Iowa Urban Trout, Fall 2015

The Iowa DNR seasonally stocks trout in (currently) 17 lakes scattered across Iowa each early Spring and Fall.  The idea is to provide a put-and-take trout fishery in parts of the state where anglers might not otherwise have an opportunity to catch trout close to home.  Increased trout license sales pretty much pays for this program, which is really awesome!

There is no comparison or replacement to fishing NE Iowa's Driftless Region coldwater streams for trout.  But I do enjoy flyfishing these lakes for trout as well, and this situation poses its own unique set of challenges.

Finding the fish is always the most important key to a successful outing.  The saying "90% of the fish are in 10% of the water" seems to hold true.  Once found, you gotta present them a fly they will try to eat.

The best fly seems to change over time.  Trout have teeth and will shred a fly over time, so easy-to-tie patterns get my vote.  Year after year Woolly Buggers in various colors have caught more of these freshly-stocked trout than anything else.  #10-#8 Woolly Buggers seem the perfect size.  Depending on the depth the fish are feeding in, I tie some unweighted, some with glass beadheads, and some with brass and tungsten beadheads.  Best colors often include Gold, "Chili Pepper"(copper-colored), black, white, brown and olive.  The gold and copper ones are flashier, and seem to get the most attention from the fish.

I flyfished one of the Urban Trout lakes 3 days so far this season, and caught 34, 39, and 64 trout, respectively.  Weather conditions covered the spectrum from "good", to "super-windy", to "rain".  You never know what you'll get, you just gotta keep fishing!

Before the Storm

We'd had "nice" weather for the past couple of weeks.  That meant any snow on the ground had long since melted, and the ice on the local lakes/ponds was deteriorating, and I decided to be safe rather than sorry by not fishing.

But, Saturday was the last day of January, 2015.  The DNR was to have stocked a nearby lake with trout earlier in the week, and it was bugging me knowing they were there and I hadn't yet paid them a visit.

I sent text messages to a couple guys I thought might have taken a recent look at that lake.  I was in luck!  One was out there when I sent the text message!  Ice conditions were OK...around 6" thick.  Nobody catching much, unfortunately.

So, I threw my icefishing gear in the vehicle and headed for the lake.

There were a lot of people there, considering the conditions.  It was overcast, 35 degrees F, and drizzling.  The drizzle made the surface of the ice rather slippery.  Apparently there was some open water in one corner of the lake, and a flyfisherman was making me jealous as I watched him casting.  I didn't watch him long enough to know if he caught anything, but he was there for awhile so hopefully he did well.

I ice-fished for 3 hours, didn't see much, other than a couple 12" long rainbow trout that decided to make my day while I was sightfishing the shallower water.

So, not a lot to show for the effort, but it was nice to get out fishing again and catch SOMETHING.

Later that afternoon, the drizzle turned to snow, and it was AMAZING how fast that little bit of precipitation accumulated into 14" of fresh damp snow!

The smaller ponds had extremely questionable ice on them before the rain/snow.  Snow on bad ice can insulate it, preventing it from forming more good ice, even if air temps are conducive to ice production.  Hopefully we'll soon get either better ice, or the ice will disappear, so I can keep fishing!  :)

Lake Petocka, evening 4-24-2014

4-24-2014
Lake Petocka
Cloudy, 10 mph wind from NNW
Time fished: 6pm-9pm
Fish sought:  Brooder trout!
Fish caught: 8 Rainbow Trout, 2 Smallmouth Bass

I definitely SAW a lot more fish than I caught.  The action was not fast by any means....it was some work, but fun.  I used my switch rod, which allowed me to reach fish much further away than I would have been able to reach with my regular fly rod.

Plenty of surface activity.  I couldn't buy a fish on topwater, though.

I tried a lot of flies, and only caught fish on two of them....an unweighted black woolly bugger, and a Chili Pepper with a small beadhead.   Maybe I should have tried the Chili Pepper earlier in the evening.  I put in on just before dark, and caught 2 Smallmouth Bass on it about 20' from shore, and 2 trout on some long casts towards the middle of the lake.

