Evening Fly-Fishing, 5-15-2012

I fly-fished at Blue Heron Lake this evening (5-15-2012) from 7:15pm-8:30pm (1.25 hrs).

It was a bit windy, but warm.

I started out using a Blue Thunder streamer.  I cast near some large gizzard shad spawning in the shallows, and caught a crappie.  I moved along the shoreline until I neared another spot where shad were active against the shoreline.  There was a short section of a log in the shallows near shore.  Wind-generated currents had deepened the water around the log.  I made some casts around it, and ended up catching mostly crappies from one side of the log, and mostly yellow bass from the other side of the log.  I did accidentally snag a large (10") shad there.

I switched to a silver Springbrook Wunder microjig and caught another yellow bass and crappie before deciding to move on.  I moved down to a spot where the shad were splashing on a small point that had current blowing across it, parallel to shore.  There was sort of a current line there, so I cast beyond the shad a ways, and started working the microjig in.  I caught a crappie, then a bluegill, then a catfish!  It may have been one of the smallest channel catfish I've caught on a fly rod, but it still put up a heckuva fight!  I continued moving along the shoreline.  I think I scared up some carp from the shallows, since I didn't see them before they saw me.  I caught some more crappies, bluegills, yellow bass, and a tiny largemouth bass.

Fish totals for the evening were:

3  Bluegills

1 LMB

15 Crappie

10 Yellow Bass

1 Channel Catfish

Here's the some of the fish...
Channel Catfish:

Yellow Bass:

Yellow Bass are sort of colorful.  They are a native fish to Iowa, often found in low numbers in rivers.  Unfortunately they don't get very big, and have a reputation for overpopulating and ruining lakes in Iowa, which then must usually be drained and refilled to get rid of them.  This lake is adjacent to a river, and the river regularly floods into this lake, so they are here to stay in this particular lake.  I hope the other fish species can thrive alongside the Yellow Bass.