Flyfishing Report, 10/21/2012

Saturday was an absolutely perfect, beautiful day for fishing.  So of course I didn't go.

Sunday was nearly as good, and I managed to head to the Skunk River north of Ames for an hours-worth of flyfishing in the late afternoon.  The river looked better, our recent rains have made a small improvement on the river, and there is now a small current flowing in the river...it isn't just stagnant pools anymore.  Its still really shallow, though.

I was hoping to find some suckers, but didn't see any.  I wet-waded, and my feet got cold, so this is probably the last wet-wading trip of the season for me!  Despite my polarized sunglasses, the glare on the water prohibited me from sight-fishing.  I was casting blind.

I started out fishing a small wet fly, and caught 2 Smallmouth Bass.

As you can see on the fly, I was dredging up plenty of gunk even though the fly was lightly weighted with only a small glass bead.  Since the water was so shallow, I switched to a foam topwater...a Chernobyl Ant/Hopper pattern.  I caught 8 more Smallies on that, lost at least half that many more (barbless hook), and also caught one decent Bluegill.

Flyfishing Reports, mid-September 2012

Monday, September 17, 2012
I fly-fished a local public park during lunch.  I hadn't fished there since early Spring.  The water was lower than I've seen it for many years.  It was also muddier than I've seen it for a long time.  This could be from fall turnover, or from all the darn ducks and geese wading around in the shallows.

I flyfished shallows within a 2'-4' of shore.  I caught 14 small Crappies, 3 small Bluegills, and 2 small Green Sunfish.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012
I had an hour + around dusk with time to kill, so I headed to the pond where I recently had very briefly hooked a Grass Carp.  I saw at least one Grass carp, but got not interest in my flies this time.  Wasted most of the time fishing for Grassies.  During the rest of the time, I managed to catch a small Largemouth Bass and a trio of decent Bluegills.

There were several deer around the pond...or maybe it was just one deer that was moving around a lot?

Wednesday, September 19, 2012
I took the day off work and went fishing.  There was one place not far from home I considered fishing.  I drove by, but even though it was early on a weekday morning, there were already at least 3 cars there...and it isn't a big area to fish.  So, I just kept on driving.

I drove to fish Peterson Pits north of Ames, Iowa.  I'd NEVER been here before.  I followed another car into the parking area.  So much for fishing alone!  He was a nice guy who was going to be fishing from his kayak.  I told him I'd never been here before and asked what was in this pit.  He said he fished here often.  He fishes mostly with live minnows, occasionally with lures as well.  He said there were Largemouth Bass in the pit, a few Crappies and Catfish, and he'd heard of people occasionally catching a Freshwater Drum here too.  This particular pit is connected to the Skunk River...so anything in the river could also be in this pit.  That means Smallmouth Bass.  I asked him about those, and he'd said he had caught a couple of those over the years, but it was rare.

Well...here was a case of artificial lures and flies outfishing live bait.  I saw this fellow catch one Largemouth Bass, and one turtle.  I ended up catching 16 nice Bluegills (biggest ~ 8.5"), 10 Crappies (biggest ~ 10.5"), 13 Largemouth Bass (biggest ~ 13"), and 10 Smallmouth Bass (biggest ~ 12").

I didn't take any photos of the fish from the Pit.  I did see several Ospreys, and one flew over carrying a decent-sized fish that I think it caught from the nearby river.

I also briefly fished the Skunk River just downstream of the connection to the pit.  The river is extremely low...in fact it appears to be just algae-lined connected pools, with no detectable current.  But there were fish in them.  I managed to catch 4 more Smallmouth Bass, 2 Bluegills, and a tiny Largemouth Bass out of the river.  I had a lot more fish strike, but I wasn't able to set the hook in them.

The river Smallies had some good colors!

I saw what looked like a bit larger bass in the river, but didn't get them to strike.  Its concerning that if the river doesn't raise before Winter, the water will freeze and wipe out all the Smallmouth Bass in the river.  The DNR says the Smallmouth Bass in the a large section of the Skunk River over-winter in the deeper water of the Peterson Pits.  With the river so low, few will be able to return to the pit this year.

Anyway...it was fun and productive day of fishing at these 2 new spots (the Pit and River)!

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!

