Central Iowa 2019

[JohnScott]

Good to see some real fishing reports posted. Don't find those carp any more appealing than in years past, but good for you and your success chasing them.

Yep - 28" is a BIG surprise.
John

[FishnDave]

May:
Took off a half day on May 1 to go fishing. Hit 4 local ponds.

Pond #1:
Tried for carp. Plenty of activity, should have been good. I had a nice carp on for a good minute or more, but it eventually threw the hook. After that, I couldn't get a strike, even though they were still feeding actively.


Pond #2:
Thought the Worst Kept Secret pond would be good if I hit it mid-afternoon on a cloudy day after a couple days of rain (assuming others hadn't been fishing it for those two days). But I struggled. Managed to catch 4 bass @ 14-15" range. Found out later another angler had fished it before noon and did really well. Good for him, not so good for me.








Pond #3:
Caught a couple bluegills and maybe a dozen or so nice crappies. Biggest 2 were 12.25" and 12.75".
This one is a female Black Crappie:



And I think these two are both female White Crappie:








Pond #4:
With the lighter wind, calmer water, and good water clarity....this pond sure seems shallow...or at least it has a LOT of shallow water all the way around it. Caught @ 7-8 bass, all around 10-11". While I was bringing one of them in, a much bigger bass grabbed the small one and started swimming off with it. It only had the other fish for 5-10 seconds....but that was pretty cool Its at least the third time I've seen big bass try to eat smaller bass. Cannibals! :thumbsup:

[FishnDave]

Lunch hour yesterday. Carp not cooperating to tried to salvage the "skunk" with a bass.



Lunch hour today. One carp willing to cooperate. 26.5" long, 17" girth.

[FishnDave]

My buddy Jay and I took our boat/kayak to Ada Hayden on Saturday morning. Hoped for trout and/or Wipers. We caught one fish between us... a bass.
Jay took pics of me wheeling my boat down the boat ramp.






After dropping my boat at home, I flyfished a couple local public ponds.
Pond #1:
Couldn't catch anything on the usual bass flies. I switched to a #8 black Woolly Bugger to try for panfish. Caught 4 bass in a row, then 3 hybrid sunfish in a row, then a bunch of bluegills, more hybrids, another couple bass, some pumpkinseed sunfish. It was pretty good action for over an hour. Then it slowed way down. I switched to a #8 white Woolly Bugger and caught 5 more bass to 15" and another couple hybrid sunfish. For whatever reason, the bass were willing to hit the small flies, but didn't want the bigger stuff.


Naturally-occurring Hybrid Sunfish (suspected Bluegill X Green Sunfish):





Pumpkinseed Sunfish, the neon sign of the sunfish family (...of course longear, orange-spotted, and redbreast sunfish are very colorful as well):


This one is a tough one....Might be a pure-strain Pumpkinseed Sunfish (male). It has very strong Pumpkinseed features, but something is just slightly off about it. Makes me wonder if it might have a (bluegill x Pumpkinseed) Hybrid parent or grandparent, but has since bred back with pure-strain Pumpkinseed for a generation or two. I dunno, but its a gorgeous fish!






During the time I was at the pond...at least 8 other anglers came and went, all bass fishing. One guy caught 3-4, didn't really see anyone else catch anything. Oh, and I did have a big bass chasing one of the bluegills I had on my line.


Pond #2:
Drove to another pond to try for crappies, but there were quite a few people fishing there already, so I picked a different pond a couple blocks away. Caught some crappies:



... and a Buffalo. Now, full disclosure...I saw the buffalo coming towards me. I cast out in front of it, which was pretty close to shore. The buffalo actually turned and came right at the microjig/indicator I was using for crappies. It got right to the spot where my microjig was, my indicator moved, so I set the hook. I ended up foul-hooking it in the pectoral fin. But it was still pretty cool...its tough to catch these filter feeders in the mouth. I've done it, but its TOUGH.

[FishnDave]

Got out during lunch to chase the carp around again. Got 2!
The first one had really cool scales, and was 25" long with 17" girth (Calc'd 9.0 lbs).






The second one measured 26.5" with a 16" girth (calc'd 8.5 lbs).



That was a pretty good lunch outing!

[Sleddog]

Dave, thanks for taking the time to post. Like the variety of fish!
What is your boat/kayak?
Jack/Sleddog
South Dakota

[FishnDave]

Dave, thanks for taking the time to post. Like the variety of fish!
What is your boat/kayak?
Jack/Sleddog
South Dakota

Its a 360 Angler, made by Blue Sky Boatworks, which is a part of Jackson Kayak.
https://store.blueskyboatworks.com/360-angler/

Its a hard boat to classify. Pontoon? Catamaran? Its like they took a kayak, split it half lengthwise, moved each half over a bit, and then put framework and a platform over the top to connect them. The seat sits up higher; you can stand right up and walk around on the deck, front porch and back porch; its super stable; great for sight-fishing; lots of storage inside the hulls; steering controls on each side of the seat; the seat can swivel around, is comfortable, is adjustable up and down as well as forward and back, and has armrests; can be propelled by pedalling (forward and reverse), paddling, poling, and by electric motor or even a small gas motor; built-in wheels that you pivot up out of the water after you launch the boat. I've got a removable fishfinder mounted on it, as well as an Anchor Wizard. I've got a stakeout pole for holding position in shallow water. It has a rod stager that holds 3 rods, a stakeout pole and a paddle. It has gear tracks for water bottle holders and more rod holders or other gear. It has tie-down points on the front and back to strap down a cooler. When launching at a boat ramp, I wheel it into the water, step on a pontoon or right onto the deck and use the stakeout pole to shove off...don't even need to get my feet wet! Same with coming back to shore...just come right in till the front hits the boat ramp, and then just step right off onto shore. The rudder and the propellor unit will rotate up out of the way manually or automatically if you hit something.

And its been approved for use in most of the larger kayak fishing circuits.

Before this, I had a Hobie Mirage Outback fishing kayak. I really liked it, it was fast and stable, very quiet (snuck up on so many fish!). The cons were the seat was very low, it was nearly impossible for me to stand up in it and no really good place to stand once in that position, no reverse...had to get the paddle out to back up, when anchored up there was a bunch of extra rope under my leg or in my lap, had to get wet to get in or out of the boat. Getting in or out of any kayak is sort of a clumsy affair. Or maybe I just did it wrong. Anyway, the Hobie is a great kayak and I caught a lot of fish out of it. As I get older, there were things I thought could be improved, and the Blue Sky solved them.

[rwar1423]

@FishnDave Nice fish! The carp look very healthy!

[lee s]

GRAND thread Dave!
We always enjoy your reports. Kewl BG's (or whatever they are )
....lee s.

[FishnDave]

@FishnDave Nice fish! The carp look very healthy!

Thanks, Eric! We've got some TANK Grass Carp around here, but I haven't managed to land one in years. Getting one to strike is extremely rare. You've been catching them with more and more frequency! Good job!