fishing reports Lake Macbride Fishing Reports

[JIvers]

I fished Macbride for a couple hours this morning. The surface temps at sunrise were right about 65-66 degrees, so the cooldown has begun.

From about 6:20 when I got out to sunrise, the gamefish were really busting shad up on the surface. I picked up a few white bass and wipers in the feeding frenzies, but not as many as I would have hoped.

After about 7:00 AM the action slowed down, although there were still some boils at the shoreline. I got a couple more wipers/whites trolling shad-colored crankbaits, but like the ones I caught earlier there was no great size to them. I'm going to give it a week or two before I try Macbride again. By then the fall bite should be in full swing.

[JIvers]

I had my first decent early fall evening of fishing on Macbride tonight. The white bass and wiper were hitting crankbaits well, and I ended catching close to twenty in the last hour or so before sunset. Here were the highlights of the night:

At one point I doubled up with a 16" wiper on one line, and a 12" wiper on the other.

The best fish of the night was this 22" wiper:

What I didn't get tonight were walleye, crappie, or any other kind of fish--just wiper and white bass. They are fun to catch, though, so that was alright.

The surface temps at the end of a warm sunny day were at 65 to 66 degrees. I tried drifting with tube jigs and shiners, but I only got one white bass doing that; everything else came trolling crankbaits. Tubes and live minnows will work better once the water temps get down in to the fifties.

[JIvers]

No shortage on white bass and wiper in Macbride--I went out one night this week and caught a pile of them. Still no crappie or walleye.

The fish were driving shad up to the surface, and in the past I've found on Macbride that you have to have the right bait to take advantage of the feeding frenzy. This week it was a Beetle Spin and white or chartreuse grub. Swimbaits and crankbaits, whether trolled or cast, did not do near as well this outing.

With the cool down that started a couple days ago, I expect the patterns to change. As mentioned earlier, October is when I do very well drifting/slow trolling with tube jigs or jigs and minnows.

[JIvers]

Since I was out checking pond ice this morning, I decided to look at Macbride, as it is only a couple miles out of my way.

As it is a deep lake, it usually takes Macbride longer to freeze than the small ponds here, so I was a little surprised to find both the north and south arms completely, so far as I could see, skimmed over.

The one place where I checked the ice on the north arm, my spud bar went right through at the shoreline with one punch. I am guessing there was no more than a half an inch there, if that, although I did not measure it.

It will still take longer for Macbride to be safe for ice fishing than it will for the ponds around Coralville, but I am now thinking with the current forecast Macbride will be ready, with a little care taken, to be walked on by New Year's.

As an aside, Coralville Res. was skimmed over at Mehaffey Bridge, but given how low the res. is this year, that is not surprising. BTW, the IDNR has cautioned anglers ice fishing Coralville Res., as the water levels may drop after freezing over, creating dangerous air pockets between the ice and the water below.

[JIvers]

Lots of people out on Macbride yesterday that I saw for myself from the causeway. Too bad I wasn't one of them. I'm surprised the lake set up so quickly this year, but this is a case where I'm happy to be wrong.

I have time to get out there this morning, so in a couple hours I'll be heading out on the north arm. I have my walleye gear more or less ready, but I'll be only targeting panfish today. My favorite walleye ice spots on Macbride require me to cover a lot of ice, and I'm not convinced all of it is safe yet.

I'll be sticking close to shore, and fishing the edges of rock or on top of brush for bluegill and crappie. I hope to keep catching larger bluegill than I used to see on Macbride, but also expect to see fewer crappie, especially large ones, than I did three or four years ago.

[JIvers]

And I'm back from my first Macbride ice outing of the season.

There was at least four, probably five, inches of good clear ice on the north arm where I went out from the sailboat ramp. I had the cove I was in to myself, although some of the community structure had been fished on already. I set up by a brushpile in about 11' of water that no one had hit yet, and went at it at about 7:00. This was my first fish :

The good news is that was my smallest bluegill of the morning. The bad news is I didn't catch anything worth bragging about. Over the next hour or so I caught a dozen or more bluegills, with the biggest two or three probably 7" long. Shallow brush on Macbride during early ice often produces, or did produce, nice crappie, but none were to be seen this morning. After the sun cleared the trees behind me everything shut down, so I was back in my truck by 8:30.

