Today was a great day on the water! My family has been in town for the holiday weekend, and today we all had the chance to share some shoreline together!
Pictured to the right is Steve Santoni with his personal best walleye, which weighed in around ten lbs. Steve caught this fish on a 1/4 ounce precision head with a pro blue ringworm. Awesome fish and congrats buddy!!
Over the past week we have been fishing different many areas-
Today we were concentrating our efforts in areas with current seams. The walleye’s seemed to be hanging out in depths anywhere from 3-8 FOW- Some fish were caught in stronger current areas, and some were caught in the complete opposite areas with little to no current flow.
This is where I would like to touch on bait selection- Like I said earlier, we were using BFT products. The nice thing about the precision head is the ability to fine tune the presentation to match the current flow/depth. The Iowa river is a very small interior river, and depths can constantly be changing. In my experience these fish are much more finicky to water conditions than Mississippi river fish. Presenting these baits to Iowa river walleyes can prove to be very challenging at times, and when you can fine tune your jig weight 1/8-3/16-1/4 it really helps the walleye angler catch more fish. I would almost describe it as being able to "float" the jig across the bottom. And, if none of that makes sense, then just get some for yourself, and see what you think! Here is a link to B Fish N Tackle 
Pictured to the right is fellow ido staffer Andy Craig and a beautiful night time ringworm saugeye. I believe this fish came on pro blue as well-
This last picture is of Corey Gerts, family relative- and this is his first Iowa River walleye- Nice fish Corey!
The array of attitudes with these fish amaze me. Some of the smallest fish hit the ringworms the hardest, while the big girls simply pick up the bait as it falls the bottom.
If you are bored and awaiting the ice fishing season- pick up your st.croix’s, some h20 jigs and bft ringy’s and go set the hook on some beautiful Iowa river walleyes! Just remember to practice selective harvest and CPR the big girls!
PS- Thanks for the new hat Bob, it has proven to be a good lucky hat so far!
Good Luck! Stay safe, and hopefully soon we’ll be on hard water!
All fish were released!
One of these days I need to get a lesson from you guys. The Iowa is about a foot up here, and I cant catch anything. No trouble when its normal and normal flow, but just being up a foot, and faster current I cant get anything going.
nice fish guys!!! I wish I had some free time I’d get down there with you. I’m pretty sure I know where you were at, some of my old stomping grounds since I was a kid.
I’m sure the hat is the reason for your success!!!!
Nice report Luke.
Looks like you guys have a nice mix of big fish and smaller ones to keep you busy on the shore there. Pretty cool when fishermen can catch fish like that without even launching a boat.
I couldn’t agree with you more about the B’Fish N’ tackle line of H20 Precision jigs & plastics. There awesome walleye & sauger baits.
Great job Luke and company
Congrats Steve on that pig pb walleye too!
great report, luke; nice fish, steve; and awesome hat, corey!
Gotta be the hat Luke!
Nice fish!
Those are some great fish Luke.
Great fish, & a great day!!
Nice post Luke! I wish I could have been down there, instead of back home eating turkey!
Thanks all, there is only one thing better than a great day of fishing, and that is a great day of catching
. I had a blast back down in Iowa for Thanksgiving, now i just have to find some spots around my new stomping grounds in Minneapolis.
Nice fish guys, I am an hour away might have to make a trip this weekend.
Great Report
Congrats on the PB