Hello, I'm FishnDave

[FishnDave]

Took Tuesday off work to go flyfishing. The river I visited was muddy! Fished the first 1/2 of the stretch without a single strike. 
I actually got out of the river and was walking thru the woods, considering giving up on the fish in this river for the day. As I walked thru the woods, I saw all kinds of things. A large footprint:



A 3" long millipede on a tree:



A caterpillar eating a nettle:



A red leaf caught on a spider thread that was twisting in the breeze and would flash really bright:



And then there was this heart-shaped rock:



Anyway.....
Got back in the river and finally found a few fish. Biggest fish (landed) of the day was this 17" Smallmouth Bass:






Caught 3 or 4 others, this one looked pretty good.



Went to another place. Caught some largemouth bass, bluegills, crappies, missed a nice catfish, breifly foul-hooked a bigmouth buffalo, lost a smallmouth buffalo, and had 2 carp on (hooked in the mouth) for quite a while, but both eventually shook free. One of the carp was pretty big.

[Johnsfolly]

@FishnDave quite a day you had out in the Ozarks! Those were some nice smallies as well!

[FishnDave]

@Johnsfolly  I wish!  No, this trip was in central Iowa. One way I could tell?  I couldn't see the bottom in 6" of water.

[Greasy B]

18 hours ago, FishnDave said:

@Johnsfolly  I wish!  No, this trip was in central Iowa. One way I could tell?  I couldn't see the bottom in 6" of water.

I’m driving across Iowa yesterday evening and today. I’ve seen some very interesting water glancing as I cross the bridges. I’d love to spend some time exploring. 

[Johnsfolly]

I've only fished in Iowa once. We were around Newton for the Indycar race back in 2018. I had looked at maps and found a few likely river and creek spots to try on that trip. Did not check the previous week's weather or USGS gages. Everything was flooded. Did manage three small LMB from a small pond north of Newton.

[Greasy B]

The two forks of the Skunk River, and the English river looked good, even the De Moines was clear and inviting. Today going west on 80 the Raccoon and others were high from last nights rain.  

[FishnDave]

The South Skunk is the river I often fish for Smallmouth.  Its wadable when the rivergages.com website for South Skunk River near Ames shows a river level of 3.8 or less.

http://rivergages.mvr.usace.army.mil/WaterControl/stationinfo2.cfm?sid=AMEI4&fid=AMEI4&dt=S

 

The Des Moines River from Saylorville Lake thru Des Moines has some big smallmouth bass...  20"+...but it is almost never wadable, except in the driest years...which we haven't had in a long time.  And bank fishing access is extremely limited.  But...find rock/rip rap shorelines, and you'll usually find smallies.

[FishnDave]

After work yesterday, I went home and changed clothes to get ready to go flyfish some local ponds.  I looked at myself in the mirror...Hey!

I'm wearing an @Al Agnew shirt! 😁

[Johnsfolly]

19 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

The South Skunk is the river I often fish for Smallmouth. 

I had looked at the Skunk river when I was in Iowa. Since we were staying in Marshalltown, I was looking for spots near Rt 65 north of I-80. As I mentioned it was rolling chocolate milk and only a few feet below the bridge at that time.

 

Nice Shirt!

[FishnDave]

1 hour ago, Johnsfolly said:

I had looked at the Skunk river when I was in Iowa. Since we were staying in Marshalltown, I was looking for spots near Rt 65 north of I-80. As I mentioned it was rolling chocolate milk and only a few feet below the bridge at that time.

 

Nice Shirt!

That stretch near Marshalltown or Colfax is probably closer to me, but I've never fished that part of the river.  It was only a year or so ago that guys I know finally tried it, and found smallies there.  Before that, nobody even fished that part of the river for some reason.