Okoboji and Spirit Lake Iowa Bass Report 08-20-07

I took a few days off to spend time with my family before the kids have to go back to school. We chose Okoboji for the wonderful beaches and Arnold’s Park for my wife and daughter, and for the excellent bass fishing for dad. I’m really glad we did! We haven’t hit the fall feeding frenzy yet, but you wouldn’t know it by the way the bass were on the chew on the Iowa Great Lakes this weekend.

Planning to fish a club tourney on Saturday, I set out early Friday to get in some pre-fishing and hopefully find some active fish on Spirit Lake. I began the day fishing rocky points with topwaters. The weeds were in the way a bit, but I managed to find some holes in the weed growth to pop some chuggers and poppers. Unfortunately, there were no smallies to be found in the shallow rock. There were however plenty of very chunky and aggressive white bass. I had six whites attack my topwater in seven casts. Although it was a lot of fun I wasn’t looking for whites so I had to leave the shallow rock and try a new strategy. I moved out to the deeper rock off the points and there I found several smallies willing to chew on green pumpkin tubes in about 15 feet of water.

Not wanting to beat those fish too much with the pending tourney the next day, I left those fish to locate other spots for the tourney. I decided to see if there were any docks or shoreline structure holding active fish. I move down the shoreline, looking for ideal docks with ideal surrounding structure. Pitching tubes and stickworms, I was able to pull several bass from the docks and even found an 18-inch smallie chasing baitfish right on the shoreline. Again, I left those fish to try some other areas. With the wind blowing hard on Friday, I had a tough time fishing the windblown side of the lake. After fighting it for a while, I decided to call it a day and go spend some time with my family.

Saturday came early, 4:30 a.m. The forecast was bleak, but I was prepared to fish and felt confident. I opened the door to find rain, wind, thunder, and lightning. I checked the radar and it didn’t look like it was going to be safe to be on the water, so I resigned to the fact that I would not be fishing the club tourney on Saturday. Life happens. I got to spend more time with my family, so maybe I was a winner after all. The little ones do grow up fast. I think I also earned a few points with my FW, because she informed me that Sunday was mine for fishing “as much as you want”! Given that it was a weekend on West Okoboji, I knew I had better get out early before too many pleasure boaters turned the lake into a fierce game of bumper boats. I was on my first rocky point at sun rise, but again the bass were not on the shallow rock. I figured if it worked on Spirit Lake it should work on West Okoboji, so I dropped out into 15 feet of water or so and there they were. I managed several nice smallies that morning, including a healthy 19-incher. I also spent a little time fishing the slop, were I located the large mouth pictured. He was taken on a chartreuse scum frog fished in a very sloppy bay. When the sun got high in the sky, I turned to flipping some docks out of the wind. On one stretch of docks I found about thirty large mouth bass willing to bite on tubes and stickworms. It was a good way to end the day, and not a minute too soon as the wind switched once again and brought the storms with it. I picked up the family and drove back to Sioux City with a smile on my face. Okoboji and Spirit Lake are definitely worth the trip if you get a chance. Next on my list is the Missouri River Bass Open here in Sioux City on August 26th. I hope to see some of you there. Have a great week everyone!