Evening Fishing Report, 8-7-2012

I went to the Marina Tower.   I did a drive-by on the road above the spot first, to see if there was anybody else fishing.  I didn’t see anybody.  When I got to the Prairie Flower Campground parking lot, there were 3 cars there.  My heart sank.  I walked down the trail anyway…2 older guys and a woman were fishing.  They were sitting in chairs with their backs to the tower, which is why I didn’t see them when I drove by.  They were fishing for cats.  That had 2 stringers loaded with NICE cats!!  By loaded….I should say there were probably around 7 or 8 on each stringer. 

I had a fly rod and 2 spinning rods with me.  Uncharacteristically, I didn't use the fly gear at all this night.  Since those folks were fishing around the “boil” area, I stayed near the point on the south side of that area and fancast with a Cicada or Mepps.  Caught one nice 15” White Bass and a small Freshwater Drum.

Another fellow came down to catfish and set up just west of me.  Nice guy.

The first 3 picked up their stuff to leave, so I picked up my stuff to claim their spot.  The last guy moved in a bit, and I waved him over, told him I’d split the “boil” with him.  Shad were THICK, stuff what smacking them on the surface all night, but I couldn’t really say for sure WHAT was smacking them.

I cast around, fished high and low.  Nothing.   I lost 2 or 3 lures.

Then I started vertical jigging spoons, hair jigs, or 3” Ripple Shad jigs along the wall in front of me.  Lost the hair jig in a really big fish…catfish I’m pretty sure.  Broke the Nanofil line about 5 seconds into the fight.

Caught a 24” Mirror Carp…it swallowed the Ripple Shad.

Next, I hooked a big fish, but it was snagged just under the tail.  Long long fight, with me running along the shorelines trying to get back some of the line it had peeled out.  31.5” Carp.  2^nd biggest one I’ve ever caught!  ½” away from a Master Angler fish…DANG!

It was getting dark, and there were lightning flashes.  I hooked another good fish that again sent me running along the shoreline trying to find a good spot to land it.  This one was a FAT 25” Channel Catfish.  Its head and body were so big, I was really thinking it would be close to 30” (Master Angler size)…but it wasn’t.

Although this fish was a good fighter, it was clear the fish that broke my line was MUCH bigger.

Fly-Fishing Lessons Learned in 2011

I try to do this after each year, in hopes that I will remember SOME of what I thought I learned from each year's fishing adventures.

Here's some of the things I learned:

-Stream Trout.  I had never fly-fished for stream trout before.  I discovered that I really enjoy it.  Too bad the nearest trout streams are a 3-4 hour drive away, and there is so many other good places to catch fish that are much much closer.  Anyway, I learned at least one way to catch these fish.  I used a large nymph pattern and an indicator.  I fished pools, deeper slicks, and bank hides.  I look forward to doing this again in the future, and start exploring more streams.

-Carp Riddle Solved.  One behavior of local river carp that had perplexed a handful of local fly-anglers is when carp will line up along the shoreline or current break just beneath the surface.  They often appear to be snacking on nothing, or maybe the foam that is floating on the surface.  A variety of techniques were unsuccessfully tried on these fish.  I decided to try fishing a nymph extremely shallow beneath an indicator to these fish.  The belief was that the indicator would scare the fish away.  Carp are pretty smart and wily, after all.  Turns out it worked just fine.  I'd fish the nymph just 8" to 18" beneath the indicator.  I tried a variety of wet fly patterns, and all worked.  I used a Thingamabobber, which is translucent like the foam on the water.  After losing several fish to lines that broke at the Thingamabobber, I've decided to try a different style of indicator.  I'm certain it will still work.

-Channel Catfish/Bread  Connection.  While attempting to improve my success with flyfishing for Grass Carp, I discovered that chumming with bread in the local ponds during the summer can be effective in bringing the catfish to you.  Once they are nearby and feeding, you can often (but not always) be successful in enticing the catfish to hit artificial "bread flies" or white streamers.

-Channel Catfish and Streamers.  I discovered that the "Jumpin' Catfish Nymph" works for catfish.  I also learned that white streamers are very effective for Channel Catfish.  I used white hair streamers in two situations...the "bread" situation in ponds that I discussed above...and when the catfish are chasing shad in a large local reservoir.  I can't say it was the MOST effective method of catching these fish, but it DID catch some, and it was F-U-N!!!

