NE Iowa Trout Fishing, August 9-10, 2016

My buddy Jay and I flyfished 3 streams in NE Iowa this week....Coldwater, Trout Run, and North Bear.

It was very warm, humid, and no breeze.  I felt plagued with many missed strikes I could see, or hooked fish shaking free before I could land them...and fish that just didn't want anything to do with me.  Lots of follows and refusals.  Big fish getting away time and again.  I found it very interesting that once a trout scrutinized the fly, they seemed to have their mind made up, and wouldn't even pay it any attention afterwards.  But, it seems to be short-term memory.  You could go back in an hour and catch that fish.  Silly trouts!  

Bald-Faced Hornet nest...it was about chest high, we almost walked right into it!  I slide my cell phone under it and snapped a picture...pretty cool!

Flyfishing for Topwater Bass, 8-2-2016

Last night was a very good night, flyfishing for topwater bass.

19"

19" Largemouth Bass

18"

18" Largemouth Bass

17"

And plenty of nice "smaller" ones like this:

Central Iowa Smallmouth Bass Flyfishing 7-30-2016

I flyfished a nearby small river on Saturday from 10:30am-3:30pm.  Water level is low...Gauge Height of 2.65' and Flow Rate of only 22 cfs.  Made for nice, easy wading!

I already had a chartruese microjig on the line, so started with that and caught a Creek Chub, several Largemouth Bass, Bluegills, Green Sunfish, and smaller Smallmouth Bass.

I had tied up one yellow Blockhead Popper the previous evening, specifically for this trip, although I had others with me as well.  My plan was to use the Popper as much as possible to hopefully select for larger bass.  I switched to standard and marabou Clouser Deep Minnows a couple times, but stuck with the popper most of the time.  It paid off!

I had fished my way 1/2 back to the car, and had only caught smaller fish...no bass over 12".  Then I caught a 13-incher, and thought THAT might be the biggest fish of the day.

I found a "honey hole", and caught 3 NICE Smallies out of it and some others as well.  The 3 biggest were 16.5", 18.5", and 16" (caught in that order).  All on the Blockhead Popper.

16.5"

18.5" (new Fly Rod Personal Best for me!):

Smallmouth Bass

Smallmouth Bass

16":

And here's some others I didn't measure, but were nice, colorful fish:

Smallmouth Bass

Just downstream of the "honey hole", another LARGE Smallmouth attacked my popper, and my line broke on the hookset.  I felt bad...it jumped twice over the next 10 minutes trying to throw the fly.  NICE fish.  All in all.... a very fun day!