Early Iowa bass fishing

[blakjack23]

So I am thinking of heading down to Iowa to do some bass fishing before opener up here. I'm thinking the last week of April or the first week of May. Anybody have any suggestions on a good area to go? I'm looking for something that is not too far and an area that has a few different lakes I could try. So far I am thinking the area around Spirit Lake looks like a nice close place that has a good amount of lakes. Any info or suggestions would be helpful.

[delmuts]

check out the iowa section here, and send me a e-mail, i maybe able to help you some. [email protected] send it as "iowa fishing" so i know what it is.

[prov1900]

The canals around West Okoboji, etc are good to go in the spring, i.e. the time you are planning on coming. Bring a shallow running boat, although I get my Lund through there. It is a really good time, no giants, just lots of action. Bass up to 3 pounds, mostly smaller plus lots of crappie, bluegill, and the occasional small muskie in the canals. Plastic worms, unweighted, all the way.

[Wayne Ek]

The end of April and early May will see alot of tournaments on Okiboji and Spirit on the weekends. Both are great lakes to fish... early in the year. During peak season they can get quite busy.

[afull]

Last year when me and a buddy were fishing the canals we got to talking to a guy sitting on his dock. He was saying how they had to remove everything from the water this winter because they were going to dredge the canals this spring. I don't know if this is true or not but the guy that lived there told us this. I personally hope they don't do this...we had some really really good days of gills in there. Had to set our own limits (size and numbers). One day we had 40 gills all over 8in. The bass are definitely stacked in there too. We never saw or caught any big ones...lots of 12-14 I would guess...with some bigger ones.