-Walleye on Flies.  Catching a walleye on flies was a goal of mine this year.  I figured my best chance was during our fishing trip to Canada in the late Spring.  Before I could get there, I "lucked" into one in Iowa while fishing a lake for sunfish from my kayak.  I did end up catching something like 5 or 6 on flies while in Canada, both nymphs and streamers.  And then I caught another one in a local river here in Iowa in the late Fall.  How cool!

-Smallmouth on Poppers.  I FINALLY tried fly-fishing a central Iowa stream for smallmouth bass.  I'd caught smallies on fly gear before on a stream in Illinois, but hadn't really tried it since moving back to Iowa.  So I went, during the middle of the afternoon of the hottest week of the summer, and the river level was about as low as it gets.  I tried Clousers, nymphs and streamers.  I worked at it pretty hard and landed a couple of fish, but it was TOUGH.  I decided to try a popper.  First cast had barely hit the water before I had a fish hooked.  It worked really well, and I caught several more fish on it. And of course watching fish crush topwaters is always exciting!

-Stocker Trout.  Weeks after the trout had been stocked in a local lake, typically the trout get hard to catch.  I took a day off work and tried to see what I could get to bite.  I had solicited suggestions on my favorite fly-fishing website.  One suggestion was to try the "Blue Thunder" streamer.  I tried a few other patterns first with less than satisfactory results, then tried this streamer.  It worked GREAT!  I've used it a few times since, and it can be hit-or-miss...but it is certainly worth trying, and plus its a fairly easy and good-looking streamer to tie.

I also caught my first stocker Brook Trout, and learned that I REALLY like these fish!  Its not that they are much different than catching a rainbow trout...but they are a Char, rather than a trout, historically native to Iowa, and such a colorful fish.

Grass Carp? Catfish!

My friend Ben and I ventured out this evening to try chumming bread at a local pond for Grass Carp...then we would toss flies to them.  The first pond we tried is reported to have gotten a "mother lode" of grass carp stocked into it last year.  To the tune of 60 grass carp in a pond that covers 4.26 acres.  After about 1.5 hours, we didn't raise a single grass carp on the bread.  I caught a few bluegills while I was waiting for grass carp to show, and Ben caught a decent bass that put up an excellent fight.

Next, we decided to try this same tactic at another nearby pond where I have seen (and caught on fly gear) grass carp.  At first it was sunfish hitting the bread, but then some bigger fish showed up.  We were excited!

I tied on a "bread fly" that was mainly white marabou with a little tan marabou, tied similar to a Gartside Softhackle Streamer.  I got the first hook-up into a good fish.  It started dragging my line through the algae mats, so I had to wade out into the water to free my line up from this heavy "gunk".

Fortunately, by the time I cleared my line, the fish was still on!

Check out the bend in the rod below!

It was a good fish....but not "grass carp"-sized.

Turned out to be a channel catfish with a huge belly....and it was hooked in the side!

 Anyway, we kept baiting the area, and had some more larger fish hitting the bread.  As the sky darkened, I got another take.  FISH ON!  I had to wade back out into the muck again to land this fish.  It was another fat-bellied channel catfish, and this one was hooked in the mouth. 

Ben switched to a floating bread fly pattern he had tied, and started catching bluegills on it, despite the large hook.

It was fun fishing, and exciting to see the big fish boiling on the floating bread.  Were ANY of those boils made by our target species, Grass Carp?  Until we catch one, we just don't know.

Fly-fished a local pond in the evening on 7-22-2010.  Fishing has been rather slow lately.  I've been catching fish, but nothing particularly noteworthy.  Its been really hot and humid lately, and the City has sprayed some sort of chemical around the edges of some of the more popular ponds to help get rid of the mats of algae and some of the aquatic weedbeds along the shorelines.

The crappies must be hanging in deeper water during the daylight hours, because I haven't been catching ANY until the sun goes down.

I did get this really fat 22" Channel Catfish, and it was GREAT fighter!  It was released, of course.  Given the time of year, I wonder if might have been full of eggs?

I also caught this 10" crappie.  Not huge, but pretty decent for this pond.

Evening Fishing 4-18-2010

Well, its happened. I think I've fished one particular public pond so often, the fish have wisened up to me. They've learned what I like to use, when I'm likely to show up to fish...I think they even get worried and miss me when I'm not there! OK, that's probably going too far, but its a handy, if inaccurate, explanation for how slow the fishing has been there lately.


I fished last night, from around 8pm (guessing...I forgot to look at my watch) to 11pm.

