Central Iowa 2019

[FishnDave]

The ice finally disappeared off most of the local public ponds on March 23rd. Over the past month, the flyfishing started out pretty great, and has seemed to decline since then. But here's some of the better fish from this first month of flyfishing here:
Crappies to 13":








And as of yesterday, the crappies in some ponds are starting to guard nests, and the males are sporting their darker spawning colors:




Some decent bluegills have been caught:


Only a couple Pumpkinseed Sunfish:

[FishnDave]

Some beefy Hybrid Sunfish (naturally occurring) have been attacking flies I've been using for bass:






The bass fishing started out great, but has slowed for the past week or so. Most of my bass have been caught on Blane Chocklett GameChangers tied from a variety of materials and in a variety of sizes...from 2.75" to 4".
20.75":


19.5":


20":


Had especially great days with a Feathered GameChanger:


And a small 2.75" synthetic version:

[smij]

Definitely a great start to the season!

[Prairieschooner]

Nice! My bass take so far has been one feisty little 6-incher !

[FishnDave]

I'm looking forward to the topwater bite heating up. Bluegills are hitting floating flies already. I've caught at least one bass on a Howitzer head popper and missed a few other strikes. The one I caught...it was the first cast of the morning...I cast out, and the popper was just sitting there as I was messing around with my line, not paying attention. I heard the splash, the popper was gone...It took me a few seconds to get my line sorted out and catch up to the fish, but it was still on! Talk about LUCK!

[FishnDave]

I've been trying/hoping for carp during my lunch hours lately. I've presented the fly to many bubble streams and mud clouds with no strikes to show for it. I finally got one! Beautiful golden fish! 26.5" long. Pretty healthy. My formula suggested 8.75 lbs for a weight. Sure looked a lot bigger, but that's all fine. Very strong fish that gave an excellent accounting itself!


I also got to use my new Fishpond Nomad net. This is exactly why I got it, and it worked perfectly. I gotta admit, when I saw the fish in the water, I wasn't sure it was going to fit in the net! But it did.

[iaflyfisher]

Nice fish David!

[FishnDave]

Thanks, Dale!
--------------------
I may have mentioned it before, but the microjig/indicator technique was introduced to me by Dale (iaflyfisher) a number of years ago. Showing it to me wouldn't have done the trick. Outfishing me with it DID THE TRICK. I had to try it! I've found it to be the best flyfishing technique for crappie that I've ever tried.

I believe Dale may have had a hand in introducing me to blockhead poppers as well? And Dale gave me a "jig" he built to help me in cutting the foam heads correctly. Those have caught a LOT of nice bass for me!

I'm forever grateful, Dale!

--------------------
On to yesterday's fishing outing:
Took yesterday afternoon off to fish.
Nice weather. Caught 7 species! Hit 5 ponds.


Pond #1:
Tried for carp. Saw some nice bass. Caught bass, bluegill, crappie, and hybrid sunfish.


Pond #2:
First time fishing this pond this year. The plan was to try for carp. Saw some nice bass, some are starting to nest. Caught a couple crappies, so I switched out flies to target those crappies. Caught Black Crappies and White Crappies. Some were males in spawning colors and guarding nests. Others were females caught a bit further out from shore.



While crappie fishing with a microjig under an indicator, I watched as a carp appeared and swam right over to the microjig and ate it. I set the hook and the fun started. Glad I brought my net!



About 10 minutes later, I saw another carp coming my way, swimming in the open water a couple feet down. I threw my rig out in front of it. It deflected its course and came right at it. Then it passed it....but it actually turned around and came back and hit it! Somehow I blew the hookset on it...but it was cool to see that happen. Usually the water isn't this clear. I caught more crappies, and a few bluegills and left.


Pond #3:
This was my first-ever visit to this pond. It is pretty small. Looks like it will be weed-choked later, but for now I could fish a popper over the tops of the weeds. I spooked a few nice bass from along the shoreline. I hooked up with 3 bass in the 14-16" range, but only managed to land one.



Pond #4:
This pond get's horribly algae covered in the summer, but right now there isn't any. It doesn't appear to be very deep, but the fish survived this past winter, so its deep enough. I tried topwater with no results. I used 2 different Gamechangers and caught fish on both. I caught a couple bluegills and this Green Sunfish:



I also caught some bass..one @15", several smaller ones (10"-12"), and a pair of 18-inchers. Those bigger ones sure are strong!!






Pond #5:
Its the local "worst kept secret". There were 4 other anglers here. I had some good strikes and briefly had a fish on....but missed hooking up. Got skunked here...didn't cover much water and didn't stay long.

[FishnDave]

This one also hit a microjig under an indicator earlier in the season while I was targeting crappies. Big surprise! 28" long, 18" girth....calculated weight 11.34 lbs.

[lee s]

Way to go Dave!
Looks like you are flat having a ball.
The fish at Clearlake seemed to have liked our first series of 80+* days too.
.....lee s.