Its fairly rare to catch a smallmouth bass in this lake, its rather bizarre that I caught 2 in the same evening.

At one point, I brought one fly right in front of me, watched a trout swim up from underneath, inspect it, refuse it, and swim away.  They CAN be finicky.

One of the last trout I caught was a pretty nice one and really chunky.  It was so dark, I didn't bother measuring or trying to photograph it.

LOVED that sunset last night!

First Open-Water Flyfishing Trip of 2014!!

While en return route from my family's Spring Break trip (a post or two on that will be forthcoming), my friend Dale G. sent me a text that he had fished Lake Petocka earlier that day.  It had some open water (still had a lot of ice on it, though), and that he'd caught 48 trout while flyfishing!

I had planned to check it out once I returned to Iowa, but now I KNEW it was ready for fishing!
I was excited.

So, I headed for Lake Petocka the very next day, fly rod in hand.  Long story short, I didn't do nearly as well as Dale had.   I can only speculate on the reasons.  In the first 3 hours of fishing the NW corner, I had only caught 3 trout.  I headed down along the shore, and picked up another before I ran into the NE corner of the lake.  Here I found a small concentration of fish, and fairly quickly caught 15 more trout, all on beadhead Woolly Buggers.  White ones and gold ones worked best for me this day.

Fished the entire length of the west side and didn't catch any more fish.

Here's some pics:

And next is the first video I've shot with my GoPro camera.  I'm still learning how to use it and edit videos...So hopefully they will get better as time goes on.  Anyway, you can see the ice sheet on the lake in the background.  Hopefully this works!

Stocker Trout, Fall 2013

Its that time of year when the DNR stocks trout in a handful of lakes across Iowa, as part of their Urban Trout Fishing program.  
On Sunday afternoon, I visited one of the lakes that were stocked on the preceding Friday.  The lake is 22 acres in size.  I wasn't there on stocking day, so I don't know the exact number, but typically they stock 1,500-1,800 trout at a time here.   I fished for quite awhile before I found a few fish.  The ones I found seemed to be "loners", not grouped up like they sometimes are.  I caught 13 while flyfishing, and lost a nice bass around dusk.  The bass jumped 3 times, dove, and then the hook pulled free near shore when I attempted to horse it in order to land it.

I took Monday off work to flyfish it again.  This time I found more fish, or maybe they just hit better in the mornings?  I caught 30 in the first hour before it slowed down.  It was slow but relatively steady fishing the rest of the day.  I ended up catching 107 trout, and 1 smallmouth bass.  That was way better than the day before!  Now, yes, that's a lot of fish.  My previous best was 88 fly-caught trout in a day, and a friend of mine had caught 42 while flyfishing on Sunday morning.  First, I hoped to beat his number, then I wanted to beat my old number, and then I was so close to 100 that I just had to keep going....

I had skipped lunch (it was in my car, I just didn't want to take a break to walk over and "refuel"!, plus it was cold...(started out at 35 degrees F, but eventually climbed to 48 degrees), windy, and I was standing calf deep in the water all day wearing some hip waders.  When I got done...I suddenly discovered I couldn't feel one foot.  My back was sore.  By the time I got home, I could barely stay awake.  I WAS BEAT...happy and satisfied...but BEAT!  And...I think I burnt myself out.  I wasn't that excited to go the next day, so I didn't.

I'm wondering if I should have left sooner...but what would you do?  The fish were biting, and there was nowhere else I needed to be.  Catching fish has always been my favorite way to pass the time.

First Trout of 2013

I was trying to decide where to flyfish last night.  I decided to try a nearby lake that had been stocked with trout in January.  I never know what to expect at this lake.  It can be tough.

