Wading for Smallmouth Bass in Central Iowa, 6-25-2016

The water level and flows of a nearby Smallmouth Bass stream looked good.  A couple guys I know kayaked the stream t he previous weekend.  With rain in the forecast, I figured the sooner I could get there, the better.  So, Saturday morning I waded into the stream @ 8am and fished until 1pm.  As expected the river was about perfect for wading.  There's a couple hard-to-pass deeper areas, and I just barely had to dunk my jewels there.  The water never reached my belt.

Saw a lot of these Ebony Jewelwing damselflies.

I landed @ 30 Smallies.  Only about 5 were decent fish 10"+, but really nothing very big.  Most were like this:

I did have two better Smallies on that fought like crazy.  One I saw, one I didn't.  Probably both would have been the biggest fish of the day.  Caught most of the fish on modified Pearl Shiners.  One was modified thus: tied on a #4 Mustad 90-degree jighead hook, with a lead or brass conehead for weight.  This kept the fly riding hook-point-up and relatively snag-free.

I also caught 3 Creek Chubs and 3 Striped Shiners.  One of the shiners was VERY big for a shiner, but I wasn't able to photograph it before it set itself free.