Fishing Report for the 2nd Weekend of September, 2012

Saturday was the Iowa State University / University of Iowa football game.  I don't currently have cable TV, so I went fishing.

I decided to wade and flyfish the Des Moines River south of the Sycamore Bridge.  Actually, first I tried wading across from the washout cut below Saylorville Spillway.  Despite the extremely low water, I ended up in water much deeper than I had plannned or expected to find.  I did't catch anything, so I didn't stay there long and soon drove to a spot that would allow me to access the river further downstream.  There were some interesting-looking stretches of water, but I wasn't having much success.  I switched from a shad pattern to a black crayfish-type pattern and caught a small Wiper:

A fair distance downstream, I found a spot with decent depth, rocks, and slower current.  I put on a nymph pattern, dropped it down near shore, and soon caught 4 more fish...a Green Sunfish, a Crappie, a Largemouth Bass, and a Smallmouth Bass:

I found a pool that apparently had some Freshwater Drum in it.  I could hear them, but couldn't see them.  Didn't catch anything there, but had a few large fish follow my flies there.  Despite the SLOW fishing, it was interesting to catch 5 species of fish.

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Sunday morning, temps were in the mid- to upper- 40's (F), and I (probably VERY prematurely) hoped maybe there were some remnant trout in a nearby lake that might have survived the summer heat AND might be attracted to the cooling waters along the shorelines.  I expected to maybe be the only person fishing at this lake so early on a Sunday morning.

Wrong.  There were plenty of people there.  Not fishing, but in the hour I was there, more people continued to arrive and walk around the lake.  Apparently there was to be a Triathlon event here starting at 10am, and participants were required to be there EXTRA early.  A canoe was on the water placing floating markers for the swimming portion, folks were walking their bikes from the parking lot to the roped-off area where they were to be stored until needed, and a rescue boat was launched to be ready for emergency situations that arose on the water.  In short, BUSY place!  So much for peace and quiet.

There was a reasonable amount of surface activity when I arrived, but that diminished with all the activity in/around the lake.  The activity COULD have been Trout....some could have been White Bass, some could have been Largemouth Bass.  I tossed flies most of the time, and scored one Largemouth Bass.  In an attempt to reach some activity further away, I eventually traded the fly rod for a spinning rod, but didn't hook up with any fish, although I felt a couple decent "bumps".   I couldn't take the "hubbub" of activity around the pond, so left after just an hour of fishing.

I decided to try a public pond closer to home, and flyfished there for awhile.  For such an early hour on a Sunday, I was again disappointed at all the activity around the pond.  LOTS of families with young kids walking around the pond, feeding ducks near me, etc etc.  It isn't fun to constantly be looking over my shoulder when casting to make sure there aren't people behind me!  I caught a couple Largemouth Bass, 2 Crappies, and around 8 Bluegills.  I really wasn't enjoying it much, so I left.