Second Half of September 2018

Locally, we've been pounded by rain this September, and it continues.  Reservoirs and rivers are very high.  As in...Saylorville Lake is currently 32 feet ABOVE NORMAL POOL.  Pretty unusual for this late in the season.  And the Des Moines River below Saylorville is flowing at 17,000 CFS, when typically at this time of year it flows around 1,000 CFS.

At least the local ponds remain fishable.  And the cooler weather we've been having seems to be killing off the algae blooms.  There still are some, but much less than, say, a month ago.

This is a chunky 28" Channel Catfish that hit a flyrod bass popper.  Estimated weight of 10.6 lbs.  Great surprise, fun battle!

Caught a smaller catfish and a carp during a flyfishing lunch hour:

For bass, I've tried mainly flyrod bass poppers and subsurface Gamechangers.  Both have caught fish, but the bass seem to be responding to the topwaters better at the moment.  The largest bass recently have been an 18" and a 17" fish:

I've been tying up more Gamechangers...I'm getting better results as I gain experience.

I had a bit of excitement recently... I was bringing in a small 11" bass, when a huge fish tried catching it.  I'm guessing it was a BIG bass.  I tried throwing on a bigger Gamechanger that looked like the bass, but did not get any strikes on it.