I fished from shore from about 6:15pm until 8pm.  When I arrived, it was sunny, 57 degrees, with a 10mph wind from the North.  I fished a short section of the SW and South shorelines, where the waves were pushing into shore.  The water was clear and high.  I gave my Cabela's Hip Waders their maiden voyage.  But, once I stepped off the shallow rocks along the shoreline, I was sinking into the soft sand-covered clay bottom, so I just stayed on shore.  I was also using my new 9' 6wt TFO BVK rod, and Lamson Konic reel loaded with an Airflo 40+ line.  That line casts really well, even into the wind!

I started out using a heavily weighted Chili Pepper pattern.  I saw a couple small swirls down along the shore and tossed it that way.  First trout of the year was a TINY little fella...The DNR doesn't stock them this small, typically, so I was wondering if there was some natural reproduction going on in this lake?  Maybe...maybe not.

I made some casts towards deeper water, but wasn't getting the strikes I was hoping for.  So, I switched to an unweighted black Woolly Bugger.  I tossed that around in shallow water.  I ended up landing a total of 12 Rainbow Trout, and had a few others come unbuttoned.  Almost all the trout I caught came within about 3' of shore.  I pulled at least 6 or 7 trout out of one small area.  At first I thought maybe there was a slightly deeper hole there caused by wave action that was pounding a shoreline feature.  Later, I walked over and looked.  Nada.  It looked just the same as everywhere else, so I can't explain why I caught so many fish from that spot.  Must have just been my lucky night.

Trout #2 was bigger than #1.

And a bit later, I liked all the spots on this nicer fish:

As the light faded from the sky, the wind died down, and the lake surface smoothed out somewhat.  I could see fish hitting small bugs on the surface.  I cast to some of these areas with that Woolly Bugger, and got a couple follows, but no strikes.

There was a gentleman fishing not too far away from me.  He was using spinning/casting gear.  It looked like he tossed some lures, but mostly was sitting motionless, so I assume he was fishing some sort of bait.  I didn't see him catch anything...but I was pretty intent on catching my own fish to pay close attention.

How to Catch Stocker Trout - 2012 Iowa Urban Trout Program

I don’t like spending precious fishing time driving to far-off destinations, so I tend to fish very close to home.  There are very nice streams in NE Iowa where anglers can fish for trout.  Unfortunately, many of those streams are a three-plus hour drive from Des Moines!

The Iowa DNR implemented the Urban Trout Program, and has been expanding this program, which is designed to bring trout fishing closer to anglers across Iowa.  The increase in sales of the Iowa Trout license funds the cost of this program.  Not only does the program introduce anglers to catching trout, it also sparks Iowa tourism by getting anglers interested in making the drive to experience the trout fishing in NE Iowa’s streams.  Since the Urban Trout Program is designed as a “put-and-take” and seasonal fishery, anglers are encouraged to keep their limit of up to five trout for a tasty meal.

It’s practically a year-round opportunity.  In certain lakes, at least some of the trout are actually able to survive even the hottest summers, like we just experienced in 2012.  With the Fall and Winter stockings, anglers are able to ice-fish for trout, provided there is safe ice on the lake.

I fished three different Iowa Urban Trout Program lakes in 2012: Banner Pits in Summerset State Park, Lake Petocka, and Ada Hayden Lake.

I made it out once in late January to ice-fish a nearby lake for trout.  It wasn’t a Stocking Day.  Fishing was tough!  Very few other anglers were finding/catching fish, so it wasn’t a case of fishing like/near the successful anglers.  I did manage to land a couple of trout, however.

In past years, I have ice-fished these trout on Stocking Day, and have often done extremely well.  In one freakish instance back in February of 2008, I landed 115 Rainbow Trout in 5.5 hours of ice-fishing.  Crazy! That day was so crazy, that for awhile two friends and I were all standing around and fishing out of one 8” diameter ice hole at the same time, and all catching fish.  We fished holes just a couple feet away from this particular whole, and wouldn’t catch anything.  Yes, we were laughing at ourselves while this ridiculous scenario was playing out, and enjoying every minute!  It was a similar experience in January of 2007, when I landed 88 Rainbow Trout through the ice in 5.25 hours of fishing.  On each of those days, I just shook a small Reef Runner Cicada about 18” below the ice.  The trout would come in and hammer the lure repeatedly…coming back again and again if they didn’t get hooked!

