Coralville Ice Out Channel Cat

[JIvers]

Ran out to the bridge above Coralville Reservoir this morning to see if the ice had started going out on the floodplain at all. It hasn't. I thought the river channel might be opening up, but that is still iced over after this morning's rain. Some years I've had my boat out there by now catching channel cat.

The floodplain will be open soon enough, though. Then just wait for a sunny morning with a light but steady wind, anchor on the downwind side of the res. over some shallow mud bottom, and toss out some cut shad.

[JIvers]

Well, I can forget about the ice-out channel cat bite on the Coralville flood plain for the third spring in a row. We had ideal low water a week ago, and all we needed was for the ice to go out without a spike in water levels.

The reservoir has come up four feet so far in the last week, and is expected to go up FIFTEEN more feet over the next week. At those water levels, which the res. hit right after ice out the last two years, it is next to impossible to catch fish. The water is too dirty to catch even channel cat with stinky dead shad, and there is too much water to concentrate the fish in any one place. Never mind the flooding conditions that make taking a boat out crazy.

I was really looking forward to some thirty and forty catfish days like I had a few years ago in March--oh well.

[JIvers]

I'm hoping the spring 2011 channel cat bite on the Coralville floodplain will be a little better than the last three years, when high water ruined it.

I drove over the 380 bridge on Saturday, and the river channel just above and below there was open. There was also a decent-sized pocket of open water right above the 965 bridge, although most of the floodplain looked to still be iced over.

As of now the COE is keeping the res. low, and is even planning on lowering it a little this week. If they stick to that, and the ice melts off, it may be time to break out the dead shad next week.

[JIvers]

I drove north over the I-380 bridge this morning; I was driving too fast to see for sure, but it looked like most of the ice is out on the Coralville floodplain above the 965 bridge.

There was still some ice below the 380 bridge around the old sunken concrete roadbed, but that looked very rotten.

I'll check more thoroughly when I go back to Iowa City Monday from my last ice-fishing trip of the year, but it looks like I'll be breaking out the shad this week.

[JIvers]

As noted in another post here, the water level on Coralville res. is very low for this time of year, lower by far than it has been the previous three springs at this time.

With that low water making fishing the floodplain worthwhile, I went out yesterday morning, and fished from the north shore above the 965 bridge, as the wind was out of the south, and blowing dead fish and warm water on to that shore. I got nothing.

This morning, as the wind shifted to the north yesterday, I hit the south shoreline. If I'd been in my boat, and brought more bait shrimp, I'd have caught more catfish. They preferred shrimp over shad, and as I only brought a few shrimp, I ran out of them rather quickly.

As I was fishing from shore, I had to wade out quite a bit and then cast my baits to get them in to two or three feet of water near the channel, which is where you find the fish most of the time. Having that much line out made setting the hook difficult, and I missed a few strikes. As it was, I released a 25", and kept a 15" for dinner.

[JIvers]

The rain and wind should open up the area above the Highway 965 bridge at the upper end of Coralville reservoir, so it's time to start checking that.

Once the ice is gone, one warm sunny day will have the channel cat feeding on dead shad on the downwind shoreline of the Coralville floodplain, and when that happens the bite can be awesome.

[JIvers]

The river channel is open below the I-80 and Highway 965 bridges, but as of yesterday the boat landing was still iced in a ways out from shore.

The channel was open well up in to the floodplain, but a lot of it, including the shallow mudflats where the channel cat will go on the feedbag, were still ice-covered. That should change next week.

[JIvers]

As of this afternoon, the ice is mostly gone from the floodplain, although there is still some ice at the boat launch just below the I-80 bridge.

There were a couple boats and a few people on shore just above the 965 bridge. Getting a boat far up the floodplain looks to be very difficult, as the water level on the reservoir is as low as I have seen it at ice-out. Lots of mudflat showing in the floodplain.

I think I will get out and fish from shore Friday morning, when after the wind shifts to the north and blows on to the south shoreline, where shore-fishing is easier.

[JIvers]

I was able to get out this morning, and fished from the south shoreline above the 965 bridge, as the wind was blowing in there all yesterday and last night.

From 9:00 AM to 10:00, I didn't get a bite on fresh shad or raw shrimp, my two go-to baits for this time of year in these conditions. I had stuff to do this afternoon, and was considering leaving soon, when I got my first fish at 10:00, a 22". Then the frenzy started. It was barely above freezing when I got out there, so I am guessing the sun warmed the water up enough at that point to turn the fish on.

I ended up leaving at 11:15 with four fish between 17" and 22". I threw back four or five more in that range, and missed a couple strikes. Today, fresh shad was the preferred bait. As is normal in the floodplain after ice-out, all the fish were caught in probably less than two feet of water.

Coralville res. remains very low for this time of year, and I think getting an outboard far above the 965 bridge would be difficult, if not impossible.

