Activity above I-380 Bridge-Fess Up!

Ok, this afternoon, I took my family on a day trip to Kalona. We took 380, and I could not help but notice a small flotilla (6-10) boats working the Iowa river channel west of the highway bridge. They looked like walleye boats to me. I don’t think they were all out just enjoying the warm day, taking test drives or trimming out their rigs. They were still out on our way home, late in the day, but this time there were only 2-3 of them working the later afternoon bite.

So, somebody start talking…

Regards,

Joe

Pretty much what the guys on IO said: I know guys who catch a lot of catfish right after the ice goes out on shad up there in the shallow water, but in four years of living down here I have never gotten up there to try it myself.

I have read and heard that the walleye fishing can be good right above the I-380 bridge in the spring and fall, but when I tried it I got nothing. Personally, I think the walleye fishing in the res. itself is way over-rated, but maybe I just don’t know what I am doing on there.

Since the walleye haven’t bit on the Iowa here in town, maybe I will drive up to the end of the reservoir and try out the catfish bite–I picked up plenty of shad last week, so I have bait. I have seen people fishing from shore on the south side above the bridges in years past, so I will see what I find when I get there.

Pretty weak and tight lipped. The other board would only admit to whisker fishing…Maybe we need Gianni the Coralville Monster Eye slayer to weigh in. It was somewhere in that neck of the woods that he hit paydirt…

Right after the ice goes out you can catch some monster catfish between the bridges. They are in ther feeding up on shad.

Yep.

I think Gianni’s out of town this week for work, but we’ll buy him one too many beers one evening and get him talkin’…

Once I get the boat ready, Rug, you me and Gianni are gonna work that stretch and learn for ourselves. Its too close to all our houses for us not to give it the old college try.

No doubt some of those guys were probably cattin’. So, if we don’t catch the next state record ‘eye, we’ll get some cats for a fish fry!

Probably the best way to gauge the walleye potential in there is go on a troll-a-thon with 3-way rapalas. We can cover a lot of water that way and if there are any walleyes in there, they should hit an F11 or F13 floater trolled really deep.

Regards,

Joe

hey guys, thier fishing for early catfish, that area has always been good for early catfish. In the shallows just south of the 965 bridge on the up river side is good as soon as the ice goes out too. the channel of the iowa right in there to the greencastle bridge is good for jigging walleyes slowly tipped with a minnow and crappies too. theres a few good places right in there for crappies under a slip bobber. The sides of the old highway collapsed bridge is good for crappies, they come in there to spawn along the bank and at the end by the shore

A number of yrs back the water had been up a bit & a bunch of slab Crappies went into the broken bridge area. The water kept dropping and really loaded them them in there. The bite lasted from Mar to early May. The DNR figured that 10,000 Crappies were caught from that area.

For some reason the water gets really dirty just after ice out & stays that way so rigging with cranks for Walleyes sounds like a tough way to go, but good luck any way, & still beats staying at home watching the TV.

I fished above the 965 bridge for about four hours today. I got three channel cat, and one missed strike, all on cut shad. I talked to a couple boats–they were fishing for channel cat, too, or so they said. The action for them was slow, too. I am thinking the windy conditions made it difficult for fish to find bait. BTW, the water clarity was pretty much zero with the wind–the visibility was about three inches, so the point about problems with using crankbaits in there right now makes sense.

Thanks for the report, Vike.

I hear ya, guys. I have no first hand knowledge of how clear the water is through there. I only advocated cranks on the very basic premise that with a tandem rig of rapalas on a 3-way, you can cover a lot of unfamilar water effectively in search of predatory fish.

Sounds like it was a tough bite out there. I like to fish for catfish, too. Sounds like that stretch is a very well known spot to get into some nice ones.
Regards,

Joe

I may be misinformed, but I thought that the state record walleye was caught around the I380 bridge some years ago. I had fished that area two or three times a couple years ago and didn’t catch a thing.

Des Moines river I beleive!!! 14lbs 9 ozs. Rathbun will beat that record in the next few yrs though. “remember I said so!”

I heard that too about rathbun below the dam a few years back. I guess the fishing for walleyes there is getting so good that guys that used to vacation in canada fishing for them now go below the dam at rathbun. I got a report a couple of years ago from a dnr officer i called in polk county about the dam at scott avenue in des moines that a dnr officer issued about 25 tickets for overlimits in walleyes in one weekend so check that spot out too. I remember when all those crappies got caught in that cove when the water fell years back. Theres alot of crappies in that area of the res. Just cruise the shoreline (slowly) with your fish finder and when it marks suspended fish, fish there with a slipbobber and minnows, its what i do.

I know theres places in the reserviour where theres higher number of big slab crappies than others. One of my boys friends is unemployed so hes helping me now until he finds another job. He told me last year of a place he can take me too because he seen an older guy walking out of this spot with a stringer full, two and three crappies to a clip, that some went o 18″ and the smallest was 12″, i know the kid and he wasen’t lying and hes taking me to this spot this spring.

You gonna take me too?

Quote:

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Des Moines river I beleive!!! 14lbs 9 ozs. Rathbun will beat that record in the next few yrs though. “remember I said so!”

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Lots of fish came out of the river after 93 it sounds like. The record channel, eye and wiper all caught just upstream of DM after that flood. Redrock could easily have that next record.