Saylorville Reservoir, Polk County, IA 8-21-04

Absolutely beautiful morning to be on Saylorville. The whites were a little harder find which I kinda suspected. The water has cooled all the way down to 68deg. I started out trolling and casting from Cherry Glen south along the east shore. Nothing.

I moved up to the Marina point near Sandpiper and worked north until I found them just to the North of the swimming beach. There were enough there that I anchored and spent the rest of the morning there. The trollers found them between me and the ramp as well. All of the trollers were cool about my anchor except one who just had to go between me and the shore. 6,000 acres of water to choose from and he chose 15 feet from my boat.

We caught more then 20, less then 30. After half a dozen I usually stop counting so it is always a guess. One dink LM bass as well. We had a fish on every 5 to 10 minutes, just often enough to keep the kids interested. Not as good as a month ago, but considering that we have 50 deg nights and 68 deg water at State Fair time…. something had to give…

Hot lure for the day was a plain silver Kastmaster (don’t know ozs, I think it is second smallest) which kind of surprised me because my Matzuo shallow seekers had been hot all summer. I have IA James to thank for putting me on that spoon last year. I rarely go to spoons without someone’s suggestion.

Go fish…
Dave

great pic way to get the kids out there, glad you had a good day

Thanks for the update Dave. I looked for you Saturday, but went the other way, and chances are you were gone already anyway. We got on the water at Sandpipper about 11:00, my daughter smashed her finger between the boat and doc about 11:02…not bad like we first thought. When she was feeling a little better, we headed south and marked fish right away, but couldn’t get anything to bite, so eventually moved on. We ended up back in the house boats and caught several whites.

We went back out about 5 and found them hitting the top of the water like crazy just south from the house boats. Everyone got at least 3 in the boat before we lost them and never did find anything again. I’m hoping the warm weather gets things going again–those few minutes of furious catching was awesome!

Thanks for all the tips that helped make this weekend better than our last attempt!

Awesome! Sorry to hear about your daughter’s finger though.

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found them hitting the top of the water like crazy

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Isn’t the blitz fantastic? Some guys like the subtly of a large rainbow gently inhaling a mayfly. I love the blitz. There is something primal about the fury of the whites chasing shad clear out of the water with the gulls picking off the remains. It is one of my favorite freshwater experiences; casting a fly or ultralight plug into the boil. It’s an experience very close to my first love, saltwater striper fishing. Same exact experience, different scale. I didn’t find them blitzing on Saturday, but I’m very happy that someone did!

When I got up to the top of the ramp I talked to a couple of fisherman who were down right depressed. I think they had been trolling all day for walleyes and come up empty handed. Well, they may as well have been looking for the Lock Ness Monster. I know some very good and experienced Saylorville guys find them but they are few and far between. I was grinning ear to ear and these guys were bummed. They didn’t take my suggestion very well to switch species.

To each his own…

I am also hoping that the warmer weather will help, but unfortunately, Ill be off the water for a while. Post before you go out next time and I will keep my eye out for you. If you have a VHF, put it on 06.

BTW, what lure was best for you?

Go fish…
Dave

My wife and I used a yellow jig head with a silver spinner with a yellow twister tail. My brother used a shad colored chug-bug and his girlfriend used a silver rattle trap. All seemed to do well.

I’ve been looking at VHF radios since you mentioned that a few weeks ago, but even the cheapest $80 handheld is probably more than I could get by the book-keeper…

I’m in a 14.5′ Starcraft 1979 Tan w/Green and a 20 hp Merc–the fisherman’s dream! We catch fish and have fun, so we’ll stick with it for now. We were in my brother’s Gambler for the second half of the day.

I’ll let you know when we go out again. Maybe after work later this week.