weekend report

[Guest]

My weekend report. Went to Okoboji on Sat. a lot of people fishing in the canals for crappie/bluegill, my buddy and I did find a spot where we got into some bluegill apx. 50 (only about 20 keepers) and 8 crappie. All in all we felt like we did pretty well. Did catch a lot of bass while fishing for crappie, most were pretty small.

How did everyone else do?

bcon

[jr712]

3 walleye sat. night at Black Hawk.

zippo sun. night at Black Hawk

zippo mon. night at Brushy creek. surface temp was 44 near the dam... was warmer two weeks ago.

2 walleye tonight at Black Hawk.... one was a little milky, the other male wasn't.

[goodyy7]

Saturday I fought 3 1/2-4foot waves on 12Mile to get a bucket of dink yellow bass and one milty walleye. Surface water temp 49-51*. Finicky bite for sure.

Sunday, I hit Big Creek and managed half a dozen eyes with only one showing a little milt. All were sublegal but seemed to be staging for spawn or moving to staging areas. Surface temp went from 49-54* as the sun beat down.

Have hit the DM River below Saylorville the past couple of morning before work for an hour or so each trip with no luck. The river hates me

goody

[jr712]

Weds. evening at Black Hawk... Zippo once again.... except for the usual dinks. Sounds like our water temp will take another dive this weekend.

[goodyy7]

Gave up on the river for a night....it still hates me Hit Maffit for a tight line and got 8 dink bass in under an hour. Fun to get some fish and got to see some GIANT carp flopping....might be a good bet for some fun big fish action later this year when I get bored.

goody

[jr712]

Goody, do you live on the s.e. side?? was talking to Casey's Bait the other day and crappie people had been picking up some nice 'eyes on Easter.

Anymore I seldom fish below Saylorville when passing through.. other than to just check things out. It just doesn't seem near as productive as 10 - 20 years ago. Maybe a good high water year in Saylorville would flush some fish through. - Jeff

[jr712]

P.S. - No fishing report tonight.... did laundry all evening. Kids have been testy over lack of clothes and seem to think there is a correlation between that issue and fishing 8 of the last 9 days.

[goodyy7]

Nope, dont live down there...live south of Des Moines between Martensdale and Cumming....west of Norwalk. I have fished Easter a lot and my only real luck on eyes in that lake has been this time of year. I have caught fish up to 21" and heard accounts of 7lb fish (from different sources) in past years during the spawn. There a good fish in there, but so many dink crappies and gills that I dont think they are hungry very often. Too bad they dont stock it any more and it gets hit so hard.

goody

[Guest]

Friday Report:

Brushy Creek: 7am - 3:30 pm 5 bass, biggest 15' tough bite. used white spinner bait for 3 and a black/blue jig/pig for other 2.

Went to another smaller lake in the area, figured the water might be warmer, caught 20-25 bass with the largest a healthy 18".

[Guest]

Almost forgot, fished Lost Island Thursday night 7pm - 12:30 a.m. small bullheads. No Walleye.

[goodyy7]

More small largemouth at Maffit. Tried my grandparents farm pond in the SW part of the state and got a bunch of 10-11" crappie, a fiesty bass, and a bluegill....only to come home and hit the river next to my parents for a goose-egg. At least I got some fishing in this weekend...even if it wasnt the kind of fishing I wanted to be doing. How about the rest of you?

goody

[delmuts]

i went over to volga for a while this afternoon (sun). caught 10-15 gils ( small) about 12 crappies( also small) and three bass.( one about 3 lbs,one about 1 1/2 lbs,one about 10 in.) and lost one that was good size but never got her in. del

[Guest]

Fished Clear Lake Sunday. Of the 6 or 8 waders and 6 or so boats, I saw apx. 6 walleye caught by the outlet, 3 keepers others were short. also a handfull of yellow bass. A few warm days???

[IceJohn]

Went to Volga Lake this afternoon.Caught35 to 50 small crappie.All about5 to 8 inch.20 some blue gills also small.Had a ball on lite tackle.8 people fishing off handcap dock and 5 boats.Nobody catching anything big.ICE JOHN PS All put back

[jr712]

Just got home this afternoon after 4 days in the Iowa City area, visiting and business. Got a little fishing in..... a few medium size crappies at McBride one afternoon and fished the river below coralville dam and the Burlingston St. dam for 1-2 hrs. or so each day. 1 - 17" eye and several dinks around 12-13".... and a few small white bass. Nice to be back in western Iowa. More fish and a helluva lot less people, lol. Will be back to 'eye fishin each evening tomorrow night.

[jr712]

Fished Black Hawk last night. for 30 minutes or so at each of the 4 main spawning areas. Ended up catching 6 fish that would had likely met the min. length. many were milky. Numerous smaller fish. Also several eating size yellow bass. going to bring a bucket tonight and a wider selection of tackle for the yellows. time for a meal.

Numbers of legal size walleyes seems lower this year. And have only a seen a couple 20-22" fish this spring. An exceptional bite last May might have reduced numbers more than usual. Lots of smaller fish though for future years.

[Guest]

Fished Five-Island on Friday 5:30 to Dark. 2 Northerns, a carp, snagged a snapping turtle, and a bullhead....we were fishing for walleye/crappie????

[jr712]

I like 5 island but haven't fished it in 5-6 years. would be a nice lake to live nearby.

Friday night we (11 y.o. son) fished black hawk again. only 1 dink walleye bit kept about a dozen yellow bass, a couple were 11" most were 8-9".

Fished there again this afternoon and evening. wind was blowing hard and yellow fishing was difficult in the wind but got quite a few including a few more of those 11 inchers. Of course, they weren't active in the rocky areas on the calm side of the lake. Only got two dink walleyes this evening. that bit has really died down since thursday. Afrriend who lives on storm lake said tonight that his evening bite there also died towards the end of this week. So I think the tail end of the spawn is over. Time to hunt crappies for a few weeks and yellows will be good with the spawn coming in next couple weeks.

May have to venture over to Brushy this week. My son wants to head to S.Dakota for a 3 day weekend soon. we skipped our usual easter trip because of the weather. he hasn't been up there since Sept. and he gets bored with Iowa fishing pretty easily.

[IceJohn]

JR712,Where is black Hawk is it by Waterloo?I would like to get into some big yellow bass.ICE JOHN

[jr712]

No Ice John, unfortunately it is in Sac County. About an hour west and south of Ft. Dodge.