Saylorville Resevoir, IA 09-26-04

It’s hard to think of summer being over with temperatures flirting with the 80’s and the leaves all still intact, but fish are driven by a different calendar which tracks the shorter days and the cooling water temps. Ordinarily I would be on the boat this Sunday, but with my tow vehicle in the shop, I resorted to wading the shoreline from Sandpiper Beach south. As I approached the shore from the parking lot, the gulls gave me the bad news. The birds had moved offshore and found better hunting for stunned shad in the propwash of larger boats. The constant shoreline summer blitzes were over.

I cast for 1.5 hours without a single hit. In the last 30 minutes I found one dink LM Bass and 3 small whites. On this gorgeous cool, calm afternoon I would have gone home happy just being out here, but there is always something reassuring about catching at least one.

Although it was a perfect day to be out, the white bass fishing could have improved with a 20+ wind out of the south and a bit of cloud cover. From here on out, if you are on foot, you may wish to plan your trips for mornings and dusk paying special attention to the wind. If you have a boat, you can find the humps, drop-offs and sunken points where the schools will stage out of the shallows.

There are still a lot of good white bass days left into October but they require a bit more planning and hunting.

Go fish.

Dave

P.S. The “fishing report” on the wall at Sportmens Warehouse for Saylorville that has gone pretty much unchanged since June can be erased now.. don’t you think?

I was going to ask what was up with Saylorville… We went out Saturday afternoon and saw the gulls following boats. We found a ton of trash north of the bridge and generally cloudy water everywhere. We assumed the heavy rains up north were flowing into the lake and therefore disturbing the fun… Is this just the natural fall progression of things instead?

Amoung four of us, we only managed to pull in one fish. Granted it was a nice big white bass, but it didn’t exactly satisfy all of us.

Anyway, we are talking about giving it another try this weekend, but don’t know where to look if the pattern has changed for the fall. Is it time to give up on Saylorville for the year and head back to our Largemouth lakes?

Yes, I think it is a normal fall pattern.

All I can tell you is what I will most likely try this weekend (if I get my tow vehicle back ).

1.Pick the windiest day of the weekend to go out. It doesn’t make it comfortable in the boat but it helps the fishing a lot. If the 2-4” shad can get swept against the north shore you have a chance of finding them in the shallows (like summer).

2. If you don’t have wind or can’t find them in the shallows, head for the submerged islands, humps and drop-offs. If you don’t know where they are, just head for the nearest hazard buoy (CAREFULLY!) and work from that point deeper. Watch your sonar if you have it.

3. If you are using a fast moving spoon like a Kastmaster or Hopkins you may wish to try something that can be fished slower. I use the smallest Johnson weedless silver spoon and the medium Daredevil hammered silver spoon and slowly “hop” them across the bottom instead of a steady retrieve. You could also switch to a white plastic curly tail. I am fond of the Gulp 3” minnow in white with a small jig head.

Or yeah… you could give BC a try, but I cant tell you anything about that, I havent been there in at least a month.

Good luck,
Dave

I have a buddy who just bought a boat and wants to troll some plugs on Saylorville this Sat. Any info on the bite. We will try to find the humps and pull along Cherry Glen. Any new info appre ciated.Thanks, J.D.

Well JD I have not been out there in quite awhile but from what I hear it is back to the dead sea. I talked to Bill and he said he has been skunked the last three times out. I hope to be out there Sat. in the am and check it out. If I were you I would take some live bait and try that. I beleave it works better. If you see a blue and white starcraft come over and say hi. Wish I could be more help. Next week I should be out there quite abit because I quite my part time job. Working four hours a day just takes up to much time this time of year. Jim

Take this job and …
Way to go Jim! Fishing is way to important to let a job interfere. Wish I could do the same… someday.

I too am going to be (hopefully) out on the Ville sometime this weekend. I have been talking with some guys in Texas who chase sandies year round and they have been giving me some interesting ideas for water below 65deg.

Im going to slow down my presentation. I’m going to jig spoons and use live bait as Jim suggested out on the humps and old roadbeds.

If you see me say hello. Im hard to miss; the only saltwater center console (usually) on the lake. As always, Jim and I will be on VHF channel 06.

Good luck,
Dave

That reminds me…

Goody (Eric) will be doing a presentation on live bait rigging tomorrow night (thursday @ 6pm) at the Central Iowa Anglers meeting.
It is held at the VanDyke Chiropratic Clinic here:
475 s 50th suite 700
West Des Moines, IA 50265
Everyone is welcome to come.
Dave

Thanks for the replies fellas. I was afraid of the bite being slow. The walleyes are going up here in Nashua on the cedar and I hate to lose a day going down there. They are draining the lake in Nashua and the gates are wide open putting the fish on the feed below the dam.Thanks again, I’ll say hi if I see you out there. JD

How did you guys do?I talked my buddy into Clear lake instead and he caught a 25″ walleye. Plenty of other action up there too.see ya on the water.J.D.