The Murdich Minnow

I'm a big fan of the Fly Fish Ohio website.  Lots of great info there, and tying instructions for a good number of useful fish-catching fly patterns.  The website's Publisher, Joe Cornwall, wrote a book called Fly Fishing Warm Water Rivers.
http://www.flyfishohio.com/Fly_Fishing_Warm_Water_Rivers.htm

When I purchased my second copy of his book (long story), he sent me a fly he had tied up for Smallmouth Bass.  On the website, there is an excellent write-up about the pattern, and step-by-step tying instructions.
http://www.flyfishohio.com/Murdich_Minnow.htm

One thing that especially caught my attention in Joe's write-up is his mention that this pattern was very successful on catching Ohio River Wipers.  Those Wipers are accustomed to chasing/eating shad, just like our local Wipers are.

So, I finally sat down this weekend to tie up a few. The one change I made was to cover the head/attach the eyes with Sport & Outdoor GOOP adhesive.  I unsuccessfully tried 3 different stores looking for the Liquid Nails Clear Small Project Adhesive.  This version of the GOOP sounds like it has the same attributes as the Liquid Nails product...it is waterproof, dries clear, and remains flexible.

I can't wait to show these to some fish this Summer/Fall!

5 Species Suprise! 4-7-2012

Our incredibly warm weather in March has given way to more seasonally normal (cooler) weather in April.  I woke up Saturday morning, looked outside to see a good breeze, clouds, intermittent drizzle.  Dreary conditions.  I asked myself, "If I were going to go fishing today, WHERE would I go?"

That really warm March weather warmed local water temperatures FAST.  A nearby lake, Lake Petocka, that had been stocked with trout during the winter offered up some good trout-fishing immediately after ice-out, but the fast-warming shallows caused the fish to drop to waters further from shore...difficult to reach with fly gear.  I thought maybe this cooler weather might encourage some trout to come back in near shore again.  So...Lake Petocka is where I thought I would try.  I mentioned this to my wife, and she said, "Go."  I had to be home around Noon.  I arrived at the lake a little before 10am.  Total time fished was 2.25 hours.

Wind was from the South.  I fished from the North shoreline.  I started at a spot that produced a fair number of trout when I last fished the lake.  I didn't get any strikes there.  I moved down the shoreline a bit further, and got something on my line!  It wasn't a good sign that the first thing I happened to catch was...a clam shell!

 I worked my way down the shoreline.  While at one spot, I noticed a large area just a bit further down the shore that looked like a bunch of fish or baitfish just crashed the surface.  So I moved down to that spot.

I saw a silvery fish slash across the surface.  I started casting.  I was using a beadhead woolly bugger.  After a few casts and a few missed strikes, I got a solid hookset.  A fantastic battle ensued on my 5wt.  I was surprised when the fish came in that it was a nice White Bass!  I shouldn't have been so surprised...My friend Dale G. reported that had caught some on his last trip to the lake a few weeks back.

Let me take a step back here and explain that in all the times I've fished this lake, I have caught MOSTLY Trout (Rainbows and some Brookies), maybe a half-dozen or so Bluegills, a couple small Green Sunfish, and a few small Largemouth Bass.  Without the trout, there really aren't enough fish in this lake to make me want to pick this lake over the dozens of other choices I have closer to home.

Back to the fishing.  I measured this White Bass at 14", and it was a nice healthy fish.

I decided to switch to a Clouser.  I selected a gray-over-white one from my fly box.  I was so excited to get back to fishing, I dropped the fly and started casting.  I quickly realized I hadn't actually ATTACHED the fly to my line!  Total Rookie mistake!  :)

I thought I had chucked the fly into the water, so I didn't look for it, I just dug another one out of my fly box.  The next one I selected was a chartreuse-over-yellow version that was sort of large...in the 3"-4" range.

I caught another white bass.

 I love catching White Bass, so I was pretty excited already (obviously).

Next, I hooked into a different fish.  It looked like about the size and shape of a trout, but the flash was yellow.  Couldn't be a brown trout, they've never been stocked here.  I got it closer to shore.  Yellow Perch!  No way, this couldn't be happening!  It measured 10.75"

That Clouser was a big bite for this fish!

This spot died...so I continued on down the shoreline.  Next fish was the species I had come here targeting, a Rainbow Trout!  I measured this one at 12.5".  

The Clouser was a pretty big bite for this fish too, even though trout DO have large mouths.  Nevertheless, I was still sort of surprised.

I continued moving along the shoreline.  At one spot I got a couple missed strikes, had a nice fish on briefly, and then lost the Clouser to another good strike.  I switched to an unweighted deer hair streamer in a similar color scheme to the Clouser I had just lost.

 Next fish was a Largemouth Bass.  Nothing big, but it fought well.

