What a beautiful day on the water!! The weather was great and the company was better! We had an awesome day in the Hawkeye state.
In Eastern Iowa, the weather has been in the fifties and sixties all week long. This has put the fish in a feeding frenzy. Usually, this time of the year, we would be ice-fishing. But with these unseasonal temperatures, the safe ice has left us. With our only option being open water fishing, we gave it a shot.
Our game plan was to target walleyes today. We caught a dozen, nice eater size walleyes today. As well as, beautiful bronzebacks, slab crappies, nice catfish, and some pike!! This was a great multi species angling day.
Andy, Trevor, and I met up near Dewitt, Iowa, on the Waspinicon River. We discussed where to fish, and decided on a deeper hole in the wapsi. We were fishing in 8-15 FOW. Pitching and casting BFT jigs, and ringworms. The first four fish in the boat were smallmouths! 
IN December in IOWA??? The smallies came on firecracker/blue tail ringworms, or Trevor’s blade bait! We were pitching to a rock to mud/sand transition, with very little current.
Then we caught a few walleyes. I even caught a couple vertical jigging in 15′. The walleyes liked the chartruese ringworms the best. The spot that we were at, slowed a little. So we went into search mode. We motored up river about 1/2 a mile. We decided to target deeper water again. I began marking fish on my flasher that were suspended in 6-10 feet, over 12-13 feet. To me that means one thing, Crappies.
We began casting 1/16 ounce jigs and tubes into the deeper water. Slab after slab!! Then the wind picked up, and we were unable to detect the subtle bites of the crappies. So, I moved the boat over the suspended fish, and we began to catch them vertical jigging right underneath the boat. Talk about a blast!!! The crappies hit the best on a big bite plastic tube bait. Red, and green in color.
Alot of the water in the Waspinicon is unfishable by boat with a gas motor. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t catch fish wading, or using a small john boat and electic trolling motor. I just used a small flatbottom, with an electric trolling motor, and my lx-5 to find the fish and depths. This is a deadly combination for smaller Iowa rivers!!!
The weather is beautiful right now, so hopefully we can all get out and enjoy it!! Good Luck, stay safe, and we’ll see you on the water!!
All fish were released!
Gosh these things are ugly Brian…How do you keep them from slamming ringworms?
Another beauty Iowa Smallmouth…
Walleyes!!
Great report Luke! That Catfish is skinny.
Crappie!!
Nice looking crappies. They just need a logo and ice in the picture!
Great job guys
Luke, I’m not responsable for the looks of the people you fish with….as far as cats slamming ringworms…I don’t use them…it’s too easy using them!
That cat looks more like an eel Luke (I was going to say walleye..but want to keep the peace:))…What’s up with that?? Low forage base in that area?
No, I think something was wrong with it…sick fish.
I fished the Wapsi for 6 hours without a bite today. I just can’t seem to find the fish. I know if I find them I will catch them but it is a little disheartening to see you do so well on a day when I was very frustrated. Sounds like you had a great day, hope I can manage something tomorrow.
Fishinhawk- are you wading,shore fishing, or fishing from a boat? If you are in a boat, are you using a depthfinder?
My advice, find deep water, and fish all around it, everywhere around it.
I saw one other boat today, and he was just taking out when I saw him. I asked him how he did…and he said one crappie in six hours of fishing. When he was taking his boat out, he was literally ten feet away from alot of crappies. He just didn’t know they were there.
Locate the fish, with your electronics, and then go from there. When I see a fish on my flasher, I know it is a fish, and that gives me confindence in “fishing” for it. If I know there are fish below, it is alot easier to rule out baits/presentations, and eventually figure out what color/presentation they want.
ps got any bft ringies?
Great report Luke!
Good Fishing,
Mike
Nice Report Luke.
Way to go.
Thanks for the great photos.
Most of the year I am in a small boat. But it is away for the winter so I have been just bank fishing. I just haven’t found any areas that I really like right now. Some of the holes I’m used to fishing have filled in and the deep water I can find right now has too much current. If I had my boat, I’d be much more confident. Also, I use the munchies ringworms quite a bit, but have never tried any others. Hopefully I do better today.
That was a great day of Catching! Thanks again Luke for taking us to the “new spot”.
Fishing crappies in the wapsi during winter is about as good as it gets this time of year especially if you get into some really nice ones like you guys did. Those are some nice crappies.
Very good report.Lots of info here
Where did you put in? I don’t want to know where you were fishing but I couldn’t find any ramps open to the river except for the old access by HWY 61 today. Next year I’d like to try down in that area but I don’t know where to launch.
There is no launch…that I am aware of. We just pulled off the road, and put the boat in. You could try asking a few landowners…
Very nice report and fish Luke. Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks, Bill
Luke, Seeing a smallie this time of year always puts a smile on my face! Great report!!
Great report as always!
I put the rods away and went bird hunting….this past weekend.