This year, open water arrived early in central Iowa.  I was fishing open water during the last week of February.  During the first week of March, I flyfished for trout at a central Iowa lake a couple of times during my lunch hour.  With the driving time to get to the lake and back, I was left with about 20 minutes to fish.  Using sinking fly patterns, I caught (and released) five Rainbow Trout each time.

I flyfished for trout a few more times through March and April.  April 21^st was my last brief trip to an Urban Trout Program Lake before the Spring heat arrived, and I did catch a trout that evening on flyfishing gear.

On October 19^th, Banner Pits was the first lake in the area to get a Fall stocking of trout.  Using a couple different fly patterns, I caught 21 Rainbow Trout on Stocking Day.  (I’ll talk about fly patterns later.)

My next trip to Banner was not until 9 days later.  I caught a bass, a crappie and a bluegill, but no trout.  I did have one trout follow my fly, and another actually hit it, but shook free almost immediately.  After talking with several people, only one had caught a single trout that day.  One guy had located hundreds of trout in one area, and threw everything he could think of at them, but couldn’t get them to strike.  Hey, it happens!

The next lake to receive trout this Fall was Lake Petocka on November 1.  I flyfished it on Stocking Day for a couple hours.  I caught/released 5 trout and a bass, but fishing (catching) was extremely slow for everyone.

I continued to flyfish at Lake Petocka occasionally thru December 1.  I had some excellent days flyfishing there, catching 64 Rainbow Trout in 6 hours of fishing one day, and then catching 78 Rainbow Trout in 4 hours a couple days later.  Trips like those are outstanding…and not typical by any means. I had a few other days with shorter fishing trips, and fewer fish caught.  In that first week following the stocking, I had caught 10% of the 1,500 trout that had been stocked.  And within one month following the stocking, I had caught a total of an even 200 Rainbow Trout there, or 13.33% of the stocked fish.  Not too shabby for 9 fishing trips!

Ada Hayden Lake was stocked on Nov. 20, and it was an interesting experience.  I flyfished it on Stocking Day.  One DNR employee I talked to said he counted 95 anglers there at the time the fish were put in the lake.  It was crowded!  I caught and released 5 trout fairly quickly, but then the crowd got under my skin and I decided to call it a day (part of the reason was that I had already caught 22 trout at Lake Petocka earlier that same day, and I was worn out!).

A buddy and I flyfished Ada Hayden once more on the day after the Fall trout stocking.  It was extremely windy.  We thought the trout would be along the north shoreline where the wind was blowing in.  Casting into that wind was tough, and we didn’t see anyone catching any trout.  We walked 4/5 of the way around the lake before we finally found any trout.  It was apparently the mother lode!  We fished those pods of trout along with several other anglers.  In the next couple of hours, my buddy and I caught/released a total of 112 Rainbow Trout between the two of us!

What works for catching these “stocker trout” at the Urban Trout Program lakes?  Anglers using live bait or prepared baits can catch trout on live minnows, nightcrawlers, canned corn, marshmallows, salmon eggs, and artificial scented baits such as some Berkley products developed for trout.  Bottom fishing can work, but suspending the bait under a bobber keeps it up where more trout are likely to see it.  Anglers casting lures can catch trout by retrieving small jigs tipped with plastics, small in-line spinners such as Mepps or Panther Martins, and small Kastmaster spoons.

I have tried most of those lures and baits, and caught some trout on them.  Anglers tossing artificial subsurface fly patterns with fly rods usually out-catch the other fishing methods by a substantial margin.  I’ve personally switched to fly-fishing for these trout, and have seen my success rate soar during the open-water season.