Next fish was another White Bass.  I didn't measure the last two, they probably weren't quite as big as the first one, but they were nice fish, probably more like 13"+/-.

I quickly fished my way back to the spot I first caught fish.  On the way, I caught another Largemouth Bass.  It wasn't much different than the first bass.  No picture.

I got to that first spot again, and it seemed pretty dead.  I did get a couple small strikes, and then caught a little Smallmouth Bass!

It was time to head home.  I was really excited to have caught 5 Species from this lake in one trip...3 of them were species I had never caught from this lake before, and the White Bass and Yellow Perch especially were nice fish.  I had some excellent battles with fish today.

I had the lake to myself the entire time, with the exception of the last 20 minutes, when another angler with spinning gear arrived, but was fishing a good distance away from me.

I have to wonder if this combination of species has ever been caught before on a fly rod from one lake on one trip?

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.

Smallmouth Bass, 7-27-2011

After our carp adventure this morning, Ben had plans to meet a friend and fly-fish for gar.  I was very tempted to join them, since I had tied up some modified patterns I wanted to try out for the gar.  Gar are a very interesting fish, and a fun challenge to sight-fish for them.
But with the heat we've been having, I thought wading a river for smallmouth bass might be a bit cooler and more relaxing.  Its something else I've been wanting to do.  So, I went wading and fly-fishing for smallmouth bass.
I had selected a stretch of river I had never fished before, on a river I hadn't really fished since about 1990!  I got there, and the road was closed and construction work was being done on the bridge where I was going to start wading from.  So, I crossed that spot off my plans.  I could go downstream to the stretch I fished back in my college days...or I could head further upstream.  I went upstream.
The area upstream I had actually heard of before, but never knew where it was.  It was Soper's Mill on the Skunk River north of Ames, Iowa.  Its a popular canoe launch location.
I was surprised how small, narrow, and low the river was.  Oh well, I'm here and I'm ready to give it a try.

Just below the round-boulder "dam", I tried a number of fly patterns. I had a couple hits on a Foxee Red Clouser, but didn't hook up. I tried some nymphs with no hits. I tried a Clouser Deep Minnow and a largish "microjig". Nothing. I can't remember what else I tried, but I went back to a Clouser. I got a hit and hooked up! It was a 13-incher.

See the Clouser Deep Minnow?

I also caught a second Smallmouth on the Clouser, but it wasn't very big.

I waded downstream a bit and decided to try a balsa popper I had bought somewhere.  I cast it out and before I could even twitch it, a fish hit!

 With THAT kind of action, I decided to keep fishing with the popper.  I had cast to a tree branch that was hanging into the water, twitched the popper a couple times, and a nice fish pounced on it!  I thought it was a big smallie, but it cut the line immediately...I barely felt any pressure from the fish.  Its the kind of think a pike or musky will do.  So what was it?  I still think it was a bass.  Anyway, my popper floated up right away, so I waded downstream and intercepted it.  I tied it back on and headed on downstream.

There wasn't a lot of places worth casting to...I could see the sandy or muddy bottom in many places, and there was no structure that would hold a bass.  I was letting the popper drag in the water behind me as I waded through some of these featureless areas...and caught this bluegill!

My biggest fish of the trip was this 16" Smallmouth Bass:

 The sun was getting low, I was hot and had a long trudge back upstream to my car, so this was the last fish of the trip, another nice 13-inch fish.

August 26, 2010, Evening Shore-Fishing

My buddy Jay called me last night. He was out at the lake again to go fishing...he had just left his car and was walking towards the fishing spot. He's on the phone talking to me, and he pauses, and I hear this dog barking, and then all sorts of commotion, yelling, screaming, cussing, etc. in the background. I say "Are you alright???" Jay says,"A dog just attacked me and bit me!" Jay never made any of the noises or cussing, that was the dogs owners. Jay just kept walking. Jay showed me the tooth-hole in just below the ass off his jeans when I got out there. I saw the dog, it was good-sized! Anyway...it was funny to be hearing all that through the phone!


So, we fished again. We didn't catch much for numbers, but they almost all fair-sized fish.

Four species tonight...Wiper, White Bass, Largemouth Bass, and Smallmouth Bass. Pop-R's did a good job again, and we also caugth a few on Mepps spinners.

We both forgot our cameras, so I took these pics with my cell phone.

15" Wiper:

Smallmouth Bass (chunky!):

Largemouth Bass (chunky!):

White Bass (chunky!):

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!