Pond Fishing In Iowa

Spent this last weekend fishing with my best fishing partner.. my 9 year old son. I live in a small town near Des Moines and have access to a couple of ponds in the area. This past Saturday my son and I decided we’d try to go out and ice a few fish despite the cool temps. We arrived out at the Izaak Walton League pond around 2:30 Saturday afternoon. Santa had brought my son a new BB gun and he wanted to take some shots with it. Well he did, but that lasted all of about 20 min or so due to the -4 temps we were standing in. So he quickly volunteered to head out to the ice so Dad could set up the ice house and get the heat going.

We walked on out and started searching for a place to drill some holes. I took along a bottle of water so I could shoot the Vex through the ice to get an idea of depth and possible fish. Checked one area that was about 9 foot of water, but my son backed up to another spot and hollers “Dad, lets check here”! So I do and bingo!! He actually found a spot with some suspended fish. So I drill the holes with the good ole hand auger ..UGH!! (I’m saving for a power auger..LOL).. set up the ice shack, turn on the heat and start fishing. We dropped our baits down and instantly had a fish on.

It was fast and furious there for about two hours. I’d drop the bait down and wham! another fish on. It was great because the fishing was fast and the fish cooperative. I had tied on a glow rat finkee and above that I had on a fire tiger gill pill. For the most part the rat finkee was by far the best producer for the day. Even if my Vex was not showing any fish, as soon as I dropped that bait down the hole, within six feet of the ice the fish would come swooping in. It was great to see some of the fish shoot up too. I was hoping we’d get into a bunch of crappie, but for the most part it was a bluegill kinda day.

I had punched two holes in the ice and had wanted to get another rod set up and a bait down the hole. I first tried a fire tiger Pilkie tipped with a wax worm, but that didn’t produce anything. So I grabbed a third rod that I had with that was already set up with a Swedish Pimple. I slipped on one of the new Berkley Alive minnow heads and dropped it down. I actually had some pretty good hits right away. On a second trip out on my own, I managed a very nice bass on this setup. It was a blast. As my son was watching the first rod we were using I set the hook on yet another fish on the Swedish Pimple. Up comes a nice war mouth blue gill. At least that’s what I call em..LOL.. All in all it was a great day do be on the ice with my son. We stayed warm and the fishing was fantastic. We only fished for about two and half hours then packed it up and went on home. According to my sons count we ended the day with 35 fish! This one is definitely one for the memories.. Tight Lines All!!