Different days see some fly patterns working better than others.  The most consistent pattern is a Woolly Bugger, in about a size 8 or 10.  Those that have a beadhead for weight are more versatile, but some days unweighted ones are useful if the fish are in the shallows.  Total length of the fly at about 1.5” seems to be an effective size.  Feel free to experiment.  This fly pattern can be bought or tied in a wide variety of colors.  Darker colors seem to work best the majority of the time, but some days the fish want white.

 Another color scheme that worked really well for me this Fall is called a “Chili Pepper”, and is made with a lot of flashy copper-colored materials.

Another idea to keep in mind when choosing fly patterns to use for these “stocker trout” is that they have been raised in a hatchery on pelleted food.  So, it stands to reason they will want to try to eat a fly that looks to be close to the color or size of a trout food pellet.  I tied up a pattern like those in the picture below, and some days have done well on them, either retrieved or suspended under and indicator (and indicator is a fly-fisherman’s version of a bobber).

At every lake I visited, each day the biggest challenge was to locate the fish.  Once located, they could usually be tempted to strike.  Wind and waves sometimes made it difficult to detect, but watching the surface of the water and looking for trout to give their location away by swirling or jumping at the surface of the lake is a good way to discover their location.  Another good rule of thumb is to fish the downwind shore of the lake.  This rule isn’t 100% accurate…but pretty close.  Some days the fish were out away from shore, other days they were cruising the shallows just a few feet from the shoreline.  Sometimes you can see pods of trout near the surface.  If these are within casting distance, you are in for some excellent action!  Try to pick off fish from the edges of the pod to avoid spooking them.  Other times, looser and smaller groups of fish can be seen cruising along the edge of the first dropoff near shore.  Cast ahead of their direction of travel and bring the fly/lure across in front of their path.  Trout are aggressive when they strike, there is no doubt when you have a fish on the line.

Fishing the Urban Trout Program is a great time!  Plus, fishing for trout extends the fishing season, since these fish stay active in colder water when most of our warmwater species are fishing much slower due to the colder seasons.  Get out there and have fun!

Flyfishing in December...in central Iowa!!!

It isn't often we get to flyfish in December, here in central Iowa!  I flyfished a nearby lake from Noon to 4:30pm on Saturday, December 1.  Action was very slow.

The ones that did strike were still very aggressive about it and fought well.  I managed to land 12 Rainbow Trout.  A guy using spinning gear stopped to talk for a bit... Said he'd caught 6. I didn't see any of those get caught, however.  He was interested in my flyfishing, and said he'd bought a fly rod, but was sort of intimidated by it.  He thought he might bring out the next day and give it a try.

I tried a lot of different flies, but kept coming back to the one that really worked... The "Chili Pepper".

Here's some pics:

This next one was bizarre, in that it was a really dark color, lots of purple.  Was this just a melanistic Rainbow Trout, or spawning colors, or....?  Ever seen one like this?

Flyfishing Report, 11/20 & 11/21/2012

11/20/2012


I took the day off work and fly fished Lake Petocka this morning.  22 Rainbows.  Now I've caught 12% of those trout.  

Many like this one were caught on a Chili Pepper fly pattern.

I left decent action there to fish the trout stocking at Ada Hayden at noon.  The DNR guy said he counted 95 anglers there!  It was chaos.  I was practically bumping elbows with people on both sides ( I was there first...they crowded me).  I caught 5 fairly quickly and decided it wasn't fun anymore, so I talked with the DNR guy for awhile.

Today's fishies put me over 3,000 fish for the year for the first time EVER!


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11/21/2012

I took the day off, and Dale had the day off as well, so we agreed to do some fly fishing for trout again.  I suggested we visit lake Petocka.

Dale arrived at 7am.  By the time I got there at 8am, Dale had already caught 8 Rainbows.  We gave up 2 hours later.  I had caught 7 trout(including 2 on my first 2 casts! This gives me 12.5% or 1/8 of the trout stocked here so far!).  Dale had not caught any more, and between us we had covered pretty much the entire perimeter of the lake.  The fish activity died.

