Central Iowa

[FishnDave]

Fly fishing, actually ANY fishing, has been extremely tough the last couple of weeks. Let me rephrase that....the CATCHING has been tough!

No matter...a few fish are caught, and this makes any trip worthwhile.
I fly-fished for an hour or so on Saturday during a family get-together at a small campground lake. I managed a couple of diminutive crappies, had a bass unhook itself as I was lifting it from the water, and was lucky enough to entice my "target fish" for the day...a carp. All fish were caught on either a hex nymph or white woolly bugger.

This is the smallest carp I've caught so far on a fly rod...I estimate it was probably about 1.5 lbs....maybe 2.


Sunday night around dusk (and after, while it sprinkled), I fished a sponge popper, and a white woolly bugger (separately), and managed a crappie, a bluegill, and 3 largemouth bass. Two of the bass were nice fish, over 16".

[FishnDave]

...and here's today's Lunch Report.
I fly-fished a local public pond. Had a few hits from catfish (I think?) on a bass topwater popper fly. It took the fly completely underwater several times, but I missed completely on the hookset.

Tried for catfish & bass for a bit with no takers, then tried for bluegills with no takers. On (almost) my "last cast" with a woolly bugger, a good fish swirled on it. I set the hook and slowly the fish determined it was, indeed, hooked! It just powered around for awhile, then took off on a really strong run. Then back to the slow powerful fight. Once again caught without a net, but I felt I could land this one, and soon did.

It's my longest fly-rod catfish so far at 24.5", but it was on the skinny side. Probably around 4lbs or so, I'd guess.

I forgot to pack my camera, so had to take pictures with my phone, so they didn't turn out very good. To give you an indication of size, I could just BARELY get my hand across the back of its head to grab it and land it.