The lull after the spawn.

I’ve beed running dittypoles for the last two weeks and all I’m getting is smaller ones up to 3 pounds. I talked to an old boy in his mid 70’s, from boat to boat, out on the river today and he thought its been the spawn lull too. He was anchored and fishing mid channel and he said all hes catching is smaller ones the same size I’ve been getting. We both agreed when the catfish get back on thier feet the bigger ones will start showing up.

I’ve been trying to find the smaller bluegills because the catfish that have been biting are smaller ones, some catfish are better then none and the size of these are the best tasteing, so not really a loss.

I’m making 2 trotlines right now with an arms reach between stageings and each have 15 hooks. I’ll bait with the same bluegills and tie one end off to the shoreline and drop the concrete block, on the other end, out in about 5′ or 6′ of water to see if the bigger ones are laying out in deeper water. The size I’m baiting with now are plenty good for the biggers ones so they will work if the bigger ones are biteing. It won’t be long befor they do.

Cats are spawning right now down here. They should be just starting around CR. Try in 2-3′ of water along a rock shoreline. They will be on the rocks for another couple weeks, but some of the bigger fish have already dropped and moved out. But there are still way more spawning than out deep.

With so little time to fish pm me a map of where exactly they are
location cedar rapids

Thanks for the info B, I was fishing for bait the other day and seen a bullhead guarding the hatch that it had produced, hundreds of tiny bullheads about a 1/2 long. I knew it was getting close to spawn, eigther that or they had already for channel catfish. Because things are about 2 to 3 weeks ahead of time and the amount of blood on the females eggs we caught a few weeks ago I’m assuming the channels have already spawned around here, I don’t know forsure eigther way. You catching any females full of eggs? Where I’m fishing there isn’t any bigger rocked shorelines where they can lay thier eggs, alot of small rock, shorelines and gravel bars so I don’t know where thier spawning. There is some mud bottom shoelines with a limestone base under the mud so maybe its close to those areas and maybe theres enough bigger rocks laying there that they can fan away the mud and use the area to spawn in. Thier not on the sandbars, gravels bars that have a few feet of water over them, maybe thier on the mud flats of fairly calm water and they have fanned out nests to lay thier eggs. Where else can they be if thier not in those places, thier not around the logs and trees making nests as I’ve got my dittypoles set in those places.

I would try the gravel bars real hard. I catch a few flats off of sand/gravel bars on the Miss. Of course 95% of them spawn on the rocks, as both shorelines are solid riprap banks all the way down. But a few do go to the sand.

Channels are just at the end of the spawn, still a few females with eggs but mostly dark blue spawned out males and females.

Flats are still holding eggs, the few I have caught (not really targeting them this year) have been 5-10lbers that look like they swallowed a football. I have hooked into a couple monsters that just buried me in the rocks and sliced 17# mono without me even being able to turn their heads, so I think the big ones are up on the rocks still also.

If you don’t have any rocks I would hit the next best thing, gravel. They will dig depressions in the gravel and use those as nests when natural nesting spots (back side of boulders or big rocks) are not available.

I’ve never really had any luck in mud for spawners, at least not on rivers. In lakes they love the mud, but I think in the rivers the current silts in their nests too much.

I’ve gotten a few blue males that are under 3 pounds, no bigger ones yet. The gravel bars that I’m talking about have too much current going over them to hold thier eggs. Maybe theres a deeper gravel bar that I don’t know where it is. Theres no shoreline with rocks over a 2″ size along the banks. Theres is a section of river that has about 2′ of water on it with various smaller rocks bigger then 3″ so maybe thats where their at but I’ve watched the guys that are camping there along side the river, from my boat and thier not catching any of the bigger ones eigther, just smaller ones. I personally think thier resting up and thier metabolism is going back to the feeding stage after the spawn, and thier gaining strength to start feeding again. I will find out how long it takes to get the better ones and count back to figure out when they spawned. Last year this time we couldn’t catch anything because they were on thier nests. Its almost as if someone shut the light out running dittypoles. Within a couple days they quit hitting and they started feeding again about 3 weeks later. I figure 2 weeks too spawn and one week to get back to feeding. I did get one about a week ago that was 6 pounds, don’t know why it bit and the rest haven’t yet.

Its hard on dittys and limb lines this time of year. The fish arent cruising looking for a meal, they are sitting on their nests. You just have to hope you set it close enough to a big ones nest that he comes and bites.

This time of year is a good time to use bullheads as bait. The flatheads see the bullheads as competition during the spawn and what better way to eliminate your competition than to eat him? They will travel off the nests to eat them when they would just sit there and look at a bluegill or chub.

If you have time between checking your lines, drift some 8″ chubs under a bobber down the different rocks and sand bars.. see if you can locate the big ones so you know where to set the dittys.

I know what your saying B, where I’m fishing is prime when thier done spawning, I’m just going to sit and wait them out, I think they’ll bite soon. I don’t run limblines, just dittypoles and a couple trotlines and thier not in the water yet but soon, its too hard getting bait when the small ones are stealing it…If a guy was looing for a good business to start it would be raiseing chubs and crawdads and delivering them to bait shops.

Don’t need to raise them. If there was any money in it I would get the proper license and stock the local shops. But the shops really cant keep them alive long enough to sell.

If you have time, go to almost any creek in Iowa with an ice bobber and #14 pheasant tail nymph. You will catch more chubs than you can use. The couple times I do it to get chubs for cutbait channels I can fill a 5 gal bucket in about 20 minutes.

I agree partially B, The baitshops that use to be here in town, had crawdads when they could get them, and they kept them alive until they sold out which was usually fast. They would just put in a few inches of water with a few rocks for them to climb up on and feed them an occasional dead minnow and they would stay alive for weeks if they weren’t selling. The flood of 08 wiped out the few that went under water, they never opened back up. Alot of guys would buy chubs includeing me at .25 to .50 a piece, bigger chubs at a 1.00 a piece. When the flatheads go to town at the dam here I think they would have a hard time keeping them in stock or they would sell really well befor the next delivery. When the catfish are in the shallows I’ve seen crawdads sell out right away because alot of guys don’t have the time to hunt for them themselves. We seriously need another baitshop here in town thats close to the river like the other ones were, our only choice for minnows is Gander Mountain and thats 3 miles from the river. A baitshop and not a tackle store chain, although what they have is appreciated. I’ve thought about opening up another baitshop, we used to have one, but its a big commitment to serve from 5:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night. Alot of sales come from the time from 5:00 in the afternoon until midnight, even later when guys run out of bait and the bites good. They will drive miles in hopes that your open even when they suspect your not.