Open Water Reports

[delmuts]

hmmm! from what i have heard, and found myself; the crappies are very hard to find and get. the gils are a better bet. the rivers have been doing well for walleyes. fishing time will be a little more limitted, with archery season opening last sunday.

[delmuts]

with these last couple of warm days to did some fishing instead of hunting.tried panfish at volga, with poor results.( some small crappies,gils, and one 3# bass) went to the cedar last night. the fishing was good.( but my hooking the better ones was poor ) came home with one 18" and a 22". the bite seemed to die as it got dark. used plastics mainly.( got tired of replacing minnows!) found out that a crappie slider makes a good walleye lure, along with the berkley power minnows !

[wiz]

Since theres been no ice I went to Boone waterworks spillway on the Des Moines river. There were alot of cigars caught with an occasional keeper. Lots of bites on jig and minnows. Something to do instead of watching the Outdoor channel. Wish things would freeze back up.

[def]

The fishing in SW Iowa(ponds & small lakes) wasn't that great in the spring with all rain we had. In fact it has been kinda hit & miss. The cat fishing has been good in the small rivers & streams after they went down & the water cleared up.

[delmuts]

as you have seen; no reports from iowa! much of our state is a big mess with all the high water . del

[Esox_Magnum]

We have avoided the flooding rains here but the bite sux.

[Aquaman01]

FROM DECORAH;

I just got done reading an article from Oregon in '06 regarding habitat impact and fish recovery from something like this. It was optimistic and pointed out that heavy flooding can actually improve spawn habitat in the long run and that a good percentage of fish keep to the same stretches of river during heavy flows. I guess they find a place to hunker down and wait it out. I imagine that trout streams in highre elevations around here will recover faster than the low-lying basins.

Some guy I ran into yesterday was talking about bow-hunting carp in his corn field!

[Selmer]

From North Central Iowa area:

All I've been fishing is a small local pond. I'm getting 6-8" bluegills and 7-12" crappies, 15-20 keepers in 90 minutes, pulling small jigs with waxworms.

Selmer

[Matt Johnson]

Spent the weekend down in the Des Moines area chasing bass and pannies this weekend. Found a couple fun lakes loaded with fish and structure. The lakes down there are a little different than the lakes up here. They were mostly dammed in lakes with a lot of deep shorelines and wood. Found our panfish amongst the deep wood suspended. A lot of big sunfish with a few crappies mixed in here and there. Our fish came on 1.5" white Berkley Tubes or 1/32 hair jigs. Largest sunfish was 9.75" but long and skinny. Did manage to catch a few stout 9" fish. We were looking for that true 10" but couldn't find it

I'll definitely be heading back down there! Very fun times on the water!

[delmuts]

well maybe the fall bite is getting started! i was stopped by a friend so he could show me a picture of two pike he caught last week on the wapsie. he has ben fishing this same spot for much of the late summer; usually only catching 2 to 4 pounders. this time though he caught a 7-8 and a 14-2. (his personnal best)

[Esox_Magnum]

S Did manage to catch a few stout 9" fish. We were looking for that true 10" but couldn't find it

I'll definitely be heading back down there! Very fun times on the water!

Try West Okoboji if you want true pound gills. 10's arent uncommon even 11+ are not unreasonable anyday on the water. IMO ice is the best time to target them, when you can sight fish.