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!
Here is a better pic, of the creature bait we have been using. It is a Yum Sooie…
Great report as always Luke. Oh ya nice fish too!
Love2Fish.
Good job Luke! It’s good to see you enjoying time with your father!
Thanks for the report Luke.
Have you ever tried throwing YUM Dingers on those big largemouth’s?
Yum Dinger…hmmm…nope..
I see you have no idea what I am talking about !
Great report and photos to go with it Luke!
But we have to talk about that
pink line!
Nope, I have never caught any fish on those dang baits before…if anybody hates them as much as I do…you can send them to my mailing address, and I will melt them down, and turn them into something more useful…
BrianK- we’re gonna “talk”….REAL soon!!
Great report Luke! Nice bass!
Nice report Luke. Finally, you caught some fish without me
See you in about 3 hrs for some smallies!
Actually dude, that is why you didn’t get invited- so we could catch some fish…
Haha, actually I think you were catching something like 300 morels weren’t you?
Great job Luke.. Have you been over to McBride lately ??? Might be going down there this Sunday..
Thanks for the report and Pics Luke. Nice fish. Lots of fun.
Thanks, Bill
Mike- No, I haven’t been out to Macbride lately. I was out on Palo last night, and went to Delhi Dam today,..
Palo: Andy caught a nice bass, and had a monster on, that we saw jump. I had a huge muskie follow a 1 oz. spinner bait back to the boat, and didn’t hit, so I let it fall, and he flared his gills, and just ticked it, and that was it- I was shaking for half an hour after that. Wish it would have bit the hook..
Delhi: Slow, the water is ripping right now, caught one nice walleye, and a bunch of little smallmouth. Had a few nice fish on at the dam..but don’t know what they were.
Luke theres quite a few northerns below the dam there, i’ve got some over the years. Ya know how everybody thinks theres alot of big smallies below the dam there in the catch and release only area, thier isn’t. The dnr ran thier nets theres a couple of years ago trying to get some for a count and they didn’t pull up a nice one, not one at all. Could it be that they are still keeping them befor they do get nice? guess so. I’ve fished down river below the first bridge and seen some real nice ones with lower hooked jaws laying on gravel beds. I know theres some nice ones down river in 2′ of water.