Open Water Reports

[PikeBayCommanche]

Just wanted everyone from the Iowa forum to share reports on how the fishing is going.

Round Ames the water is still cold, in the 40 deg. range and fish are non active where I have tried other than the rivers where I have found a couple of Smallmouth. Thinking about taking the boat out for the first time saturday if the weather is going to cooperate. Open water is upon us and hope everyone is as excited as me to see what this years fishing will bring us!

[blindluck]

Haven't got the boat out yet either, probably in the next couple of weeks sometime. Gotten a line out 3 times so far from shore (Saylorville dam, ?dickscislle? and Ada Hayden) but yes the water is still kinda cold. No luck yet though.

Soon, very soon.

Peace!

[delmuts]

i haven't been out for a few days, but monday . the little bay and channel where i ws fishig, a guy said the surface temp was 51, but it may cool down some the next night or two depending on how cold it gets.been picking up a few crappies, but have to deal with a zillion little sunfish. my boat is still in the garage too!

[WALLEYE_HUNTER]

Went out 4-6-2006 and had a lot of luck!!

I caught 3 walleyes between 16 and 19"....I threw those back...I also caught a 12" walleye...threw him back to....then caught a 24 1/2" walleye and kept that one!! Went to my father-in-laws house to get the pic's taken below!!! Also to get a fish cleaning 101 class again for the 3rd yr in a row!! I caught all the on a white mister twister with a green lead head courtisy of Tim from (Contact US Regarding This Word).com ...

[birdman11]

I was just wondering if there was a reason you kept the 24 1/2" walleye and not the 16-19" walleyes?

[delmuts]

i went out to a pond for a little while last night, to try for some panfish.( and , had to try out my new st. croix 6'6" utl rod! ) only fished for an hour or so, but caugth three nice crappies,one gil and a small bass. started out with a purple/char. paddle tail, but nobody wanted that. went to the old standby of a 1/80 white hair jig tipped with a waxie. then tipped it with a white rasto body instead of the worm. was casting near a brush pile, but no takers right next to it, but would get hit on the outside closer to deeper water. fished this about 2 ft. below a float. the rod works well!

[PikeBayCommanche]

Went to a local lake tonight after work for a 1 1/2 or so and did very nicely with a 19 1/2 inch Largemouth. A few others that were a little smaller but all in all a great sign of what is to come. Saw alot of gills and crappies but wasn't after them tonight. Going in the morning to Saylorville to see whats happenin.

Good Fishin everyone. Open water is here!

[jdbolton1]

Over in Eastern Iowa I have been fishing MacBride lately. The bite is improving and the size is surprising me. Don't get me wrong, it is not like fishing at Rathbun or even the Res' but for this lake size has been good lately.

John B.

[PikeBayCommanche]

Good to hear about the fishing! Have seen alot of panfish around here too but just don't fish for them that much during the open water season.

[delmuts]

we are getting closer to the crappie spawning here. on pond near here, the craps are fanning beds near brush and trees. shouldn't be long!

[PikeBayCommanche]

Went to a great lake today for the first time. Brushy Creek. Had alot of fun weaving our ways through the standing timbers. Could of swore you were in Texas or Arkansas. I wish we had more lakes like this around the state.

Did catch quite a few largmouth later in the day and did talk to some guys from the citys down fishing and they had some luck fishing for eyes with leeches. This fishery will onlyh continue to get better over the years!

[delmuts]

sound slike the crappies are finally starting to move in shallow to spawn here in my area. finally! hope to have some first hand knowledge thurs.!

[PikeBayCommanche]

Yeah just starting here to. It seems weird to me that the Crappies start to bite earlier in Minnesota than down here.

I will be going out to find some also this week.

[delmuts]

the crappies are starting to move in here in N.C. iowa ! i only manage one , but it was 13 in . other guys were doing better, but i couldn't get them figured out.a few were using minnows, but most were using small jigs, free lining them so they could just tick the tops of the rocks . i had problems with BIG catfish liking my jigs! one had to be 14 lbs. or better! and the other about 8 ! not a good match for a ultra lite and 2# mono!!!

[Matt Johnson]

We now have weekly fishing reports from Iowa on our Fishing Reports page...

http://fishingminnesota.com/fishing-reports.html

Courtesy of the Iowa DNR.

[delmuts]

COOL!!

[tommyk]

Once hardwater season roles around down in Iowa, they play it on the safe side for ice fishing reports and say ICE NOT SAFE for most of the season! Haha, like that means anything. I always seem to find at least a good, solid 2" of ice somewhere outside of Des Moines in the middle of January when it is 70 degrees and raining!

All kidding aside, the IADNR does do a good job of up to date reports of the regions.

[IceJohn]

Southeast IA. Ponds are getting red hot Gills are starting to spawn and Crappie are biting real good .I get both on tube jigs and tipped with waxes.Now all you need to get lots of bites from Bull Gills is to float your jig in close to shore and wiggy it a little.Color any will work and hold on big Bass are working in close now too.ICE JOHN TEAM ICEHEAD

[PikeBayCommanche]

John,

Your right on down here the Crappies and Gills are really turning on must of caught 50 in an hour tonight along with some nice bucket mouths. Good fishin to be had right now.

[PikeBayCommanche]

Anyone been to Brushy in the last week???

Thinking about hitting it up soon.

Water Temps anyone??

[Go Ike]

Come on guys, lets hear how everyone did this last weekend on the fourth. Nobody's talking! I was catching eyes on big spirit in anglers bay in 14-16 feet of water with crawlers and lindy rigs. Anyone else??

[idratherbefishing]

I was also catching walleyes on big spirit drifting live bait rigs in the basin of the lake. All fish were 13-14". Any size to the ones in anglers bay?

[Go Ike]

We had a lot of them from that 14-16" size but we had one decent one of 19". Hoping to get back up there in another week or two. Has anyone heard how the musky bite is on spirit also?

[delmuts]

fished a little pond this morning during the rain.( man it was nice out!!) not much luck with a twister tail, or a mepps spinner, but did well with a hair jig tipped with a wax worm , below a float,just along the milfoil edge. all gils, no crappies.( oh ya!! and one cat fish! )

[Rick]

How is the Fall Fishing Going?