Early November 2018

Feeding carp were located, but I could not detect any strikes when I presented them with flies.

I tied up these on a "chartreuse whim"...a Gamechanger, and a Howitzer Popper:

In one pond, at least, bass were still hitting topwater fly patterns (bass poppers) thru the first week of November...in fact, one day they were charging top-speed from up to 30' away to smash the fly on the 2nd pop!

Feathered Gamechangers were still working as well:

As I write this on November 14, we've had some rather cold weather in central Iowa so far this month.  This past weekend, I visited 5 ponds....2 were 100% ice-covered, 2 were 65%-75% ice-covered, and one pond was completely ice-free.  I fished the ice-free one, and one of the partially-open ponds.  I only caught fish out of the ice-free pond.  Over 25 Crappies, plus 4 bluegills and a bass in a few hours of flyfishing.

Late October 2017

Weather started to cool, then got nice, then windy.  For a week or two, fishing was slower than it seemed like it should be.  And not that the fish weren't feeding....bass could be seen busting shad on the surface in a couple public ponds I fish.  They were moving so fast....by the time I could cast to where they hit the surface, the bass were already long gone.  I did manage to get a few.

Some on a shad fly:

This one on topwater:

I did catch a few Hybrid Sunfish:

The wind finally died down on Wednesday and the temperature was a reasonably low 60's.  It was the nicest day in the 10-day forecast.  I took the afternoon off from work and went fishing.

So glad I did!  It didn't start off very well, but turned into one of the best days of fishing I've had in awhile.

Pond #1:

Started at the upwind end of the pond and worked my way along the north shoreline.  My buddy Jay joined me, and he worked the south shoreline.  By the time we reached the opposite end of the pond, I'd caught maybe 4 bluegills and a tiny bass.  Not good.  Jay had to leave, but I stopped and flyfished a windblown shoreline on my way back to the car.  I stayed in that area for several more hours!  I started catching crappies and more bluegills.  Crappies ranged from 9"-12.5", with most being @ 11".  All were caught on a silver Springbrook Wunder microjig set about 18" under an indicator.  One of the best crappie days I've had in a LONG time.  When the wind died, the crappie action slowed as well.

Pond #2:

There was about 90 minutes of daylight left.  I had tied some new fly patterns I wanted to test out in the water.  The first one worked ok, but not quite what I had in mind...so it will need some tweaking.  The second one was a Gamechanger I tied....its about 3.5" long.  Articulated (jointed).  I fished it in 2' long "strip-pause.......strip-pause.....".  The one I used is the one in the bottom of this picture:

I'm ecstatic!   The bass loved it!  At one point, I caught 5 bass on 6 casts!  I don't know if it was the fly or the location, but it sure was fun!  I worked my way around the pond and caught 2 more as it got dark.