Fishing the Des Moines River, 9/12/2012

After flyfishing the Des Moines River recently, I decided to try fishing a different segment of the river.  The area I most wanted to fish was a LONG trek upstream from the nearest parking area.  Years ago, we used to catch Flathead Catfish there in the Fall...on LURES.  That is what I hoped to try this time, and I convince my buddy Jay to go along.

Originally I had planned to take along both spinning gear and flyfishing gear.  But I ended up paring down a bit and at the last minute decided to leave the fly gear in the car.  This decision would pretty much preclude me from fishing for carp and gar.  A poor choice, but one I'll live with.  As it turned out, there seemed to be a gar population in one area we fished, and at one point during our trek I spotted a couple carp rooting in the shallows, and was able to walk right up within 6' of them and wave my spinning rod over their heads without spooking them.  With the fly rod, those fish would have been about the easiest carp targets I've ever witnessed!  Oh well.

During our trek upstream, we spotted a Bald Eagle, several hawks, Goldfinches, a number of Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Canadian Geese, and some sort of tiny shore/wading bird.

Although we spent a fair bit of time fishing the "Flathead Spot"...we didn't catch any Flatheads.  I lost at least 5 lures.  Jay had caught a small Wiper on the trek upstream, and added a NICE Bigmouth Buffalo (hooked in the mouth!) near the Flathead Spot.  I eventually caught a Smallmouth Bass and at least a dozen small White Bass and one small Wiper there.

On our way back downstream, we stopped and fished some sandbar drop-offs, and several other "fishy-looking spots".  Jay caught several nicer White Bass and a couple Channel Catfish...and I can't remember what else.

I caught 4 more Smallmouth Bass, more small White Bass, one Largemouth Bass, and a nice Freshwater Drum.  I also had a Channel Catfish on my line that broke/cut my Nanofil line when it thrashed at the surface. All my fish were caught on an inline spinner.

All in all, a fun day.

The spot in the picture below looked great...rocks, a log, and current.  I caught 2 Smallmouth Bass next to that log!

(this is the same fish, different angle):

I had just caught a couple White Bass out of one spot, when I got a solid strike, and then an awesome bulldogging and drag peeling battle.  I was sure it was a nice Wiper.  Turned out to be a decent-sized Freshwater Drum.  Fantastic!

My last fish of the day was also the biggest Smallmouth Bass of the day.  A great strong fight, it didn't want to come to the surface at all!  It measured a good 16.5", and was very thick-bodied!

I ended up catching at LEAST 17 White Bass, one Wiper, 5 Smallmouth Bass, 1 Largemouth Bass, and the one Freshwater Drum.  This trip pushed my "total fish caught for the year" to over 2,000.  Hopefully there will still be many more fish caught before the end of December!

Wipers and White Bass, 8-13-2012

After I got home from work, my buddy Jay called and said, "If you can get out, you've GOT to go fishing NOW!"  I knew where he was fishing.  I didn't know if I'd be able to get out, but after a call like that, my priorities quickly shifted and my son and I were soon headed out the door to meet up with Jay.

The action had slowed somewhat by the time we got there.  There were still occasional surface busts...small groups of fish attacking shad on the surface.  Some of these busts appeared to be LARGE fish!  My first 3 or 4 fish were all Wipers (Hybrids).  My biggest Wiper of the evening was maybe 15".  I also caught a few White Bass, with a couple of them measuring up to about 16.5".  NICE fish!

I caught fish on a Cicada blade bait, and on a TNT slab spoon.  Once again I brought both flyfishing gear and spinning gear.  And once again I didn't bother with the fly gear...the fish were just too far away.

The toughest part was waiting for fish to get within casting range.   Many of the bigger "busts" were in a certain area, and there were 4 to 8 guys fishing that area pretty hard.

Pretty exciting stuff though...When the wind is from the right direction, this shoreline can be VERY good fishing!

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.

Saylorville Lake, Evening 8-3-2012

Jay and I fished Saylorville from shore Friday evening.  Fishing was poor (I caught a largemouth bass), until Jay spotted some surface activity.  He caught 5 before I could get over to where he was.  He'd already caught a nice White Bass and some 10-12-inchers.

Then he caught a big fat White Bass that fought really well.  I was sure it was going to be a 24" Wiper!  I think it was more like 15", but it was REALLY fat and sure looked a LOT bigger than that!  Didn't get a picture of that one, but did get a picture of a 16-incher he caught after that:

While he was fighting that one, I hooked a nice fish that turned out to be a 23" Channel Catfish:

It hit a slab spoon:

I also caught White Bass (no big ones, though) on both the slab spoon and a Pop-R topwater.
The White Bass seemed to be working down the shore away from us, so we walked down past them to intercept them and set up for them to arrive...but they never did.  I caught maybe 5 more small White Bass, but they were scattered.  In short, we left fish to find fish.  Earlier, though, it was pretty cool to see the fish blowing up on the surface...you could tell where the bigger fish were by the size/sound of the explosions!

Fishin' with Jay, 7-16-2012

After I got off work, I called Jay, and we went fishing at Saylorville Lake.  I took a couple spinning rods and one fly rod.
It was pretty slow, not many carp along the shoreline (but there was SOME), and almost NO surface activity that would suggest gamefish attacking shad.

On the spinning gear, I caught a few smallish Largemouth Bass, and at least a 1/2 dozen White Bass on Reef Runner Cicadas and Pop-R's.  Biggest White Bass was maybe 12".  Most were 10-inchers.  And then there was this one, which may be the smallest I've ever caught.  I didn't measure it, but I'm guessing it was about 2.5" long.  It was hooked in the mouth.  In the picture I had already unhooked it and then it flopped around some in the sand before I could get the camera out.

With the fly gear I was targeting carp.  I used an egg pattern under an indicator in the shallows.  I landed one smaller carp that measured 20", and had a much bigger carp on that took off on a blazing run straight away from me down the shoreline and then broke my line.  Unfortunately I didn't realize it had broken my line until I was done fishing...(I just thought the fish threw the hook...hey, it was getting pretty dark, and my indicator somehow managed to stay on the line so I never bothered to check further)...so I fished the last 20+ minutes with no fly on my line.  The 20-incher was a good-looking fish, unfortunately it also managed to roll in the sand while I was getting my camera ready.

I also caught a nice bluegill on the egg pattern.

Jay caught White Bass, Largemouth Bass, and Channel Catfish.  One bass hit a swimbait and got off near shore after a great fight.  I got a good look at it...I would say it was at least 4 lbs, and probably closer to 5.  Really nice fish!
The Catfish hit a Mepps spinner and also fought really well:

It was a nice warm evening, boat traffic wasn't horrible, but there were still plenty of big wakes when they did go by.  There was also a really LOUD noisy airboat that went by a couple times...unusual to see those around here.
A beaver swam by about 40' in front of me as the sky started getting dark.