Good tip Rivereyes

Thanks for the tip Rivereyes. Fished the Maquoketa this morning for about 3 hours. Threw out a bank pole with a crawler and then hauled a small twister across the rocks for ‘gills. Happened into about 4 smallmouths that would have topped 3 pounds each, a few largemouths, and only about 3 bluegills. All returned safely to their NE Iowa home.

Where does a 600lb gorilla sleep? The same place a 3lb smallmouth goes when you’re using ultra-light tackle: Anywhere he wants.

yep…the good ol Maq.. was one of my all time favs….. glad to hear the smallies still run large there….. there used to be good numbers of decent fish too…… plus lots of cats… and plenty of bonus white bass by the delhi dam…. right above the dam from shore I used to pull out LMB with cranks pulled along the rip rap by the dam on either side.. plus a rare walleye now and again……

anyway.. glad I could help…..

I still have yet to catch a walleye in this state. I never count the Miss, since I figure the fish are just using it to get to Minnesota. One of the locals this morning gave me a hot tip on where to nail a few in the Maquoketa, though. Maybe I’ll have to work out a float trip one of these weekends.

there used to be a FEW in the Maq…. but darn FEW… still I remember pulling about a 12 #er out with the shock boat one day….. so ya never know…..

I think your odds are better in the Wapsi… or the Cedar…… but for Rivers… the DesMoines was by FAR the best… from below the Salorville dam on into DesMoines I took limit after limit of walleye out of there….. but for lakes my best bet was Clear Lake… it used to be FULL of walleye….. and of course Spirit is very good also….. caught some out of the Iowa below coralville.. and some out of lake mcbride….. thats about it…..

so yea… its kind of a dead sea… or should I say corn field? down there for walleye…. MUCH MUCH better up here…..

We’re going to be camping this weekend with some friends up at Central City. I think we’re planning on fishing at least one of the mornings, so we’ll have to wait and see. I know that Marion Live Bait has a lot of pictures of people with nice ‘eyes and pike taken from that area – I’ve just never had any luck.

Pike fishing is supposed to be much better north of Independence. The DNR says that it’s the only river in Iowa with a self-sustaining pike population. I’ve seen some pretty good ones caught while ice fishing, but once again, I haven’t had much luck. I think most of the problem is that I tend to like aggressive tactics like cranking or trolling. My lack of patience has probably cost me more fish than anything.

I fished the wapsi from Paris to Independence….. there were some good spots for pike…… I caught quite a few of them, usually on either mepps spinners or jointed minnows…. for some reason they REALLY liked those jointed minnows…. I used to use them for bass too… but it was usually those that the walleyes took a whack at….. back then the only crank baits were the original rapalas.. and I was generally too poor to use them much.. but the worked good….. anyway I would guess a good crank should work too……. the eyes were easy to get out of the holes in late summer when the river dropped and even better early fall when it cooled off and the river was still low, then it was easy pickings for everything……

I was wondering where the place to put in/take out boats is for the Wapsi above Independence. I would like to try some northern fishing in that area. I have made a drive-by of the area above the dam in Ind. and found a couple of landings. I have an 18′ bass boat and a 12′ flat bottom so could use either depending on depths of water, obstructions, etc…. Thanks for any info.

*wow*… thats going to send me a ways back on memory lane… your talking YEARS ago!…. about all I remember is there was a launch, I can “see” it in my head, seems it would have been on the “southward” side of the impoundment… I remember there was plenty of depth as far as we went up…… but I cant remember how far that was…. I guess the day I can remember we were mushroom hunting as well as fishing!…. did ok at both! we were in a 14 foot boat, had no problems

The launch right above the dam at Independence is really top-notch for an Iowa river launch. Two concrete ramps and a dock (very handy if you’re alone).

I’ve been north from that point about a mile, to the very top of the impoundment above the railroad tracks. The entire impoundment is less than 2 feet deep, but the channel runs 6-12 feet all the way to the top end. We didn’t try to go above that, but we were passed by a Tracker deep-V, probably about a 18′, since it was much larger than my bass boat. He continued up around the next bend and out of sight, doing about 25mph all the way. He didn’t look concerned about hitting anything.

If you’re not in a hurry, I would put in at Independence and head north to where the river narrows above the impoundment. Then tilt up the gas motor and throw down the electric. The current isn’t very fast, and you should be able to keep going without risking your lower unit & prop. It’s not a very effective way to cover a lot of ground, but the first time your electric runs into a rock you’ll be glad you took your time.

If you want to put in with the flat-bottom, the best river launch info I’ve found to date is in the book Iowa Fishing Atlas, Volume 2 – Rivers and Streams. He has a breakdown of every river in Iowa along with all the launches, float sections, portages, yadda yadda. Check to see if your library has a copy.

Oh yeah, and MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL: email me or post here to let me know how you do!