Fishing Report, 5-12-2012

I had my kids' Piano Recitals in the morning, then drove my wife to airport.  After i got home, I fed the kids some lunch, and then called Jay to see if he wanted to do some fishing.  We decided on Saylorville Lake.  On a weekend when the weather was nice???  Since we'd be fishing from shore, we decided to hit some spots that would not likely be swarming with bucketeers.  Did see a lot of boats fishing around the jetties!  We stayed far away from such popular and obvious spots.

We fished from about 2:30pm to 8:00pm.  We ended up fishing 3 locations, caught fish at the first two.  The third location was a waste of time, so we returned to our first location and fished more.

I used spinning gear and fly-fishing gear, and caught fish on both.  Unfortunately, I left my camera by the door when I walked out of the house.

I caught 7 species, all on lures/flies:
-3 Wipers (14"-16")
-6 White Bass (mostly 12-13" range)
-1 Smallmouth Bass (14")
-6 Largemouth Bass (12" and smaller)
-6 Crappies (12" and smaller, lost several others)
-2 Bluegills (8" and smaller)
-4 Green Sunfish (7" and smaller)

There's no mistaking when you hook a wiper...its zero-to-60 mph INSTANTANEOUSLY!

Fishing for “Under-utilized fish” Species in 2010.

Have you ever caught fish during a fishing outing that you usually leave out of the conversation when your friends ask you about what you caught?  Some fish just have a bad rap.  Some words used to describe them are "rough fish", "trash fish", "junk fish", "nuisance species".  More recent politically-correct verbage is "under-utilized fish".
I like this terminology better. It is certainly more accurate. The reason for something being underutilized is usually that people don't have an accurate or adequate understanding of something. This is often the case with many of these fish species.

Sometimes I catch these underutilized fish species while targeting other fish, or while using non-species specific techniques.  But sometimes I target them intentionally.  This can be VERY fun and often quite challenging.

Here's some of these species that I was fortunate to tangle with in 2010:

Freshwater Drum will hit bait and lures, and often put up an excellent but usually short-lived fight. 

Channel Catfish aren’t completely underutilized. Baitfishing for them is very popular, but not many specifically target these predators with lures and flies. Very stong fighters once hooked!

Grass Carp…I’ve only caught them on fly-fishing gear, which is challenge and often frustrating. I haven’t tried baitfishing for them yet. Excellent fighters once hooked, they don’t give up.

Common Carp are another excellent challenge on flies and lures, but they can be caught without bait or snagging!

Shortnose Gar are aggressive predators, but their bony jaws are difficult to penetrate with a hook. Fly-fishing gear with “nylon rope flies” is an excellent way to catch these fish, and sightfishing for them can be very exciting.

Yellow Bass are often considered an “undesirable species”, since they can quickly become overpopulated in lakes and reservoirs. There are many ways to catch these fish.

River Carpsucker…this one was accidentally foul-hooked, not uncommon when fishing with lures near the bottom.

Fishing Log, September 15-17 2010

I took some time off work, and fished for 2.5 days!  Mostly I used spinning gear, fished one nearby lake from shore, and caught 10 species of fish.  I did do a little bit of fly-fishing and caught bass and white bass doing that, which was very fun.
Many of the pics didn't turn out very good, I'm not sure why.  I thought maybe the camera lens was dirty, but then later some pics turned out really good.  So I'm thinking maybe it had to do with water vapor condensation clouding the lens?  Either that, or it was having a tough time with its Autofocus whenever I used the timer to get myself in the pictures.

Anyway, for the largemouth bass and white bass, I often caught so many, I couldn't keep an accurate count.  So, each day I guesstimated what I caught for those species as closely as I could, without OVERestimating the number...so while I may have caught over 100 white bass one day, for instance....I ended up entering "70" in my Fishing Log.  Even so, I logged 299 fish in 2.5 days of fishing.  It was very fun!
Here's some pics (there were lots):

I caught a few walleyes, the biggest was 14.5":

I caught a small 17.5" Northern Pike (and it managed to cover itself in sand and mud before I was able to get the picture, as did a few other fish later on):

Smallmouth Bass up to 13"....in fact the biggest one hit a topwater lure:

Largemouth Bass up to 16.25".  They are always very fat and healthy from this lake.

