Spirit Lake,IA,Sept 11 & 12

By ryan-hale 0

The Iowa GNWC held their State of Iowa Championships on Spirit Lake over the week-end.The weather was very warm with no wind on Sat and high winds on Sunday.Here is the sunrise this morning on the water.

I had a few friends that were involved in the tourney so Cole and I decided to camp and get a little fishing in while catching up on old times.We chased bass for a few hours on Sat morning with Cole putting this nice 16.5" smallie in the boat.

Saturday we had zero wind with a terrible bug hatch on the water.Everyone was covered with bugs and with hot temps and no winds it was ugly on the water.Cole and I trolled leadcore and caught many small fish.The hot lure for us was the little #4 glass shad rap in the perch color.Cole ran the rods while I drove and he did a excellent job of knowing how many colors to let out to duplicate how we were catching fish.We also did a little livebait rigging on Sunday.Here is Cole’s fishing partner Cheyenne helping him on the bite.

The highlight of the weekend for me was Cole finally getting a big walleye.He caught his fish at 5:30 a.m. in 3′ of water on his first cast of the morning.We had to wait until the sun came up before I got a pic of his 25" fish and returned her to the water.Cole and Austin have now both caught bigger eyes than me this year-way to go boys.

There was some good weights brought in the the scales with a few teams in the low 20’s for the 2 day event.There were 3 fish brought in that were in the 7# range.Joe Kalvig from IDA finished in 5th place!!! Good job Joe and nice to meet you.I was the guy working the weigh in dock with the orange vest on.Also great to see my good friend Todd Brim(panfish) from IDA also.Todd also helped at the weigh-ins and is a blast to be around.

Ryan Hale

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ryan-hale

I'm a part time guide on the Iowa Great Lakes.Love to fish and hunt.I have fished many open and hard water tourneys.I also run Harbor View Resort on West Okoboji lake.

0 Comments

  1. Fishing ‘eyes and smallies in September, Ryan?

    The muskie nuts must not have gotten to you yet. Heard about any bigguns yet?

  4. Ryan, awesome walleye for a youngster to catch, I bet hes still grinning from ear to ear. I’ll be up to okaboji next Tues. the 21st for 5 days for our anuall perch run, any chance of hooking up for a morn, noon, or evening of walleye fishing. I’ll be staying at Triggs resort, let me know.
    Thanks Wahly

  5. Great job Ryan. Cole is the MAN!!!! Way to go bud! Keep up the good work and save some for us.

    Clay

  7. I had to go to the Iowa/ Ia State game for business so I was not at the tourney. Will be fishing next week though. I see the winners where using Rapala DT6.What were the other hot cranks being used? Ryan where you running 3 colors of lead and mono on boards? I have really had great fishing with the Glass Raps but think I might move up the next size as on the #4 I seem to hook-up alot of the small fish. I will be on the water Friday through Monday so stop and say hello if you see me. I will be the one with the 7 month old Lab falling in the water.

  8. John,alot of teams caught muskies during the tourney.There is a big muskie tourney on the IGL’s this week-end so I’m sure those guys will get some big ones.
    Wahly,about the onlt time I could get out with you would be Friday night(24)or Sat(25)anytime.Best of luck on your perch fishing.
    Steve,how you been.He got his fish on a slip-bobber and leech.I try to keep it simple with the boys when we fish in the dark.It’s also a great way to put good fish in the boat during low light conditions in the fall on natural lakes.
    Duck,we tried the bigger sizes of glass shad raps and did not get a fish off of those.Spirit always has been a smaller type of crankbait bite.Some teams did get fish off of #7’s.The winning team caught their’s on the DT6 series,seen those? Also a small lure.Also they want it fast,around 2.5 to 3 mph.I’ll be on the water again this week-end but we will be on East on Sat as the walleye bite should start to pick up there very soon with these cool temps coming in.
    As always thanks for all the kind words and support from my fellow IDA anglers.
    Cole is still after that 30″ eye,aren’t we all?
    Ryan Hale

  9. Ryan, Fri. or Sometime Sat. would work, it would be great to hook up with you and get some of your knowledge as i understand the walleye bit can be good on east lake, weather providing, or where ever. if you leave me a # I can call you and set up a time or I’ll be at Triggs, room # 131, would look forward to it.
    Thanks Wahly aka Scott Wahl

  10. Scott,are you any relation to Jim Wahl from the Clear Lake area? He is a heck of a eye angler.
    You have a PM from me with some questions.
    Take care.
    Ryan Hale

  11. Thanks Ryan for helping the weigh in sat it was so hot and sun was a Ia hurricane and having help was much appreciated. You are deffinetly a great example of the IDA staff

  12. Duck, I fished the tourny last weekend and had the best luck with the #5 blue and perch glass shad raps. We also caught fish on a #5 perch jointed rap. Heard some reports that firetiger was working as well. Legal fish were hard to find, early in the morning was definitely the best time to catch them.

    Ryan, thanks for your help at the tourny. Brian and I needed all the help we could get since we had never fished spirit before.

    George

  13. Good report Ryan….always glad to see the boys outfishing you This report just gets me more fired up about coming up for my annual september trip next weekend.

    goody

  14. Hey Joe K glad to help at the weigh-ins,thanks for the kind words.Let me know if I can ever hlep you out if you fish up this way again.
    George,don’t know how much I helped you and Brian.I would have done what you guys were doing also.If you would have got 1 nice fish it would have put you in the $.Sometimes there is a little luck involved in these tourneys.Don’t feel bad as you guys weighed fish both days.
    Goody,I can deal with Cole and Austin out fishing me,just want to make sure they out fish YOU!!
    What are you going to do about the Hawk game Sat. night?Give me a call Sat. morning sometime.I will be on East.
    Ryan Hale

  15. Wind was terrible this week-end.I had little luck on East Sat morning and limited luck on Spirit Sat. night because of the wind.It was a wet ride coming all the way back across the lake in the dark.
    It was great to see Goody and his dad again.Eric we need those cooler fall temps to hit us hard to get the water temps down.
    Ryan Hale

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