I asked Dale if he wanted to try Ada Hayden lake.  He was game.  We got there and wind was howling out of the South, waves pounding the north shoreline.  We started fishing there.  A dozen others were also fishing there.  We saw one trout caught.  We started walking/ fishing our way around the north lake in a counterclockwise direction.  At the halfway point, we hadn't caught a single fish....and Dale brought out the venison sticks and cherry Cokes.  That really hit the spot!

Re-energized, we continued our circuit of the lake.  At about the 4/5ths point, we finally found trout.  Lots of them.  Dale got on a pod and immediately started catching fish.  I got off to a slower start.  Dale was the first to 10, and 20, and 30, and 40.  I caught and passed him at 43.  We finally called it quits at 3pm.  My final tally at Ada Hayden was 62 Rainbows, while Dale ended on 50.  What started out looking like a "skunk" ended up very satisfying.  Between us, we'd caught 5% of the stocked trout in about 2 hours!

Many times there would be 3, 4, or 5 anglers fishing the same pods of fish.  Dale and I with fly gear out-caught the spin fishermen by a very substantial margin.  Several of them mentioned that next time they weren't going to be leaving their fly rods at home!

While there, I heard interesting stories of some good Wiper fishing at Ada Hayden this past summer.

This was the sunrise looking out my front door on 11/24/2012.

Build-up for Trout, Oct. 19-20,2012

The DNR would be stocking trout in Banner Pits on Friday.  I got the day off from work.

In preparation, I decided to fly-fish Lake Petocka on Thursday evening for some "legacy trout" that may have survived the Summer.  It was cold miserable drizzly conditions, but I dressed for it.  I tried two spots.  I saw a fish dart away from shore at the first spot.  Not sure what it was.  At the second spot I landed 2 chunky Largemouth Bass.  Then it was too dark to bother, so I went home.

I finished tying up some flies I hoped the trout might be interested in the next day.

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Friday was again cool, breezy and with a light drizzle off and on throughout the day.

Since the trout wouldn't be stocked until noon, I decided to occupy my morning with a goal of catching 100 fish before I headed to Banner Pits to fish for trout.

I visited a local public pond where I had caught 58 fish during my lunch hour on Thursday.  Fish weren't quite as easy to catch on Friday morning.  I only caught 77 fish on micro jigs before I had to leave for Banner Pits.  That total included an even 50 Crappies, 13 Bluegills, 12 Green Sunfish, one Largemouth Bass, and one Yellow Perch. The fish were mostly small.  The biggest fish were a 10" Crappie and an 11.75" Crappie.  I also lost another really nice Crappie that managed to throw the hook.

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By the time I got to Banner Pits, the stocking truck was about halfway done dumping the trout into the lake.  The shoreline was crowded.  I picked a spot next to the stocking truck simply because it was the only open space...and it afforded me room to fly cast.

I tried several different fly patterns, and found a few the fish liked.  I was soon catching fish.  In the next two hours I landed and released 21 Rainbow Trout.

Compared with those anglers around me, I am happy to report that flies outfished PowerBait, live minnows, and nightcrawlers.  I could have fished longer...but I felt like I had fished enough for the moment.
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On the way home, I tallied my fish total for the day.  98.  So close to 100, it would be a shame to waste that opportunity.  I realized I would need to fish one more spot to catch enough fish to push me over  triple digits.  It was time for the schools to be letting out for the day.  I had to take my kids to piano lessons, which lasts an hour, so I decided to wait and fish after I had dropped them off.

I fly fished a public pond I often just drive by.  It was still gloomy and drizzling.  I donned my rainwear and headed for the water, fly rod in hand.  Fishing was slow here.  Using a microjig under an indicator, I squeaked out 7 Bluegills, 5 Green Sunfish, and 2 tiny Largemouth Bass.  By tiny, I mean like 2" young-of-the-year Bass!

So, those 14 fish put my total for the day at 112 fish and 6 species.  Satisfied.