2-14-04
Today BFD and I tried an IA. lake that I did not even know existed until two weeks ago. I heard some good reports about this lake while picking up waxies at Iowa Outdoors in Waterloo. Then I heard the same report from a friend who heard about it in Mexico….no kidding…..I told BFD that if the word is out in Mexico we better check it out!
Belva Deer is a newer lake located just east of Sigourney IA. on HWY. 92. It has several acres of timber flooded with twenty feet of water. This flooded timber is where we found bluegills like the two BFD is holding in the picture. I would have had alot of great pictures….but camera batteries in a cold ice bucket don’t last long.
We caught about 35 gills in the 8 to 8.5" range and many more small ones. Bass from 10 to 13" made an absolute nuisance of themselves. The fish were caught primarily on green moonglow jigs with waxies. A vexilar is very helpfull here as we held our baits just above the brush,which rose from the bottom to about 16 feet. You just watch your screen for a fish to come up out of the brush and rise to the jig. Just that easy….most of the time. I’ll be trying this lake again, both on the ice and from the boat.
Awesome report guys !! No that sounds like fun !!
Brian, I have photos of a lot of the structure in the lake as it was starting to fill. Going to be a good one for years to come.
Sounds like you guys had it dialed in. Great report.
Any of those PESKY Crappie in this Lake?????
Jim;
A local fellow told us there are crappies in the lake,but he hadn’t caught any this winter. The bass population must really be high,judging from the number we caught and released. Some may have been bigger than 13″, but I didn’t tape any so I didn’t want to stretch it.
I would think with 20′ of water and flooded timber it would make a nice Crappie lake. Not that there is anything wrong with catching and eating Gils.