Big Spring Trout Fishing

What a great weekend for fishing here in Iowa. The early morning temps were in the low to mid 60’s, the wind was very light, 5 mph. I had the great opportunity to take a new fly fisher out for her first trout. We arrived at the Manchester Iowa fish hatchery mid morning. Armed with fly’s, flyrods, and assorted fly fishing gear we started out to fool these dandy trout. The water was crystal clear and the trout were very spooky. You could walk up to the waters edge and any where you looked you spotted Rainbows, Browns, and Brook trout.

I started the day by sliding down a wall and slowly entering the creek. I threw my flies up towards a shallow fast running area that ran into a deeper pool. I started out with a San Juan worm / Gold Ribbed Hares Ear combo. Hooked into one fish pretty quickly, but he jumped off. Hooked into another and managed to land him. A beautiful Rainbow trout. I landed him with the net, removed the fly quickly, barbs had been pinched down to aid in the release, took a quick pick and off he went. Again the water was crystal clear so I had no problem seeing him move out of harms way…me…LOL.. I threw back into the same area and within moments saw my strike indicator disappear. I set the hook and WOW!! that fish took off like a ton of bricks. It was at least a 14 incher or better. He took off and took my flies with him.

We moved farther down stream to another very deep hole. This area here held quite a few fish. I retied my fly rod, and started throwing a Gold Ribbed Hares Ear / WD40 combo. I cast my fly combo into the upper part of the pool and let them both flow into the pool. There were a bunch of fish hanging both in the deeper pool and along the shallow sides. A few casts into the pool netted me a nice rainbow on the WD40 pattern. Made a few more casts and hooked into a nice brown trout, again on the WD40 pattern. Since I was having some success with the pattern and pool, I handed over the fly rod and introduced fly fishing to Jen. Though the casting technique needs some help, she still managed to put the fly in the right area. Several missed hook sets,and a DNR license check, she set the hook on a very nice rainbow trout.

We explored other areas of Big Spring creek, moved to a camp ground for lunch, fished there as well. We didn’t have any luck at all in the camp ground area, so moved back to the hatchery part of the stream. This is designated as artificial flys and lures only which makes this a bit of a better fishery. There are a lot of small fish in the hatchery part of the creek, but there are quite a few that will easily exceed the 14 inch minimum to keep. When we got back to the hatchery area we went back to the “honey” hole and made a few more casts. Jen managed to hook into another nice trout, this time though she landed a nice brook trout.
The day was drawing to a close and I waded up stream toward the parking area, hooked into a few more fish, landing only one. It was absolutely a perfect day for hitting the creek for trout. Next trip will have to take me farther north for some bigger fish. Good fishing and tight lines all!