There were lots of people fishing from shore, and four or five boats, around the old roadbad just above the 965 bridge. I heard they were catching a lot of channel cat there, too, but I wanted to get away from the crowd, and it worked this forenoon.

[gloomiseye]

Good eats!

[JIvers]

I went over the I-380 bridge today: the Coralville flood plain above the bridges looks to still be completely iced over.

There is a narrow strip of open water in the river channel between the I-380 and 965 bridges.

Everything below the I-380 bridge looked solid, too, including the mud/sand boat ramp on the old roadbed.

Judging by the forecast, it will be a week or so before the floodplain opens up enough for the ice-out channel cat bite.

[JIvers]

A little more to add to the Coralville ice out report: I checked rivergages.com, and the water level at the head of the reservoir is twelve feet above what it was a year ago when the ice was out, and the channel cat bite was so good. The water level has risen ten feet in the last four days.

The good news is the water level is projected to drop down over the next week and a half. By then, it should be back to the low levels we had last year...assuming we don't get a bunch of rain or snow melt from upstream.

Today, there was a little open water in the river channel just downstream from the I-80 bridge, but otherwise everything above and below both bridges looks pretty solid. It will probably be a week at least before we have enough open water to see what the channel cat bite is like this year.

I drive over the I-80 bridge several times a week, and will post updates when something changes.

[JIvers]

Here is the state of the Coralville Reservoir floodplain as of this afternoon (Friday, March 15):

This first photo was taken from the shoulder of Highway 965 looking south-southwest across the floodplain. On the left side of the picture, you can see the upstream side of the 965 bridge. There is now a decent patch of open water there, and all of it is in the photo. Farther west up the floodplain everything is still froze over, although it looks like pretty rotten ice.

In the first picture, you can maybe see a white dot and a black dot on the left side. Those are two guys fishing, one on each side of the channel just above the 965 bridge. Whether they were catching anything or not, I don't know.

This second photo was also taken looking west from the shoulder of Highway 965, but I hadmoved closer to the bridge. It shows all the ice still covering most of the floodplain once one gets past the open patch near the bridge.

This morning there was a decent stretch of open water below the I-380 bridge in the river channel itself. It went downstream past the mud/gravel "ramp" at the foot of the old roadbed on the south side of the res. That ramp itself may be open by now, although I couldn't tell for sure. I couldn't stop and take a picture on I-380, so you'll have to take my word on that.

This last photo below was taken from the south side of the pool between the 965 and I-380 bridges this afternoon. You can see that there is a lot of open water there where the current is fast, although there is still ice in most of the shallow water away from the channel. As I said, the open water in this picture continues below the I-380 bridge for some distance.

Most of the res. is still iced over; this was the case by the marina on 965 between the bridges and North Liberty, where I could not see any open water at all.

My guess is most of the ice will be gone by next weekend; the bigger question, I would guess, is how high the water will be when that happens.

Right now the water level is ten feet higher than it was a year ago when the channel cat bite was so good. The water is supposed to start dropping next week, but it is still supposed to stay higher than last year.

[JIvers]

The strong west wind we've had for a day or so opened up quite a bit of water on the res. below/downstream from the I-380 bridge, although there is still ice at the edges. A person could now launch a boat from the mud ramp right below the interstate bridge.

That west wind opened up some large patches of water west of the 965 bridge on the Coralville floodplain; it also blew a lot of ice right up against the railroad embankment on the west side of 965. The water right around the mouth of the bridge was still open today, although there was less open water than you see in my first picture from last Friday. Soon enough the ice will be gone, though.

Right now the res. is still about ten feet above last spring's level, but by March 29 it is scheduled to drop to a 679' stage, which is about where it was early last March. Whether that drop will be too late to make the ice out channel cat bite better remains to be seen, assuming a bunch of rain between now and then doesn't keep the water high.

[JIvers]

I don't know if I'll have time to make a report on Coralville res. ice conditions tomorrow, so here is my report as of today.

There is a decent pocket of open water right above the 965 bridge, but west and north of there is a lot of ice. Most of that ice looks to be either busted up chunks blown in by the wind or new skim ice, so I expect a lot of that ice on the floodplain to be gone soon. There are already/still smaller patches of open water on the floodplain, and it looked to me like there are is more open water farther west where the res. narrows back in to a river. I may have been wrong about the floodplain being mostly open this weekend, but I don't think I will be wrong by much.

There were a couple guys fishing from shore right above the 965 bridge today: they were the first I have seen all week. Given the weather that is not surprising, but if the bite gets going you will see a lot more than two people out there on a half-decent afternoon.

As noted previously, the boat ramp right south of the I-380 bridge at the south side of the old roadbed is open, and a lot of the res. below there is open too, although there is still ice on the edges off the current.

