Clear Lake Iowa Fishing Reports

[DuaneW]

Thanks for all information. Getting excited to try it. Have never been at the park or on clear lake so it should be interesting. I have a motor home but my son in law has a 5th wheel so he can launch it.

[SHANTY]

Going to be another great year. A lot of fishing pressure 3 and 4 years ago. Fish should be getting there now!

[gloomiseye]

Ice thickness is 18 to 20 inches. Yellow bass fishing is good, fishing in 6 to 10 feet of

water using a small jig tipped with a wax worm or small minnow. The best bite is from

4pm untill dark. A few walleye, crappie and perch are being caugth using the same

technique.

[gloomiseye]

Going to be another great year. A lot of fishing pressure 3 and 4 years ago. Fish should be getting there now!

Hope your right, last year when I fished there it was terrible.

[JIvers]

With no ice around here in Johnson County, and none likely any time soon, I'm making a trip up to Clear Lake tomorrow. Somehow the ice there is still in decent shape.

I'm hoping to get in to some yellow bass, and maybe a bonus walleye or two...

[JIvers]

I headed out on Clear Lake from Farmer's Beach this noon, and set up in about 8' of water, where I'd been told the fish were. I put some space between myself and other people, busted open some old holes, and drilled a few of my own.

I kept a minnow down one hole on a deadstick, and moved around looking for schools of yellow bass. That worked out pretty well, as I ended up keeping 18 yellow bass, most between 7" and 9". I also got two walleye, both below the 14" minimum, and an 8" yellow perch, proving there are some perch in Clear Lake after all.

The key was to keep moving, as a school of yellows would move through, bite for five minutes, and then be gone. There was a little uptick in the bite after 4:00 PM, but I caught fish all afternoon.

There was about 6" of ice everywhere I drilled or fished,and it seemed to be in pretty good shape. That surprises me, given the weather we've had the last week and a half in Iowa.

[delmuts]

Nice bunch of fish! The ice thickness surprises me too! I fished open water on the cedar yesturday.( only small fish)

[JIvers]

I made another trip to Clear Lake today and braved the wind, since there is no hope for fishable ice down here any time soon, and I don't want to get my boat out if I don't have to...

Anyhow, it was a decent day, even though the dusk bite didn't really happen for me. I did keep eleven yellow bass, most between 8.5" and 9.5", that I caught off Farmer's Beach; I also got three or four small walleye:

[JIvers]

There was about 8-9" of ice out where I was fishing off Farmer's Beach, and several ATVs on it.

Not one but two very brave, IMO, individuals decided to park their trucks on the ice off of Farmer's today. (Keep in mind it was up close to fifty degrees a couple days ago in Clear Lake, with other warm days as well since this ice formed.) They went east of the access and stayed right by shore. This picture is not focused, but you can see both of them:

With the weather forecast for the next few days, I don't foresee anyone driving a truck out on Clear Lake again any time soon.

[JIvers]

Having received word that the ice around Farmer's Beach on Clear Lake survived last weekend, I headed up there again yesterday.

There was about 6" of ice in pretty good shape, and when I was there it was making more, although the east end of the lake looked to be mostly open, or just skimmed over.

I went up a little earlier, since on my last two trips the yellows hit pretty good all afternoon. Of course, then yesterday between 12:30 and 4:30 I got one fish, a 14" walleye.

After 4:30, the fish turned on. The highlight of my trip was an 18" walleye that smacked a spoon and minnow head, but between 4:30 and 5:15 I got a bunch of yellow bass, and four or five sub-legal walleye. After about 5:15, the frenzy stopped.

Yellow bass are good eating (better than white bass by far, IMO) and their numbers need to be controlled. But since I had two nice walleye, and yellow bass in the freezer from my previous trips, I only kept two yellows that went belly-up at the hole:

Hopefully I don't need to drive up to Clear Lake again, but if we don't get ice down here soon at least I know I can catch fish up that way.

[JIvers]

And, another road trip to Clear Lake yesterday. I went out from Farmer's Beach, and found about 8" of ice that was popping nicely in the cold.

Between 2:00 and about 4:30 hole-hopping put three yellows on the ice. Then things picked up, and I caught about a dozen more until things stopped at 5:15 or so. A jigging spoon tipped with a minnow head worked better than the same spoon tipped with a waxie.

