des moines river question.

well i was fishing the des moines river below the red rock dam. and well i have some questions that i hope you guys can answer. first of all, there were asian carps there, how long have they been there? secondly the white bass and whiper were not biting as good as they did last year, i wonder whats going one? is it still too early or something for them to bite. i remember you can catch them on every cast. and lastly can i snag fish from shore below the damn? i see people do it all the time, i had not met any conservation officer so i could not ask them that question. thanks and i hope to hear your answers very soon.

Quote:

---

and lastly can i snag fish from shore below the damn?

---

I know nothing regarding the reg’s on this body of water but my guess would be that snagging fish would be illegal.

Pete

Some snagging is legal in some circumstances and areas, go to the Ia/dnrs site and look under fishing regulations. I’ve read what it said befor about snagging but don’t remember what it said.

I am pretty sure that you are supposed to release any fish that is foul hooked other than spoon bill during their season. As far as if you snag an Asian carp I would think that since it is a nuisance fish it should be OK…

I’m just to the east of you, fishing the Iowa River below the Coralville Reservoir. If the Des Moines River is anything like the Iowa River right now, I think you’ll notice that the forage base is low, ie. shad. I think that is the main reason, at least on the Iowa River, that the wipers and white bass aren’t smoking your jig. The only thing I’ve been able to do to catch white bass so far this year has been trolling cranks on the Reservoir. Anyway, good luck and let us know what comes of your fishing. I am anxiously awaiting the wipers and white bass as well.

To the wipers question… Word got out last year how good the fishing was and I saw countless coolers full of them. I would assume the population is down markedly from last year.

i truly think that they population of the whities is down too, when i was down there i notice that alot of the fish were really small probably from last years spawn, there were no big whities to be found. and also the forage population is down too, there were no shads or shiners swimming around like there used to be. the question now is, will it get better later on or is it going to stay like this for the year.