Iowa River Walleyes

Well, this spring was quite the spring for me on the old Iowa River. I spent the majority of my days below the Coralville Reservoir pitching jigs and ringworms just hoping for one monster that would make the effort- the lack of sleep, the tired days at work, etc.- worth it. From the time the water was open, I had great success with some nice walleyes. My season started for me with a nice 6 pound fish caught February 6th, and from there it just kept getting better. The photos on the post should speak for themselves. Lots of nice stringers of eaters, lots of nice mid to upper 20 inch fish, and the grand daddy of them all, caught for me last week on Monday. The fish was an absolute hog. I got down to the river after buying a new G Loomis- a 7 foot medium light. I made probably 10 casts using a 1/16th oz BfishN head and a purple sparkle ringworm. I pitched it out to a nice current seam off of a rocky point. I let it sink to the bottom and made about 3 cranks when I felt something on my jig- not a “Smack”, but rather a sluggish, heavy, pickup. I cranked up the slack and set the hook. It felt just massive, giving me some quick and powerful head shakes. After the initial headshakes, the fish kind of slowly and powerfully swam around and at certain points just sat there. I thought that I had on a 10 pound flathead. After another 5 minutes of anticipation I started shouting at my friend to get the net. I have a terrible tendency of shouting for the net and the fish ends up being a carp- NOT THIS TIME!! After the beast surfaced, I new it wasn’t a carp. It went back down for a final run and at the point when it came up the 2nd time my buddy scooped the net under a beautiful 31.5 inch, post spawn dandy. The weight on her was right at 9 pounds. This was the fish that capped off the spring. I hope I get bigger, but I won’t hold my breath until fall. All in all, the pictures don’t do the season justice. The bite is still strong and if it wasn’t raining out right now, I would be down at the river pitching jigs. Darker colors- purples and electric blues have been the ticket for most of the fish we’ve caught. Anyway, enjoy the photos and I hope that everyone else out there has a terrific year of fishing! If you see me down by the river, make sure and say hi- I am somewhat of a 24 year old river rat and I couldn’t be happier with how my year has gone. Good luck again and I’ll see you on the water!