The COE is still saying the water level on the res. will drop to about a 679' stage by March 27. If that happens we could still have a good channel cat bite this spring, but right now the level is still 688.4', which I think is high enough to make things difficult. To put it another way, the old roadbed right west of the 965 bridge that so many people sat on last spring to catch loads of catfish is about seven feet under water right now. For that reason I'll be keeping the waders and shad guts stowed away for another week or so before I try the floodplain out.

[JIvers]

The Coralville floodplain above the 965 bridge was 99% open yesterday morning, with only a few small pockets of shoreline still having ice on them.

There is still some ice in the off-current area between the 965 and I-380 bridges, but the channel is entirely open, as is most of the reservoir that I can see downstream from 380.

The water level continues to drop, and should be below 680' by this weekend. I saw one boat and a couple shore fishermen above the 965 bridge this afternoon, and was told there were several boats there last Friday, but I still haven't heard any fishing reports. I am guessing we will know what kind of ice-out channel cat bite we have this spring in a week or so now once the water levels have dropped and stabilized.

[JIvers]

From the IDNR Weekly Fishing Report:

Coralville Reservor: Channel Catfish - Slow: A few fish are being caught on shad. The upper end under I-380 and 965 bridges are the most popular for shore fishermen.

http://www.iowadnr.gov/Fishing/FishingReports.aspx

FWIW, there were two boats and maybe eight or nine shore fishermen above the 965 bridge this afternoon when I came home. I still haven't heard any reports of fish caught there, but in my experience if the channel cat were really biting there would have been more than two boats and eight or nine guys on shore on a nice afternoon like today.

[JIvers]

I heard second-hand that some people have had success catching catfish on the Coralville floodplain: that may be all I have to go on this year, as I don't know when I might be able to get out there myself this spring.

I have not seen more than two or three boats, and one canoe, any morning or evening on the floodplain above the 965 bridge this week, and maybe eight or ten people at the most on shore. Of course, that is during the week, the weather has not been great, and early morning and later afternoon when I drive that route is not always the best time to catch fish--later morning and early afternoon has usually worked best for me out there, And the res. is now low--very low. Getting a boat far above the 965 bridge would be difficult, as you would be likely to hit mud or stumps.

[JIvers]

From this week's Iowa DNR Fishing Report for Coralville Lake http://www.iowadnr.gov/Fishing/FishingReports.aspx :

Channel Catfish - Slow: A few fish are being caught on shad. The upper end under I-380 and 965 bridges are the most popular for shore fishermen.

[JIvers]

As of yesterday the Coralville flood plain is still 99% covered with ice. The ice out channel cat bite may be a little later than normal this year.

[JIvers]

The flood plain was about 50% open yesterday afternoon, maybe a bit more than that. The area above the I-80 and 965 bridges should be completely open by this weekend, and then it might be time to get out the shrimp and sour shad guts.

[JIvers]

The floodplain above the bridges was probably 90% open yesterday, and the warm temps and rain today should clear up most of the remaining ice.

The pool level for Coralville res today is 681.1' and that is predicted to fall to about 679, per the COE: http://rivergages.mvr.usace.army.mil/WaterControl/stationinfo2.cfm?sid=CRVI4&fid=CRVI4&dt=S In my experience, that is the ideal level for the ice out channel cat bite.

[JIvers]

Like the Iowa DNR's fishing report for this week, I haven't heard anything about anyone catching catfish above the I-80 and 965 bridges.

I do drive over the 965 bridge every day, and while I have seen a few people fishing from shore every day, and one or two boats out on the floodplain in the afternoon, I have not seen the crowds I would expect if the catfish bite was hot. Even with the cooler weather this past week I would think there would be more people out there if they were catching a lot of fish.

[JIvers]

I went out one morning last weekend and tried the flood plain above the 965 bridge--in 2.5 hours I had one hit on a raw shrimp, and I missed the hook set. Nothing on shad guts.

Two and a half hours of slogging through mud while catching nothing was enough for me, and I went home. I have not heard of any good reports from Coralville this spring, and there weren't nearly as many people out--only two boats--as I would have seen on a nice weekend morning this time of year if the catfish were biting well, so I think this will be my only trip to the floodplain this year.

One reason the catfish bite is slow this year may be because a lot of them did not survive the winter. I heard reports of a bad fish kill on the res. and on Macbride, and I took a drive around to see for myseld. I did not make it to Macbride, but on Coralville those reports are true. Lots of dead channel cat, carp, and flathead along the shoreline there.

[JIvers]

The ice is out above the 965 bridge on the Coralville floodplain; it is also completely out around Mehaffey Bridge further down on the reservoir. The water levels are low for this time of year, which usually makes for better cat fishing.

I have been told people are now catching channel cat above the 965 bridge, but I have not had a chance to get out and try for myself. This weekend I plan on being out there with some shad guts and raw shrimp to see what I can do.