Macbride-Fished 3/3 am

Rugbystar, Gianni and the Kornking headed out this morning at 6:30am to try some new (to us anyway!) spots in the north arm. It was more like mid January than March out there-and I know, ’cause the tank on my heater gave out around 9:00am!

We drilled many holes, as well as walked a long ways off the beaten path and tried a brush pile that yielded one of the guys some nice specks on Monday, but managed only one good fish (10″ stuck by Gianni ). Rugbystar joined me in my sled and he could just about catch as many dinks as he wanted, I on the other hand, stuck with a monster swedish jig hoping it would draw some larger fish. Eventually, I switched to something reasonable, and I got de-skunked with a slightly larger than average Macbride dink ‘gill.

Plastics and waxies were the ticket-Rugby had a moon jig, I used a demon, and Gianni had a small white jig (not sure what kind), we dead sticked a minnow but got no takers.

We came in around 10:45am or so, since the sun was getting brighter and the bites were few and far between. Usually these types of blue-bird conditions correlate to lousy fishing for me and it didn’t seem to be getting any better.

Overall-this day turned out like the typical day out on the ice at Macbride usually does for us. No doubt there are some nice crappies in there, we just couldn’t get them to bite this morning.

The water was murky under the ice, indicative of the run-off from the recent rains.

All in all, the ice was plenty thick where we were (nearly 12″), in the north arm. I did see some areas near ditch drains on the south arm where it had started to open up a little bit, so be especially careful. I was surprised it wasn’t layered, but the last 2 days of cold winds had it frozen up good (other than those open spots near shore by the drains).

Gianni stayed at it a little longer, so we’ll see if he got into some big ones. I might try to head out again today in the evening; maybe fish it a few times this week in the pm as well since warmer weather is on the way. Good luck out there and stay safe!

Joe

Do you fish mcbride much in the summer? Iwas just curious how the bass fishing in there is. Ihave fished coraville a couple times but didnt do very well.

Bass fishing can be awesome in macbride. i’ve had incredible days there with many fish over the 5lb mark. there are also nice spotted bass in there and a few smallies. i’ve never gotten any smallies, but i think we’ll be seeing a few more of them this summer. watch out for the muskies in there too. i think luke’s dad caught quite a few of them last year while bass fishing.

Yes, Macbride can be good and bad at times. My parents have lived on the north arm since I was a kid- Dad goes out almost every night- some nights all he will catch is small bass, other nights the big girls are on the feed. You definitely have to put your time in on macbride. The muskies have taken well in macbride..

The kentucky bass also have taken well…macbride is one out of the only three lakes in Iowa that will hold kentucky bass. Smallmouth I have never seen, but that isn’t to say they aren’t in there…

Thanks for the info, also does Macbride have a motor limit on it cetain times of the year?

10 horse max from may to september. no wake the rest of the time but no hp restriction.