There were five or six shacks on the south arm that I could see, although I have no idea if they were doing better than I. Since the panfish bite was slow this morning, and the ice is good, I am going to go after walleye tomorrow night on Macbride.

[JIvers]

My first walleye outing this winter on Macbride was a bust: no walleye, and just a few bluegill, although a couple were 8", on a waxworm I fished on my other line while the sun was up.

I had one bump on a jigging Rap early on, but that may have been a bluegill, as they will hit relatively large baits. Right around sunset I marked a few fish that seemed to be checking out my bait, but none of them actually hit it. I did not have a camera with me, so I don't know what they were.

More generally, everyone I've talked to has pretty much the same thing to say about Macbride so far this winter: plenty of good ice, some bluegills, and crappie few and far between. It will be a few days before I try Macbride again, and when I do I will probably be targetting walleye once more. If I'm going to whiff out there, I might as well swing for the fences.

[JIvers]

If I didn't live so close to Macbride, I would probably not fish it again this winter.

The crappie population has apparently bottomed out, and no one I've seen or talked to has had any luck with them this winter. Hopefully their numbers will be back up in a couple years, but in the meantime I think we are in for slim crappie pickings on Macbride.

I've been out looking for walleye a couple times, but have had no luck with that, either. Even the bluegill size and numbers are down from the last couple winters, when I could at least catch a meal of seven to eight inch fish when I went out. Just poor fishing all around on Macbride since it froze up after Christmas.

[BigWill84]

Hello eyehunter,

I'm new to Iowa City and I'm looking to do some fishing this coming spring and summer, well as long as I'm living here actually. I have been asking around for fishing spots and i was told about Lake MacBride and the Reservoir. I haven't fished either one yet, and I arrived late july this past summer and with work, the only place I got out to fish was Kent Park.

I was wondering if you can give me any information on Lake MacBride, or any tips for fishing it? I'm looking to try to go out that first weekend in april, or perhaps the end of march if it warms up enough and the ice breaks. Also are there any early morning boat rentals for either lake? Thank you for any information you can give me, it's most appreciated.

[JIvers]

Welcome to Johnson County and HSO!

As my posts over the last year on this make clear, the crappie population on Macbride is not what it was five years ago, if you hear any stories about the crappie bonanza in 2006 or 2008.

Macbride is a tricky and fickle lake on open water for several reasons: for one, there is little weed growth, and so no weedlines to speak of.

For another, the primary forage in the lake is gizzard shad, which are an open water species that don't hug cover like, say, perch do, so the lake's predator species--walleye, white bass, wiper, crappie, spotted bass, channel catfish, flathead catfish, largemouth--often move off cover to chase the shad. Having said that, learning the location of the lake's many rockpiles, troughs, and brushpiles is important, as predator fish still relate to them.

The crappie spawn is of course one time where those fish move tight to shallow wood like they do elsewhere, and so that is the best time to catch crappie on Macbride. After the spawn, the crappei tend to move back off-shore to chase shad, which is where they are often found before the spawn as well.

There is a good walleye population in Macbride, and at times the fishing for them can be quite good if you have them dialed in right. Trolling shad-colored crankbaits or drifting with jigs and minnows are good ways to locate all the lake's predators, including catfish--there are some big channel cat in there, and they like shad-colored crankbaits.

If walleye or crappie are holding closer to rock, fishing a minnow on a slip bobber can be effective at times: channel cat in the summer usually prefer a nightcrawler or smashed chub, in my experience.

The key to open water on Macbride is understanding that the predator fish are often out chasing the shad, and you have to move to follow them.

In the heat of summer, one place you won't find fish on Macbride is anywhere deeper than ten feet or so. The lake stratifies in summer, and fish will not go below that thermocline at ten feet or so because there is no oxygen beneath it.

These are some basic things to know about Macbride: I'll be happy to answer any more specific questions you have to best of my ability. As I've said more than once on here, there are times when that lake has me totally stumped.

[BigWill84]

Thank you for your information, I know sometimes fisherman are reluctant to give out information for fear of having people use their fishing spots but know that it is greatly appreciated.

As for me, I fish mostly for Bass (all types), Bluegill and Crappie, Catfish, and perch. I haven't done much Walleye fishing, and Ice fishing is definitely not my thing. I'm looking to go out probably that first weekend in April...April 6th I believe is the Saturday. I don't have a boat but I'm not opposed to renting one.

