Flyfishing Reports, mid-September 2012

Monday, September 17, 2012
I fly-fished a local public park during lunch.  I hadn't fished there since early Spring.  The water was lower than I've seen it for many years.  It was also muddier than I've seen it for a long time.  This could be from fall turnover, or from all the darn ducks and geese wading around in the shallows.

I flyfished shallows within a 2'-4' of shore.  I caught 14 small Crappies, 3 small Bluegills, and 2 small Green Sunfish.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012
I had an hour + around dusk with time to kill, so I headed to the pond where I recently had very briefly hooked a Grass Carp.  I saw at least one Grass carp, but got not interest in my flies this time.  Wasted most of the time fishing for Grassies.  During the rest of the time, I managed to catch a small Largemouth Bass and a trio of decent Bluegills.

There were several deer around the pond...or maybe it was just one deer that was moving around a lot?

Wednesday, September 19, 2012
I took the day off work and went fishing.  There was one place not far from home I considered fishing.  I drove by, but even though it was early on a weekday morning, there were already at least 3 cars there...and it isn't a big area to fish.  So, I just kept on driving.

I drove to fish Peterson Pits north of Ames, Iowa.  I'd NEVER been here before.  I followed another car into the parking area.  So much for fishing alone!  He was a nice guy who was going to be fishing from his kayak.  I told him I'd never been here before and asked what was in this pit.  He said he fished here often.  He fishes mostly with live minnows, occasionally with lures as well.  He said there were Largemouth Bass in the pit, a few Crappies and Catfish, and he'd heard of people occasionally catching a Freshwater Drum here too.  This particular pit is connected to the Skunk River...so anything in the river could also be in this pit.  That means Smallmouth Bass.  I asked him about those, and he'd said he had caught a couple of those over the years, but it was rare.

Well...here was a case of artificial lures and flies outfishing live bait.  I saw this fellow catch one Largemouth Bass, and one turtle.  I ended up catching 16 nice Bluegills (biggest ~ 8.5"), 10 Crappies (biggest ~ 10.5"), 13 Largemouth Bass (biggest ~ 13"), and 10 Smallmouth Bass (biggest ~ 12").

I didn't take any photos of the fish from the Pit.  I did see several Ospreys, and one flew over carrying a decent-sized fish that I think it caught from the nearby river.

I also briefly fished the Skunk River just downstream of the connection to the pit.  The river is extremely low...in fact it appears to be just algae-lined connected pools, with no detectable current.  But there were fish in them.  I managed to catch 4 more Smallmouth Bass, 2 Bluegills, and a tiny Largemouth Bass out of the river.  I had a lot more fish strike, but I wasn't able to set the hook in them.

The river Smallies had some good colors!

I saw what looked like a bit larger bass in the river, but didn't get them to strike.  Its concerning that if the river doesn't raise before Winter, the water will freeze and wipe out all the Smallmouth Bass in the river.  The DNR says the Smallmouth Bass in the a large section of the Skunk River over-winter in the deeper water of the Peterson Pits.  With the river so low, few will be able to return to the pit this year.

Anyway...it was fun and productive day of fishing at these 2 new spots (the Pit and River)!