Iowa Bass and Walleye Fishing Report

Iowa fishing has been hard on me lately. The fish have went through a slump. We had water temps nearing 65 a week back, and then a major cold front/rain storm moved in and dropped the water temps down ten degrees. The fish are still active, but it takes a little more determination to catch them.

The day bite has been almost nil to non-existent. The fish are still feeding at night however. Pictured to the left, is the man who taught me all I know, or mostly all I know, right dad? Nice fish dad! Thanks again, Steve, and Dad, for out-fishing me yet again! This bass was caught on a white/green terminator spinnerbait, in the shallows. We have been fishing a lot, just not a ton of catching. Although the fish we are getting to the boat, are quality fish.

The techniques.. The bass have stopped munching on the large baits. We have had to scale way down. Spinnerbaits are working well in the shallows, next to the rocks, and reeds. The majority of the big fish are still in the wood. Throwing tubes, or little "creature" baits have been producing nice fish. We are fishing them texas style with a 1/8-3/16 bullet sinker, and still fishing them extremely slow. Also a BFT firecracker/chartreuse tail ringworm, on a 1/16 precision head, has boated some nice fish. I will stress the importance of a high quality graphite rod, like the St.Croix’s pictured to the right. The fish are barely, and I mean barely picking up the baits, if you don’t feel them right away, they spit baits out, and that means no boated fish.

I believe the bass in our area are still pre-spawn/spawn but I could be wrong. The fish of Steve’s pictured below, was extremely full of shad, or still has her eggs.

Nice fish Steve, yet again out fishing me. I am guessing this bass around five/five and a half lbs. She lightly picked up a creature/beaver plastic, and then the fight was on. After a quick photo, back she went!

While the fishing has went slightly down hill, there are still good fish to be caught, and great times to be had. The largemouth’s should be coming up on post spawn bite soon. That is my favorite time to fish them, they really, really crush baits. Topwaters should start producing some very nice fish. I did catch my first scummin frog fish the other night. I can’t wait until this summer, I throw a frog 90 percent of the time. There is nothing more fun to me, than seeing a huge bass blow up on a frog. It is also a blast to see them miss the bait four or five times, and get hooked on the sixth. Largemouth’s have such a great attitude.

The next few days are going to be beautiful, and then another cold front will be moving into Iowa. High temperatures will be in the fifties, with lows in the thirties. This could put the fish in a big lock-jaw. That being said, try to get out, and catch some fish before the weekend!

All fish were released!

Good luck, and we’ll see you on the water!