For MacBride - When do the crappie spawn here? Do they pretty much hold the traditional patterns. As for this open water, I'd be looking into mostly jigging over and near structure, not to sure about trolling (actually just never tried it). I have few deep diving cranks, but I'm looking to get some for this coming season (i'm ESPECIALLY excited about that new Rapala Scatter Rap, I think i'm getting that countdown and minnow).

I had heard from a friend who I have also been asking about the lake, and he was telling me that close to the spill way offers good bass and bluegill fishing with good sizes for both as they forage on bait fish coming through. I am just wondering as to how much truth to that there is?

With all that info about MacBride, would you say that the Reservoir offers better or different fishing?

Again, thank you for any information, and who knows perhaps we'll catch each other out on the lake one day.

[JIvers]

I had heard from a friend who I have also been asking about the lake, and he was telling me that close to the spill way offers good bass and bluegill fishing with good sizes for both as they forage on bait fish coming through. I am just wondering as to how much truth to that there is?

When there is a decent amount of water going over the spillway, the area right below the Macbride dam can indeed be very good for everything in Coralville reservoir: channel cat, crappie, walleye, wiper, white bass, and so on. Just don't expect to have the spot to yourself.

[JIvers]

For MacBride - When do the crappie spawn here? Do they pretty much hold the traditional patterns.

Waiting until about April 1 to begin fishing Macbride is a good strategy: I don't catch much after the ice goes out until about that time. When I moved down here in the early 2000s, I used to hear about an awesome crappie bite in the shallow water east of the causeway on the south arm of Macbride, but these stories were always second or third-hand, and every time I tried it I caught nothing more than a small crappie or a couple of runty bluegills. It is a shallow area with a muddy bottom that does warm up quickly, so at times there may be a good bite there as soon as the ice goes out. I myself never hit a decent bite there at ice-out, so I stopped trying.

Typically the crappie spawn occurs in the second half of May on Macbride, with the end of the crappie spawn right around Memorial Day. Bear in mind that the crappie spawn is triggered by water temps: last year, during the weirdest and warmest spring ever, the crappie on Macbride spawned in late April.

The spawn is one time where Macbride crappie do what crappie everywhere do: they move shallow the brush and timber, and are very easy to catch.

Before and after the spawn, they stage around the edges of the old creek channel, which is just over 20' of water in most of the lake. Drifting jigs with plastics or minnows, fishing minnows on slip bobbers, or trolling crankbaits can all be effective at times.

Then summer comes, and the crappie, along with pretty much everything else, begins chasing the shad in open water, and you usually need to cover a little more "ground" to find them.

I say again that the crappie population on Macbride has hopefully hit the very bottom of its cycle: the numbers there this past year are a shadow of what they were five years ago, when it was ridiculously easy to catch lots of nice crappie on Macbride.

On that note, the crappie population in Coralville reservoir exploded in the last year or two, and there were a LOT of crappie in the 8" range caught there last summer and fall. Fishing minnows or plastic close to steeper banks and brush was the best way to go. Hopefully a lot of that year class survived to hit 10" or 12" this year...

[JIvers]

With all that info about MacBride, would you say that the Reservoir offers better or different fishing?

Different--it depends what you are looking for.

One big thing to keep in mind is boat traffic: Macbride has a motor restriction in place from Memorial Day to Labor Day, when no motors over 9.9 HP may be used except to load and unload boats at the landing.

On Coralville res., especially during the summer, one has to take the presence of lots of very large and very fast pleasure craft in to account. I have a small boat and small motors, so I don't take my rig out on Coralville, except maybe for early in the morning and late at night. The wakes, chop, and large boat traffic in general can be a real issue on the res. on warm summer afternoon.

As for fish populations in each water, it depends: there are more channel cat in Coralville res., even thought there are some nice ones in Macbride, too.

There is, or can be, an AWESOME channel cat bite above the Highway 965 and I-80 bridges on the Coralville floodplain as soon as the ice goes out: I have a thread devoted to it here in the Southeast Iowa forum.

The walleye fishing is better on Macbride than in Coralville res. itself. Better walleye fishing can be found in the Iowa River below the res.

Five years ago the crappie fishing in Macbride beat that in Coralville hands down: last year that had reversed itself completely.

Plenty of white bass and wiper in both lakes.