When I got to the pond, Central Iowa Fly Fishers President Dale Sanders, was just finishing up his fly-fishing excursion for the evening. We chatted a bit, compared flies, he threw a fly he'd tied into my fly box, and then it was like Tag Team wrestling. He tagged out, I tagged in.

It was a nice calm evening. Fish were dimpling the surface. I think most of these were small bluegills, but I did see a crappie or two come up as well.

Since the fish seem to have me figured out, I've been experimenting with different fly patterns, hoping to mix it up enough that the fish will be fooled more frequently. I've had some successes, but its still been slower than I've come to expect.

I was getting hits on the yellow boa yarn leech, but they mostly they were short-strikers (I did get one crappie and one bluegill on it). That usually means I need to change to a darker color. Since the sky was still light, I figured I'd try black, since the fish below would be able to see that dark silouette looking up. Within just a few casts, I caught another bluegill and another crappie. I thought I was really onto something. But then the sky darkened as evening wore on, and I stopped catching fish on the black boa yarn leech.

That's when I tried Dale's fly. I might have had some taps, but no solid takers on it. As we discussed, the fish DO seem to have a distinct preference for yellow and chartreuse colors in this pond...and SHADE of yellow seems very important. Brighter/lighter yellows work better than the darker shades of yellow, it seems.Its a very good-looking pattern, the fish were just being extra-picky last night.

So, next I switched to something similar to a boa yarn leech, but tied with some bright yellow wing-n-flash for the tail, and "fun fur" (I think?) for the body. I caught a 14.5" bass on that:

The bass hit close to shore in the shallows, so, being a calm night, I decided to finally try a foam frog pattern I had tied up...see if I could get another bass or two. I've had catfish hit bass topwaters at night, so that was also on my mind.

Well, the first fish on the foam frog wasn't a bass. Nor a catfish. Who knew crappies would eat frogs?

I did get a chunky 13.5" bass to take the frog too:

I fished the remainder of one side of the pond with the frog without any more action, so I switched to the Estaz Crappie Killer I'd used previously, and caught another crappie or two right away. Then nothing. Put on the trusty yellow boa yarn leech again. I had a really good take on it, where I saw large "waves" come up on the fly from behind. But I managed to miss hooking the fish.

I rounded a corner of the pond and fished along, for the "home stretch" back to the car. I got another really good take, and suddenly a fish was taking all kinds of line as it headed for deeper water. Excitement! Boy do I want to see THIS fish! After several runs and some stand-offs, I ease the fish into the shallows and up to the shoreline. Catfish! And a decent one! This one measured just under 22", and is the biggest catfish I've caught from this particular pond so far.

So, it was a slow night, but at least there were "highlights". Total was 6 crappies, 2 largemouth bass, 2 bluegills, and 1 channel catfish.

Night Fly-Fishing 11-13-09

We had an unseasonably nice evening on Friday night, so after supper and a bit of time with the family, I headed to a local pond to do some fly-fishing.
It was slow, as it has been for several weeks now. But, I did manage to catch a few fish. I stuck with the #8 yellow boa yarn leech pattern, and landed 3 crappies, 3 bluegills, and this 19" channel catfish. The catfish was a nice surprise this late in the year, and put up an excellent fight on my 5wt fly gear.

Lunchtime Catfish on Fly Rod

I hadn't fished during lunch in quite some time. I did on Sept 24, 2009, however. I fly-fished a public pond not far from work. This is the pond that got hit hard this past winter by ice-anglers, which decimated the bluegill population. I tried for bluegills anyway. Didn't catch any.
I did catch a 21.5" channel catfish, which was really fun. Good healthy fish, excellent fight:

It was kind of a long fight, but I had time after releasing the fish to make some more casts. That's when I hooked this next catfish. Its a personal best for me, at 31" long. I ran the length through a complicated mathematical formula to come up with an approximate weight, which suggested just slightly over 12 pounds. What a brute! The pics don't do it justice...but it sure makes the fly reel look small! Awesome battle on a 5wt.

It was caught on a silver-ish boa yarn leech pattern tied on a #8 streamer hook.

Night Fly-Fishing 9-10-09

Had family activities after work last night. Got home from those around 8:20pm. It was such a nice night, even though it was dark already...So, I decided to go fly fishing at a local public pond.Used a yellow Boa Yarn Leech, and did pretty well. Fished for 2 hours, and stopped when I reached 40 crappies. Also caught 4 bluegills, and 1 channel catfish.The bluegills were smallish. The crappies were "medium-sized"....averaging around 9", but I measured one bigger one that went 11". The catfish was 20.5".