Spirit Lake Saturday

[minnleu]

Had a great day Saturday with smallies on Iowa's Spirit. Didn't get out till 12:30 but had one that was 13" the first cast and that was the smallest of the next two hours. Lost count at a dozen when, on 3 consecutive casts, hit 3 that were 3.5-4lbs each. Several more to come from 15"-18" and the last was another 13". One of those 'I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't there' events. These were in 8-10fow, caught on hair jigs, mostly homemade.

Moved around a lot but could only catch eyes till dark. To bad they are not in season yet cause they are eatin too.

Only problem of the day was the [PoorWordUsage] with the burgandy Champion with 150 Suzuki. We are not that far off the shore line and he just has to get between our anchored boat and the shore. 10 boats on the 5,700 acre lake and he's got to fish less than 15 feet from us. A few words were exchanged and that was it. I have fished in enough bass tourns to know in the dictionary under "good etiquette" your not going to see a picture of a guy in a bass boat, but come on. If you, tough guy with the Champ, read this that was a jerk move and you know it. If you know him tell him Tony says that was a jerk move. We have read on FM posts about guys in bass boats getting slammed by regular fisherman just because they are in bass boats and their actions while on the water and sometimes they really do deserve it.

Still a great outing but I wish the Open was today and on Spirit not Boji.

Tony

[zepman]

Sounds like a nice day...I didn't think Iowa had a closed season for eyes? Either way, nice job.

[Wayne Ek]

Zepman, you can catch & release fish for walleyes in Iowa all year long. But they do have a "harvest" season. I think it starts in early May this year.

[LOTWSvirgin]

The season only closes in the Iowa Great Lakes as in the East and West Okaboji and Big spirit the rest are fair game

[Esox_Magnum]

You can't target fish during it's closed season. Theres no catch and release season. Iowa Great Lakes ( East, West, Spirit) are closed from Feb 15 to the first Saturday in May for walleyes and from Dec 1 till May 21 for muskies. These lakes hold the brood stock vital to the stocking efforts of the DNR.

The smallmouth fishing on Spirit can be fantastic, I have logged years with over a 17" average on them. We fished in a 2" downpour once between 3 of us in 2 hours we caught and released close to 75 smallies. Another day drifting Cottenwood for eyes 4 of us boated close to 50 and lost many more since we were to proud to net a bass, a few were in that 20"+ range and I got a friend thats still mad at me about that day I don't target bass all those we catch are accidentals caught while walleye fishing.

Now if you want to get the big ones get on West with some muskie baits.