I also caught a small white crappie. I'd heard there were some in Clear Lake, but this is the first I've caught or seen there. No walleye on this trip.

The bite has been slower each time I've been up there, but whether the fish are moving somewhere else or just getting smarter I don't know. If we finally have some good ice around Coralville I won't need to worry about Clear Lake anymore this winter.

[STP Fisherman]

Just wondering if anyone knows what the ice is like on Clear right now. Any help would be great, thanks.

[JIvers]

I'm told there is still good ice, five inches or more, on most of Clear Lake, although there is some open water in spots. Take this with a grain of salt, as I did not see it myself.

I'm hoping the ice there holds out a few more days, as I am done ice-fishing in the Iowa City area.

[STP Fisherman]

Thanks for the info, maybe I'll just wait until the ice clears out to fish it, I'll check back in a couple weeks...thanks again.

[gloomiseye]

Looks like you have had some good fish frys from clear lake this winter eyehunter! Hopefully clear lake is on the rise this year.

[JIvers]

And, probably my last Clear Lake ice report of the year...

With bad weather coming tomorrow and Friday, I made the drive up to Clear Lake today.

I was told the yellow bass bite has slowed off Farmer's Beach, so I was going to try the area off the reeds at the pump house on the north shore. There were two guys out there this early afternoon, and I was all set to try it, but a local guy told me the best bite was in the "little lake" by Mcintosh State Park on the west end in Ventura. So, I tried the little lake instead...

I caught a bunch of yellow bass before sunset. Problem was, they were all 4" long, ALL of them. I'd heard that was the case in the little lake earlier this winter, but I was hoping it had changed. I considered moving to the pump house at 4:00, but decided to play the hand I had, and stayed at the little lake hoping bigger fish came in later. That didn't happen.

I did catch a 10.5" white crappie at about sunset, along with a 13.5" walleye. Those fish came off the drop from the 9' water levels where I was catching the small yellow bass. The bite quit about fifteen minutes after sunset.

As for an ice report, I found the worst eight or nine inches of ice I have seen in a while. The ice where I was on Clear Lake was soft, pulpy, and came up in chunks, not shavings, where I drilled. When I walked, a little water splashed up in nearby holes, which shows what the ice was like.

I am pretty sure this was my last ice outing in Iowa this winter.

[JIvers]

Looks like you have had some good fish frys from clear lake this winter eyehunter! Hopefully clear lake is on the rise this year.

I actually wrote off Clear Lake, Iowa, as a fishing destination back when a day of fishing there meant catching dozens of 6" yellow bass, 6" bullheads, and 12" walleye. I had mixed feelings about driving up there this winter, but there was no ice to be had in Johnson County.

I was vaguely aware that the IDNR dredged the lake channel in (I think) 2009, and is engaged in some restoration work on the Ventura Marsh and watershed, but didn't really think about it before this winter.

I've been told up there that the dredging and restoration has already improved the water quality and plant growth, and that in turn has led to an uptick in yellow perch, bluegill, and crappie numbers in Clear Lake. I caught several perch and crappie in Clear Lake this winter, and had never caught any in there before. Here is a (not very good) picture of the 10.5" white crappie I got out there last night:

Will I make a 300+ mile round trip or four to Clear Lake next winter? Probably not if we have good ice down here, but if we have another bad winter for ice-fishing I won't hesitate to make the trip, assuming gas isn't $5.00/gallon by then.

[gloomiseye]

Good to hear they are making improvements! It only takes me a little over an hour to get there so it's always nice to have it as an option. I know in 2008 we did pretty dang good on 15-20" eyes and lost a real giant.

[STP Fisherman]

Wondering if anyone knows what the water temps are like on Clear? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[gloomiseye]

Don't know for sure, but I was on a local natural lake this weekend a ways south of clear lake and the water temp was 61. I would guess the water temp there is around 50-55.

[STP Fisherman]

Sweet, thanks.

[Rip_Some_Lip]

It was 54 on Clear on Saturday. I saw 61 the Saturday before.

[gloomiseye]

Anybody been out lately?

[KabNam]

Water temp. has dropped to 51 degrees. White bass are biting good in shallows. Walleyes are biting good on minnows/slip bobber with lots of sorting to get a keeper.

[gloomiseye]

Cool, thanks for the report!