I caught just a couple Wipers, biggest were probalby only 12"-13":

I caught a BUNCH of White Bass up to 14.25", quite a few on topwater lures, which is very exciting...and some on flies, as I mentioned before.

I even had a couple of DOUBLES of White Bass on topwater lures!

And I caught a Yellow Bass:

A 10.5" Crappie:

A couple really nice 8" Bluegills:

And a feisty Green Sunfish:

Shore-Fishing - 8/25/2010

I thought about trying to fish from shore at the local reservoir last night.  My buddy Jay had mentioned the high water levels had finally dropped enough that you could actually FISH from shore at last!  After work, I called him up to see if he wanted to go.  He was already there.  He said the biting flies were HORRIBLE.  So, I grabbed a can of OFF for him, put on some jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt, and headed for the lake.

By the time I got there, Jay had already caught Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, White Bass, and Walleye.  He was having good success with both a #3 Mepps spinner, and a TNT slab spoon.  I switched between the Mepps and a Pop-R topwater lure.  Both caught fish.  Lost a few nice Largemouth Bass, but ended up landing a few, plus a Smallmouth Bass, White Bass, a little Walleye, and a YELLOW BASS!

Here's some pics from our evening of fishing:

Smallmouth Bass:

Largemouth Bass:

Jay's Walleye was quite a bit bigger than mine!

And the Yellow Bass...we usually only catch maybe one of these each year from this reservoir:

The White Bass I caught were all less than 12", so I didn't take any pictures of them.

It was a very fun night.  And fish hitting on topwaters is always exciting!

March 27 & 28, 2010 - Fly-Fishing central Iowa

Public Pond in Ankeny
Saturday 3-27-10
10:45am-1:30pm
Fish sought: Crappies
Fish caught: 28 Crappies (pretty much all 10" or less), 1 LMB (17.5")

Used: fly rod, "crappie candy" fly

Caught 1 or 2 crappie fairly quickly, but then walked around much of the pond looking for more active fish. FINALLY found some, and it was a lot of fun after that. Eventually they quit hitting...or I'd caught most of the fish. :laughing7:

The bass hit near the end, and it was an excellent battle. Very healthy-looking fish!

I "broke in" the custom fly rod I'd bought over the winter, and it really worked great. Steve from Midwest Custom Rods really made a winner with this one. Thanks Steve!

The fish were a bit deeper, and I was using a WFF line...so what worked well was to cast out to the deeper water, let the fly drop for at least 10 seconds, then make a series of short strips, then let the fly settle again. Most of the hits came when the fly was practically just sitting there, or sinking slowly. I really had to watch my line to detect the strikes...when the wind riffled the surface, it was really tough to see what was going on.

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Public Pond in Urbandale

Sunday 3-28-10

1:50pm - 3:00pm

Fish sought: bluegills

Fish caught: 4 Crappies (pretty much all 9" or less), 5 bluegills (7.5" or less), 2 LMB (12" or less), 1 hybrid sunfish (6")

Used: fly rod, "crappie candy" fly

Didn't take any pictures. Fished several areas, only really found fish in a couple small pockets just off the first drop-off.

It was windy, but still a nice sunny day to be out!

The crappie candy's worked so well, I had to tie up a few more:

Sunday White Bass/Wipers 9-27-09

My buddy Phil calle to invite me fishing with him at Saylorville on Sunday. We trolled along a good drop-off area...that went from about 9' to 16' deep, and also a little bit of trolling on top of the 9' flat. I used a white Bomber crankbait. I had something big on…felt like a wiper…it just peeled drag going straight away from us…until the hook pulled out. Awhile later, Phill got a 19.5” wiper.

He also got a “double” white bass and wiper on his “hillbilly rig”.

I generally only keep fish to eat maybe once/year, except when fishing in Canada or out-of-state for walleyes. I kept some white bass in the 13”-15” range and cleaned them, cooked them up last night. Still have some leftover, but my daughter Kennedy and I were LOVING IT! Good stuff!!

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.

September 6, 2008 - White Bass

Went to Saylorville Lake one afternoon during the Labor Day weekend. Waded the Sandpiper area first...two different spots. Used spinning gear, hoping to find some White Bass action.

Nothing going on at those spots. Tried a 3rd spot, which we just fished from shore.

Success! The fish were very active in this area, and there was some good-sized whites around. Biggest I caught were 15".