As for largemouth, I'd guess Macbride is better. (I'm not a largemouth guy. ) And if you didn't already know, Macbride, Coralville, and the Iowa River just above and below the res. are the only places in Iowa where you can catch spotted bass, also known as "Kentucky bass": http://www.iowadnr.gov/idnr/Fishing/IowaFishSpecies/FishDetails.aspx?SpeciesCode=SPB

There are smallmouth in the Iowa River/Coralville res., although not a lot of them this far south. I catch some in the river in Iowa City every year. I've heard of people getting smallies in Macbride, and since flooding has connected Macbride to the reservoir twice in the last twenty years there is no reason not to believe it, but I have never caught a smallmouth in Macbride myself.

Macbride also has a stocked population of muskie, and some of those find their way in to the res. and the river below it. I catch one or two Northern per year out of the river down here, too. Northern were once stocked in Macbride, but that stopped a few years ago, and it has been seven or eight years since I saw one in Macbride.

As for yellow perch, I have never caught one anywhere in Johnson County, nor have I heard of anyone else doing so. There is a population of yellow perch in Pleasant Creek lake, AKA Palo Lake, which is about forty miles north of Iowa City, and I have heard of people catching yellow perch in the Mississippi around Muscatine, as well.

Be aware that some people in southeast Iowa call sheepshead/freshwater drum "silver perch", "river perch", or just plain "perch", so if someone tells you they caught a bunch of "perch" out of the Iowa River in Johnson County they are almost certainly talking about sheepshead.

[BigWill84]

That's interesting that there are Kentucky bass up here. I'm only used to catching those in Tennessee.

I'm excited about getting out on that lake and with this warm weather coming, it looks like that first saturday in april might work.

Thanks again for all the information, i'm looking forward to getting out there on the lake.

[JIvers]

Having finally gotten a few days of warmish weather, I took my boat out on Lake Macbride for a couple hours this afternoon.

The water surface temperatures on the shaded south shoreline of the north arm were at about 48 degrees, and the water near the north shoreline where the wind has been blowing in for the last couple days was at about 51 degrees. I usually start catching fish--crappie, white bass, wiper--on Macbride in the spring when the surface temps get up to the mid-forties on the main lake, so I thought today might be productive. It wasn't.

I anchored up on the deep side of some of the lake's rockpiles near the north shore, and fished minnows and jigs with minnows--no luck. I moved to the edge of the old creek channel, where crappie, white bass, and wiper often stage early in the spring. Nothing there, either. It will probably be a week or two before I get out there again, but by then things should be better. I guess I should have hit the north ends of some ponds today for some easy bluegill.

[JIvers]

I would have rather hit the Iowa River, but since it is up three feet in the last five days I hit up Macbride tonight before the next round of rain hits southeast Iowa. Tonight was at least a little more productive than last Sunday when I was on the lake.

I found surface temps on the north arm to be about forty-six degrees after a partly cloudy/sunny day, and a rather chilly week. With the wind out of the north and west the last couple days, I anchored up on the south edge of the old creek channel in just over 20' of water, which is where I often find fish this time of year and/or with these water temps in the spring.

I missed a couple bites on shiners under slip bobbers before I landed a 13" walleye that hit a shiner on a small chartreuse jig I had over the side of the boat. Not a great fish, but it was the first walleye I have landed since last December.

The surface temps last Sunday over deep water were in the high forties to low fifties on Macbride: whether the walleye spawn was well under way before the temps dropped, and if so whether the walleye spawn is already finished, I do not know. The 13" walleye I got tonight looked to be plump enough, with no milting, but of course it could have been an immature female.

Right before sunset I caught a 13" crappie, which means I caught more crappie tonight than I caught all winter on Macbride. I'd heard a few people were still finding a few big crappie on Macbride through the ice, and I finally found one of them tonight.

I didn't catch anything else, although I did miss a couple other strikes on my shiners. Hopefully things on Macbride will be a little better next weekend, if I still can't get out on the Iowa River.

[JIvers]

I had some errands to run today. While out I ran in to an angler buddy of mine, who said the crappie are starting to hit along the causeway on Macbride.

There weren't many people fishing the causeway last night, and I prefer not to fish in crowds so I can't confirm it myself, so take that second-hand report for what it is worth.

[JIvers]

With a warm sunny day and very little wind yesterday afternoon, the weather conditions were ideal for drifting the edges of the submerged creek channel on Macbride, something that works very well for crappie before they move shallow in pre-spawn mode: it is also effective on white bass, wiper, and walleye in the spring.

