Mc Bride

Went to Mc Bride today. Got up late and got there late (after 9) Twas already gettin hot. Anyway Gills and Specks I know you wanted to know the water temp. It was about 77 deg. depending on the time of day and location (surface temp )..I tried 2 or 3 of my favorite spots for crappies and only got 2 small ones . One small bass…. And Gianni, My wife didn’t want any strippers runnin around the house all dripping wet unless some of em were male and I wasn’t up to sortin today.

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And Gianni, My wife didn’t want any strippers runnin around the house all dripping wet unless some of em were male and I wasn’t up to sortin today.

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Maybe if you threatened to weed the garden?

Sounds like you had a better day than I did at work. It was completely miserable busy, and I still didn’t get done half the crap I need to. I also made the mistake of getting out my bow and playing around some. I had back surgery this summer and had convinced myself that I wouldn’t hunt until opening day of ditch-parrots. Now I’ve come to realize that surgery on your fifth lumbar doesn’t affect your ability to draw a bow one bit, and while I’m still not able to climb in and out of a tree, I think it’s very possible that I’ll end up sitting in the woods with a pointy stick instead of chasing fall walleyes up on the river.

Did you stop by Cleppe’s? He has a beaut of a walleye in the minnow tank. Probably 4-5lbs, I’m guessing, and from MacBride. I heard rumors of two people pulling 8lb eyes through the ice last year as well.

Hey G, I believe you and I are from the same neighborhood. This is my first post here but since I read yours and appreciate the input it seems only right that I should return the gesture. Haven’t fished MacBride since May but hit it this morning and that was pretty disappointing except for one fish. Fished from 7-1 and only caught four bass total, two of which were dinks. One was 18.5” though so that brightened things up a little. For the most part plastic was the only thing getting hit and rocks didn’t produce crap. The bluegills were tearing up my plastic, went through a lot of that today.

Any size on the ‘gills? Last winter was the first time I think I’ve ever caught bluegills out of that lake with any kind of regularity. I think with all the work that was done, it should be a couple of boom years ahead.

We’ll have to plan an outing sometime. Things are pretty busy this month, but with any luck, October will be a fish-frenzy.

I was using 9.5” plastic worms with a 4/0 hook so I didn’t actually catch any of the bluegills. They were just nipping off tails and trashing plastic. The water was stained more so than usual I thought so there wasn’t much to see. The bluegills that I did see were just little guys. Hard to say though, a few tail nippers smacked me pretty good so there might be some nice ones in there?

Sure hope so. Last year about 80% of my ice fishing was on McBride. What I haven’t been hearing about is the crappie bite on either McBride or Coralville this summer. Last year was a boom year, we must’ve caught 200+ crappies out of McBride, with others saying they had 200+ fish in a single day on Coralville.

I know panfish population is cyclic, but from boom to bust in one year (without a winter killoff)?

hey G the crappie #s are still good at both places.The reason you don’t here about all the big #s is the weather is normal this year.On an Iowa normal summer it gets hot and the crappie play hard to find.last year stayed cool for the biggest part and in return Ray Charles could find them,and more fishermen were fishing for them in the cooler weather.A friend and I was on MB last Sat.for about 5 hours and cought around 100 crappies,keep only 27 plumppers.The weather has them screwed up.They were holding tight to the wood and bottom in 9-13′ water,work all the little points. Got to get back to packing for my trip to the CRAPPIE USA CLASSIC this comming week.

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last year stayed cool for the biggest part and in return Ray Charles could find them,

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That would explain my success! To be honest, Palo has really been ‘Lake of the year’ for me this year. Every year I try to pick a new place where, “By golly, I’m gonna figure out the fish at X.” Anyone else do that?

Best luck at the tournament, and let us know how you do.

Hit MacBride again today from 7-1:30 and caught a few bass. Not a lot by any means but after the front it could have been worse, I’m thinking I got maybe seven or eight? The biggest was 17”, also had a 15.5” and a 14”, the rest were dinks. So I was fairly pleased with at least the two larger fish. All came off plastic except for the 14” on a spinnerbait. Stopped by Cleppe’s for minnows just in case the bass bite was dead. After seeing the walleye in his tank that came out of MacBride some time had to be spent on that. All that time only produced a dink catfish, should have just kept bass fishing!

Hey Ttrigger, A bad day of fishin is still better than workin. When are you comin back up north to chase some eyes? As the temps start dropping things should start pickin up. Once those water temps on your lake start getting down about 12 degrees or so check to see if the crappies are in shallow like they are in the spring time. Go get em. Thanks, Bill

We’re plannin in a couple weeks Bill. Same place. Ifn Pat don’t go on strike. Their contract is up the end of this week. I worked all weekend so have no fishin to talk about.

Well Gianni,we made it back home.It was diffrent,we ended up in 27th place out of about 110+ boats in the semi-pro class( there is no pro class in Crappie USA ).The fishing really sucked,got real hot first day with a little front,second day big front came in making big cool down temp. change real high winds and dropping water levels both days. I did what I set out to do going down there we placed way better then I thought we would.I cought 4 crappies over 2 #s and my brother had one that was 1#14 1/2 ounces.I found out what I wanted to we can hang with the big boy’s (well most of them lol ).I fell we did good job for are first year fishing Crappie USA.