Wapsi Update 10/17 - Wapsipinicon River - Wapsipinicon River

Wow! For all your hunters and fair weather fisherman. Boy are you missing out. I got out for a few hours Saturday during the cold blow before the Hawkeye game and got a 5 and 8 pound Northern for the effort. Sunday after the early Church service the 2 year old wanted to go fishing so we loaded up and headed over to Marion Bait. Picked up some jigs and bodies and minnows. Hit a few of the regular spots on the Wapsi with very limited success. So we went exploring and boy did it pay off. The first new spot we hit had HUGE smallies just stacked in it. I C&R’ed 3 of the biggest I have caught all year. Along with a dozen others. The largest of which was one of my Top 3 ever caught from anywhere. It was a pot bellied 20″ with a mouth that I could fit a fist down. She took a 1/8 ounce blue and white jig head with a 3 inch white twister fished as slow as my patience would allow. They were just picking the lure up and moving slowly with it. Kind of like fishing a plastic worm for largemouth. I also had one hoss of a fish on for about 10 seconds before it snapped me off, the drag was locked up and wasn’t letting line pay out which is not a good thing with a hoss on. Didn’t get to see it but was guessing it was another behemoth Smallie. The bite dried up after 30-40 minutes so we moved to another new spot. The area looked great, lots of rock and a nice backwater area with an eddy. Started by pitching twisters again, after losing 3 with no hits I switched over to a splitshot, hook and minnow and promptly had a nice northern on and had my line shredded. Went with the same rig again and had a nice smallie on but I noticed it hit suspended. So I threw a pencil bobber on about 3 feet up and nailed another Smallie. Next came two decent crappie that went into the bucket. The two year old had some entertainment. And then something broke loose. For the next hour and a half we caught and released 40 magnum crappie, keeping 10 for a meal. We also caught a few rock bass and more Smallies. What a great day! The only part that would have made it better would have been to catch a few eyes in the mix but that would be like looking a gift horse in the mouth.

I have a few updates, ive been fishing the dam below anamosa for the last week and a half. in that time ive caught an 8lb northern and 8lb 27inch walleye, the walleye was caught about a week ago and quite frankly you couldnt go wrong down there the eyes were just hitting like mad, the day of the 27 incher we caught 8 within a hour and a half period with the smallest being 19inches believe it or not, i was there and had a hard time believing it, it was a blast. they were caught on chartreuse wally divers. since then the fishing has slowed down quite a bit ive been down every evening this week and caught 2-3 a night no size to them biggest was the one i caught tonight and it was 16inches the others were in the 10-12inch range. jig and twister for those. lets hear some more wapsi updates!!! i’m gonna head up river and see if i can find me a few holes, anyone care to join in?