We got a lot of rain this past week, and many creeks, including those that feed Macbride, had been in flash flood mode. I knew this, and expected the water to be a little muddy. I did not expect the water to literally be the color of chocolate milk, but that's what it was. A two inch long chartreuse grub on a 1/16 orange jig disappeared completely from my view an inch below the surface.

I tried shallow, I tried the creek edges, and I tried around the rock piles and brush, but did not get a bite. I marked fish in all places, but I figure unless I dropped a bait an inch in front of their nose they were not going to find it. After a couple hours of this I called it a day.

The surface temps on Macbride were just above fifty degrees, and that was after a cold week, so the walleye spawn should be well over with on there.

[JIvers]

Drove out to Macbride this morning to see how much the water had cleared from last weekend. The good news is the lake no longer looks like 900 acres of chocolate milk; the bad news is the visibility is still poor. I am guessing my 2" chartreuse grub from last weekend might have been visible for almost a foot today. Between that and the poor fishing before the heavy rain, I decided to keep my boat parked for the weekend.

[JIvers]

Lake Macbride finally woke up from hibernation. The water has cleared, and the surface temps yesterday morning were in the upper sixties.

I had my boat out early in the morning, looking for spawning crappie. No luck there, but the walleye were hitting pretty well, so that made up for the lack of crappies. I caught six or seven walleye the first hour and a half or so that I was out, and then things slowed down as the sun got above the horizon.

The best walleye of the morning was a 17" or 18" fish that got off at boatside, but I did keep two 14" and a 13.5" fish for the deep fryer. The rest I threw back were all in that 13"-12" range this week's IDNR fishing report described for the lake: http://www.iowadnr.gov/Fishing/FishingReports.aspx

After the walleye bite stopped, the spotted bass kept me from getting too bored. Here is one of the many 8" to 10" spots I caught:

I did see one crappie caught by another boater as I was heading in, but besides that I did not see or hear of any. But, I'll take multiple walleye in their place.

I hoped to get out again early this morning, but the weather did not allow it. Not sure if I can get out on Macbride after work one day this week or not, but I'd like to do so.

[JIvers]

With the Iowa River at flood stage, I'll be doing most of my fishing down here for a few weeks on Macbride.

After my good morning of walleye fishing on Macbride two weeks ago, I finally was able to get out there again this morning. Things were a little a lot slower today.

I did catch a few crappie on crankbaits and minnows below a slip bobber, but none went over 9". I kept a couple of 8" to 9" fish, hoping I would get more, but the bite pretty much died after the sun got up. No walleye, no white bass, no channel cat, not even a bluegill or spotted bass. At least I won't have to get up at 4:30 AM again tomorrow to get out there.

I suspect the unsettled weather of the last few days was to blame for the slow action: the surface temps were about 67 degrees, and the water quite clear. I assumed the crappie spawn would be done by now, but both the fish I kept still had eggs in them, so maybe there are some stragglers.

[tinfoilscenario]

Cool. I plan on camping the Lake MacBride area next week... May even stay at MacBride State Park, how do Iowa State Parks work? do cars need vehicle passes to enter IA parks? Are there better or cheaper camping options?

[JIvers]

Here is a link to the Iowa DNR's FAQs about camping in state parks--there are other links on the left of the screen: http://www.iowadnr.gov/Recreation/CampingFacilityRentals/FrequentlyAskedQuestions.aspx

There are private campgrounds in the area, too. I am not a camper, so I don't have a lot of first-hand info on them.

[JIvers]

My first ice report for Macbride this winter:

I drove out to look at the lake this afternoon. I did not see any open water on the north or south arms. There is a blanket of fresh snow from yesterday morning covering everything, and I did not see any evidence of anyone having ventured out on the ice there--no tracks or holes anywhere off-shore that I saw.

Someone did drill three or four holes about twenty feet out from the sailboat cove ramp on the north arm. They must not have liked what they found, because they didn't go any further that I could tell.

It was near sunset when I got out to Macbride, so I didn't have time to get out and check any ice thickness for myself. All I did was drive around and look at the lake.

That snow is a bummer, because otherwise everything is setting up great for ice fishing this year. Not only does the snow slow ice formation down, but it makes it more difficult to gauge ice conditions by eye. Macbride always takes a while to freeze up well under any condition, and this will not help.