Late March 2020

Air temperatures and waters remain cold.  But fish can be caught.  Mostly crappies, but also bluegills and a few bass.  Still mostly flyfishing a chartreuse microjig under an indicator for now.
19" Bass:

16" bass:

And the biggest crappies so far this month, caught by my buddy Jay...a 14" White Crappie:

Open Water in Central Iowa, March 2020

The local ponds here in central Iowa were still iced over as of March 1 & 2, 2020.  Then I spent March 3-5 in St. Louis, MO. Iowa had some warm weather and STRONG winds during that time...so by the time I got back on March 6, the ponds had opened up.  I grabbed the fly rod and hit a couple public city ponds on Saturday, March 7.

Pond #1:  I spent about 2.5 hours here.  Saw one 4" fish swim out of the shallows...that was the only live fish I saw the entire time.  Didn't catch anything, obviously.

Pond #2:  Spent about an hour here (had some evening dinner plans that sent me home).  Caught a lotta fish.  Mostly crappies, as well as a few bluegills, and a 17.5" bass.  Most fish were caught on a microjig about 18" below an indicator.  I also caught a few of the crappies on a Micro Gamechanger. 

These fish were surprisingly active for being in water that had been iced over just days before.
First open-water fish of the year:

2nd open-water fish of the year: