6 Species 45-Minute Lunch Flyfishing

Lunch hour today.  Overcast.  6 species.
12.25" Goldfish:

12" Crappie:

Black Bullhead:

Channel Catfish:

Plus Green Sunfish and Hybrid Sunfish.  Great little 45-minute outing!

Mid June 2020

Completely different waters yield completely different flyfishing rewards.
I'm catching some common fish species that aren't commonly caught on flyfishing gear, and that has been pretty interesting.  The local public water even produced 8 different species last night!
I caught Largemouth Bass, Bluegill, Green Sunfish, Hybrid Sunfish, White Crappie, Black Bullhead, Channel Catfish, and Goldfish!

Here's some of the fish I've caught since my last blog entry.
This Comet Goldfish...at 13.5", its my 3rd new Personal Best Goldfish this year.

The one below could just be a Common Goldfish in natural coloration, or it could be a Crucian Carp or Prussian Carp.  I haven't been able to figure it out.  Maybe somebody with more experience with these things will provide some guidance.

Channel Cats:

Black Bullheads:

I took a picture of this small Green Sunfish just because it was almost completely black:

Fly Rod Grass Carp No. 6

I love catching these things, but I've struggled with it.  Its difficult, they are ultra-wary.  Anything that can go wrong HAS gone wrong...tangled lines, hooks pulled out, broken lines, straightened hooks, etc.
Its been 5 years since I caught my last fly rod Grass Carp!  I'm very grateful for finally catching another one.
I was flyfishing a new-to-me public pond, catching mostly tiny fish....small bass, bluegills, green sunfish, hybrid sunfish....when I saw a big splash near the opposite side of the pond as a bird flew over the water.  I thought maybe it could be a big bass, so I increased my pace and fished my way around the pond to that area.
It looked like someone had thrown peanuts or something on the water.  Over the next 20 minutes they seemed to absorb water, so I'm assuming it was pelleted fish food, or maybe pet food (dog or cat?).  I'm not sure if this was a random thing, or if someone periodically feeds fish/ducks or whatever?
Anyway, I soon saw what I thought might be a decent catfish to my right, but was probably a grass carp, swimming along under this food.  I tossed out the microjig & indicator I had been using.  The fish swam right over to the indicator and ate it.  I didn't react, and in a few seconds it spit it back out.  I then saw a grass carp to my left, and cast over by it.  It also ignored the food and ate my indicator...again spitting it within a few seconds.
Ok....so I removed the microjig and indicator and put on a floating yellow foam bug.  I tossed that around for awhile, while watching grass carp occasionally rising up to eat the food pellets.  3 or more Grass Carp appeared near where I had cast my fly...I was watching the fly (or so I thought), when my line quickly went tight and started taking off!   The "fly" I had been watching hadn't moved....it wasn't my fly.  This aggressive grass carp saved me from my own mistake and hooked itself!  As quickly as I could manage, I brought the fish close to the surface to make sure it was hooked in the mouth....it was!

After numerous splashes, bulldogging, headshaking, and back-and-forths, I landed it.  HOORAY!!
28" long, calculated weight of 10.5 lbs. Its the smallest one I've caught, but certainly still a fun and substantial fish.  I'm very happy to have finally caught another of these interesting fish!

Toads

A lunchtime 23-inch "toad" of a catfish:

And once I got back to work, another "toad":

Orangespotted Sunfish on a Fly!

I caught some very small orangespotted sunfish many years ago.  I've wanted to catch on on a fly rod, and hoped it would be larger and a colorful specimen.  It finally happened today!  Pretty excited about this:

Orangespotted Sunfish

Only fished for a few minutes, also caught a small Redear Sunfish:

These aren't very common near me in central Iowa, so it was cool to catch one today.

Speaking of unusual fish to catch on a fly rod, I caught my first Channel Catfish of the year while fly fishing last week.  I know channel cats have more spots when they are little, and gradually lose them as they grow....but this one had a LOT more spots than typical:

Flyfishing for Goldfish?!

I've hit a local pond a couple times in the past week or so. I'd fished it once before a couple years ago, hoping to catch some of the big goldfish I'd heard live there. I didn't catch any goldfish then, just some small crappies and bluegills.
I caught 2 Goldfish one day last week. The first measured 12.25", a new PB for me. (two pics of each fish below)




The second measured 12 1/8".




Yesterday evening I tried again. Along with the small bass, crappies and bluegills, I caught 2 more Goldfish.
The first was 11.75":




And the 2nd one was a bronze-colored behemoth of 13.25" ( a new PB) with impressive girth! Based on my measurements and calculations, this fish likely weighed in excess of 2.5 lbs!

My PB Iowa Crappie on Fly

My buddy Jay surprised us both when he caught a chunky 14" White Crappie while flyfishing a local public pond on March 28, 2020.  A surprise, because it was probably an inch longer than any crappie we'd caught there previously over the years.  It was a really beautiful fish!

On April 1, 2020, I was flyfishing that same pond, solo, late in the evening.  Fishing was very slow, I'd only caught something like 1 small bass, 2 crappies, and 4 bluegills.  And then not far from the location where Jay hooked the 14" crappie, I hooked a big crappie.  After seeing it was a white crappie, I had visions that this was probably THE EXACT SAME FISH that Jay had caught...and how cool that would have been.  But then I measured it...my fish was an inch longer...15"!  To me, it also seemed a bit thinner than Jay's crappie.  Still, a beautiful fish!

My biggest crappie measured 16" and was caught in Illinois.  So this 15" crappie is my biggest in Iowa, and my biggest on a fly rod.  Caught on a 1/80th oz chartreuse microjig suspended under an indicator.

Late March 2020

Air temperatures and waters remain cold.  But fish can be caught.  Mostly crappies, but also bluegills and a few bass.  Still mostly flyfishing a chartreuse microjig under an indicator for now.
19" Bass:

16" bass:

And the biggest crappies so far this month, caught by my buddy Jay...a 14" White Crappie:

Open Water in Central Iowa, March 2020

The local ponds here in central Iowa were still iced over as of March 1 & 2, 2020.  Then I spent March 3-5 in St. Louis, MO. Iowa had some warm weather and STRONG winds during that time...so by the time I got back on March 6, the ponds had opened up.  I grabbed the fly rod and hit a couple public city ponds on Saturday, March 7.

Pond #1:  I spent about 2.5 hours here.  Saw one 4" fish swim out of the shallows...that was the only live fish I saw the entire time.  Didn't catch anything, obviously.

Pond #2:  Spent about an hour here (had some evening dinner plans that sent me home).  Caught a lotta fish.  Mostly crappies, as well as a few bluegills, and a 17.5" bass.  Most fish were caught on a microjig about 18" below an indicator.  I also caught a few of the crappies on a Micro Gamechanger. 

These fish were surprisingly active for being in water that had been iced over just days before.
First open-water fish of the year:

2nd open-water fish of the year: