Iowa River

Hi all,

im new here, and relativly new to tactful angling. I was curious if anyone fishes the Iowa River from Marshalltown North (to steamboak rock). I would like to start learning this river and the trends/tactics used on it to land the nice variety of fish in it. (My favorite fish are smallmouth and northern.)

Thanks for any info on that, also, Does anyone fish the Skunk or Des Moines river from Ames/Boone northward? I would like to give those a shot too once school rolls around i gotta head back to ames. I know the skunk is pretty much exclusivly smallmouth, but does the des moines hold any fishable population of smallmouth or northern?

If you’re going to go all the way north to steamboat rock to fish the Iowa, going east a little and fishing the cedar would probably be a pretty good bet. Lots of ‘eyes, bass, pikies, just find the rocks and you’ll find the fish. I used to fish the Des moines when I worked down in Johnston- never caught a pike, never heard about anyone catching a pike. They’re probably in there, just eluded me. I think they’ve got pretty good SMB numbers down there though.

One thing I forgot. Manatt’s has a sandpit right next to the public launch on the Iowa right off of hwy 63 just south of tama. Lots of crappies, bass LM some SM, and whites with the occasional pike thrown in, good numbers on the cats also. They keep it pretty public and it’s easy to fish from the bank.

Used to fish the Iowa a lot when I lived in Grundy Center. The stretch from Steamboat to the park is OK but there are a lot of tubers in the summer. The dam at Steamboat is hot and cold. Sometimes you’ll catch 4-5 walleyes and other times you’ll get skunked. Smallies are pretty common too.

I think there is one hole in the 3 miles below Eldora so I wouldn’t waste my time in that stretch. River doesn’t have a good reputation until you get to M’town again and I’ve never fished it much below Eldora.

There are some nice stretches from Alden to Eagle City with smallies. Never caught many northerns, but they’re there. If you have a canoe, I’d recommend Steamboat to the park or somewhere on either side of Iowa Falls. Good luck.

thanks for the info guys

Last night i was at Pine Lake fishin for bass, when i was leaving i decided to look at the spillway out of lower pine since it usually has something interesting going on… sure enough there was about 1,000,000,000 Goldeye trying to get up the damn. There was lots of cats swarming around there too. I caught a few goldeyes with my hand in the stream, just let the current bring em to me over the shallow rocks.
Didnt know there was so many of those fish in the Iowa.

So you say from eldora to mtown its pretty dead… I plan on picking up a square stern canoe and a 5horse this summer and working the stretch from Steamboat all the way to Tama. I wonder if there are any big holes or backwater like ponds that hold good populations. If that stretch fails, i may actually try farther north before i try other rivers, since they are such a long drive from mtown.
Id rather just drive to guttenberg for the miss. than drive halfway to cedar falls.