Just wanted everyone from the Iowa forum to share reports on how the fishing is going.

Round Ames the water is still cold, in the 40 deg. range and fish are non active where I have tried other than the rivers where I have found a couple of Smallmouth. Thinking about taking the boat out for the first time saturday if the weather is going to cooperate. Open water is upon us and hope everyone is as excited as me to see what this years fishing will bring us!

Haven't got the boat out yet either, probably in the next couple of weeks sometime. Gotten a line out 3 times so far from shore (Saylorville dam, ?dickscislle? and Ada Hayden) but yes the water is still kinda cold. No luck yet though.
Soon, very soon.

Peace!

i haven't been out for a few days, but monday . the little bay and channel where i ws fishig, a guy said the surface temp was 51, but it may cool down some the next night or two depending on how cold it gets.been picking up a few crappies, but have to deal with a zillion little sunfish. my boat is still in the garage too!

Went out 4-6-2006 and had a lot of luck!!
I caught 3 walleyes between 16 and 19"....I threw those back...I also caught a 12" walleye...threw him back to....then caught a 24 1/2" walleye and kept that one!! Went to my father-in-laws house to get the pic's taken below!!! Also to get a fish cleaning 101 class again for the 3rd yr in a row!! I caught all the on a white mister twister with a green lead head courtisy of Tim from (Contact US Regarding This Word).com ...

I was just wondering if there was a reason you kept the 24 1/2" walleye and not the 16-19" walleyes?

i went out to a pond for a little while last night, to try for some panfish.( and , had to try out my new st. croix 6'6" utl rod! ) only fished for an hour or so, but caugth three nice crappies,one gil and a small bass. started out with a purple/char. paddle tail, but nobody wanted that. went to the old standby of a 1/80 white hair jig tipped with a waxie. then tipped it with a white rasto body instead of the worm. was casting near a brush pile, but no takers right next to it, but would get hit on the outside closer to deeper water. fished this about 2 ft. below a float. the rod works well!

Went to a local lake tonight after work for a 1 1/2 or so and did very nicely with a 19 1/2 inch Largemouth. A few others that were a little smaller but all in all a great sign of what is to come. Saw alot of gills and crappies but wasn't after them tonight. Going in the morning to Saylorville to see whats happenin.
Good Fishin everyone. Open water is here!

Over in Eastern Iowa I have been fishing MacBride lately. The bite is improving and the size is surprising me. Don't get me wrong, it is not like fishing at Rathbun or even the Res' but for this lake size has been good lately.

John B.

Good to hear about the fishing! Have seen alot of panfish around here too but just don't fish for them that much during the open water season.

we are getting closer to the crappie spawning here. on pond near here, the craps are fanning beds near brush and trees. shouldn't be long!

Went to a great lake today for the first time. Brushy Creek. Had alot of fun weaving our ways through the standing timbers. Could of swore you were in Texas or Arkansas. I wish we had more lakes like this around the state.

Did catch quite a few largmouth later in the day and did talk to some guys from the citys down fishing and they had some luck fishing for eyes with leeches. This fishery will onlyh continue to get better over the years!

sound slike the crappies are finally starting to move in shallow to spawn here in my area. finally! hope to have some first hand knowledge thurs.!

Yeah just starting here to. It seems weird to me that the Crappies start to bite earlier in Minnesota than down here.
I will be going out to find some also this week.

the crappies are starting to move in here in N.C. iowa ! i only manage one , but it was 13 in . other guys were doing better, but i couldn't get them figured out.a few were using minnows, but most were using small jigs, free lining them so they could just tick the tops of the rocks . i had problems with BIG catfish liking my jigs! one had to be 14 lbs. or better! and the other about 8 ! not a good match for a ultra lite and 2# mono!!!

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Courtesy of the Iowa DNR.