Iowa Smallmouth Bass 6-27-2017

Fishing Panfish & Warm Water
1

I had planned to take this coming Thursday off work to flyfish for Smallmouth Bass. The selected river had finally dropped into a marginally wadable level. But with 3 consecutive days of rain in the forecast, the river is going to go back up again for who-knows-how-long. So, I went last night after work and a quick dinner. Chad Mason went along, used spinning gear on a different river section (I fished the section upstream of the access, he fished the section downstream of the access).

I’m glad I went, but the river was higher, muddier, and cooler than I would have liked for wet-wading.
First cast with a popper caught the biggest Smallmouth of the evening (14").

6 Smallies and the Green Sunfish hit the blockhead popper, with 2 additional bass hitting a chartreuse-over-yellow Clouser Deep Minnow.


Near the end of the evening, I noticed something bizarre struggling in the water as it flowed downstream past me. I chased it down and lifted it from the water. A bat! Cute lil’ bugger…I researched it later, and believe this is a Tricolored Bat. I put it on shore…Hope it survives its dunking!

2

Smallies are always fun i missed going after them so far this year

3

Dave, rescuing the bat is cool but you might want to use a landing net or something next time. After hooking bats with my backcast in the past I took advantage of a chance to talk to a bat researcher about handling them. She said that bats carry several diseases that are more common than the publicized risk of rabies which really isn’t that high. The problem is that they can be spread to humans by scratches from the bat’s claws. If you aren’t wearing the heavy gloves she wears to handle them you are at risk. If you do hook one, you should cut the leader far enough up to avoid being cut or bitten. It will eventually work the hook loose.

4

Caught a few small ones yesterday, and a nice, healthy 15.75-incher.