Not exactly warmwater… but the Driftless region of NE Iowa.
My buddy Jay and I went to NE Iowa on Thursday-Friday of last week. Fished a few streams. Water was a bit high and very fast, which made fishing tough…and it was just slightly clouded up, which was probably a good thing.
I caught some Brown Trout:
As did Jay:
Brook Trout:
Here’s one Jay caught:
Caught a Rainbow Trout on a blockhead popper while fishing for Smallmouth Bass. Perfect fins:
A Creek Chub and a big Hornyhead Chub also hit the blockhead popper. The Hornyhead chub flipped out of my hand just as I was ready to snap a picture. Got a pic of the Creek Chub, tho.
Overall we didn’t catch as many fish as usual…we usually go later in the year when the water levels are down and the fish aren’t as scattered.
Beautiful country!
My buddy Jay and I have been wanting to get our watercraft out, and I’ve been wanting to try for some Redear Sunfish. So that’s what we did.
We fished a lake I’ve fished a few times before. Its always been clear. Almost too clear. This time it was pea-soup green with horrible visibility. There are houses along one side of this lake. I assume between lawn fertilizer and septic tank seepage, its turned this lake into an algae factory.
Despite that, we had a pretty darn good day. Great weather, and we both caught Redear Sunfish, bass, crappies, Redear x Bluegill hybrids, and REALLY nice bluegills.
Redear x Bluegill hybrid:
For Monday’s trip, a black 1/80th oz microjig set @ 18" under an indicator caught everything. Despite a number of snags…above water and below water…re-bending of the hook that was required after those snags or after removing the hook from fish…I used the same fly the entire day. Just noticed it on the end of my rod in my car this morning…still looks in good condition!
Speaking of being caught before…
Yesterday I took the day off work and went flyfishing. I actually left Ankeny and hit some public ponds in a nearby Des Moines suburb.
First pond I went to looked like it gets fished heavily. Before I could even catch a fish, I found a dead bass floating. It was big, so I grabbed it out of the water and measured it. It was slightly curved due to Rigor Mortis…but it was at least 20".
I caught a mix of sizes of bass there. Two of them had hooks in them, which I removed before releasing the fish.
Check out the size of this hook! Almost looks like it was placed there intentionally.
Anyway… I caught a couple good bass, one measured 18":
…and the other measured 19":
Went to another pond, and found some REALLY nice bluegills:
This female measured 9":
Back in Ankeny later in the day, there were 5 or more anglers fishing at the first two ponds I drove by…and it wasn’t even 5pm yet! Talk about high fishing pressure… Most of the ponds have a LOT of aquatic vegetation around the pond edges, extending out 10-20+ feet. I went to one pond that gets fished hard, but doesn’t have the weed problem yet. Caught some bluegills, missed some crappies, caught a few bass, saw some big grass carp. I did land a 12" crappie.
Lunchtime today, after the morning of rain. 27" long, 15.5" girth…I’d swear it looked like it would weigh more, but the math says 8.1 lbs. Haven’t caught one on a fly in a while, although I’ve hooked up with a few. I was glad to finally land another one! Beautiful fish.
Flyfished Friday evening for @ 45 minutes to an hour. Caught some bass. Biggest 2 were 18" and 19".
Flyfished Sunday morning. Caught some bass and bluegills. Biggest bass measured 19".
I went to another pond, hoping to catch some carp on flies. I had a carp hit the fly, but I was distracted and failed to set the hook. There were lots of Smallmouth Buffalo feeding in the shallows, but they are notorious for ignoring flies. I finally managed to get one to eat the fly.
I went back out in the evening, caught some more bass. These 4 were all 17"-17.5".
While flyfishing on Sunday, I heard some scratching sounds in the tall grass behind me. I put my cell phone camera on “video” and held it up over the grass. These are screen captures from the video.
Not intentionally.
Some scents used in bass fishing, like garlic, obviously aren’t meant to attract the fish. Why would bass be attracted to garlic?? They are mainly designed to mask other (human-based) scents that bass might learn to shy away from.
Skunk scent would almost certainly mask my scent…maybe I should try it and see if the fish like it? Can you imagine trying to market such a product?
Absolutely. For the carp and catfish, I was using a John Montana’s Hybrid Carp Fly variant.
For bass lately, because of the weeds and algae around the edges of the shoreline, I’ve been using mostly topwater…either Tim Holschlag’s Blockhead Poppers or Howitzer head poppers.
