through them mats and just eat them. Sounds like you just threw a big rock in the water.
(Kendal Farnsworth, State Park Manager) We’ve got the largemouth bass, we’ve got bluegill and we’ve got rainbow trout. They do stock it with trout every spring They re-did the dam in 2010. The fishery is just coming back. You hit is just right.
Wide Hollow is a small reservoir, just 145 acres at full pool. After the irrigation season is over, the reservoir can and usually drops to between 30 and 50 acres. Right now however, the reservoir is full and the brush is inundated. Making for some prime bass habitat.
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