Fishing on April 16, 2017

Beautiful day on Sunday!

I didn't get out to fish until mid-afternoon.

Found some Grass Carp in a corner of the pond, in the shallows...like in 18"-24" of water.  They had the mud stirred up, so they were nearly impossible to spot.  Occasionally there would be a big swirl, and on very rare occasions, a fin or back.  I was still forced to blind cast instead of casting to targets.  I very briefly foul-hooked 3 grass carp, but didn't have any strikes.  I eventually gave up and moved on.

I caught 4 nice Pumpkinseed Sunfish on a chartreuse microjig.  I caught 1 small bass on a blockhead popper, one one on a black mohair leech, one on a chartreuse microjig.  I lost one crappie, but landed the second one.  Bluegills were hitting a wide variety of flies, including suspended flies, floating flies, and swimming flies.

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I flyfished during lunch today (Monday, April 17).  Caught bluegills and crappies.  The fish weren't particularly aggressive.
I did have a Garter Snake slither along the shoreline right in front of me:

End of May-First week of June, 2016

Pond fishing is slowing down as crappies, bluegills, bass, etc, spawn and head out of the shallows.  Algae and weed growth is hitting the point where fishing is difficult.  But I've caught some decent fish lately.

Jumbo 9.5" Pumpkinseed (one pic above and one pic below)!

Below is a single yellow chick amongst all the regular-colored mallard chicks.

Here's a very Pumpkinseed-looking Hybrid Sunfish:

Have caught some nice bluegills...some females, but mostly males:

I've caught a lot of little bass, a few medium-sized ones (13"-16")...no big ones, but I have seen them.

I thought this was interesting.... I was flyfishing with a grayish boa yarn leech.  A fish broke my line on the hookset (bad line, NOT a big fish)..it then jumped out of the water trying to throw the fly, so I got to see it.  I tied on a yellow boa yarn leech and continued fishing.  About 10 minutes later, I caught the same bass and got my original fly back!

And...because I just can't get enough Pumpkinseed pictures...

Flyfishing Report, Early May 2015

The Crappies in the smaller ponds seem to be done spawning (but males are still hanging around the nesting areas), but are going strong in the bigger lakes/reservoirs.

The Largemouth Bass are nesting in the smaller ponds and probably spawned within the week.  They can be really finicky around the nest!

The Bluegills have just started nesting, and the females are about ready to burst!

PumpkinseedSunfish are also nesting, and currently spawning.

Speaking of Pumpkinseeds....I finally caught a 9-incher!  That qualifies as an Iowa Master Angler size...

Buffalo were spawning last weekend....didn't even know they were IN the pond I was fishing until I saw them.  Common Carp seem to be doing some spawning in the shallow weeds as well.  Grass Carp....I dunno... they are still a mystery to me.  I haven't figured them out yet.

I did foul-hook a common carp, which wasn't intentional, nor very sporting...but still perversely fun.

The hook pulled out before I could land it, though.

And the ducks....well....their chicks must be a favorite food of something in the ponds....the numbers of chicks has diminished from about 10/hen duck to about 2-4 chicks/hen duck now!