Saylorville Reservoir, Polk County, IA 7-25-04

Fantastic White Bass Fishing

I can hear you walleye trollers collectively moan at the mention of white bass. I hear ya, but as a striper addict, I love em…. If you love ultra light top water action, they can’t be beat in Central Iowa.

I usually stay off Saylorville on the weekends but the family wanted to get on the water so I spent Sunday from 9:30 till 2:30 on the reservoir. As soon as we launched at Lakeview ramp I noticed birds working the water 20 yards out between the two main ramps. It was a classic scene with shad popping out of the water, dozens of simultaneous boils and gulls picking up the leftovers. It’s the kinda thing that makes a striper addict’s heart race. I cast a very small Matzuo Shallow Seeker (floating shad plug shown above) into the fury and was on instantly. A half a dozen casts later, with a fish on at every cast save one, I had to quit and head over to the dock to pick up a passenger. I used the same small shad floating plug all day, but when the whites were busting up, I could have cast in the car keys and gotten the same result.

I caught whites pretty much everywhere we stopped but the most productive spots were just left (north) of the party cove (first cove up from the dam) and just north of the Marina entrance and south of Sandpiper. My wife (she is catching on) spotted the birds working north of the Marina. When we arrived, the birds had moved on, but half a dozen small shad carcasses were floating on the surface and the whites were still there.

For you guys without a boat, except for one spot, everything was casting distance from shore. When I found them busting up, 8 out of 10 casts resulted in a strike. Even in areas that had no evidence of feeding, about 1 out of 3 or 4 casts resulted in strikes. No idea how many we caught; more then 30, less then 50. Total fishing time was probably less then 2 hours of our morning on the water. Everything was released. Most were of average size with a few brutes mixed in. One wiper was caught that was on the small side.

Good luck,

Dave