Got this one fishing a local Kids and Dads tourney, I was pinch hitting for my buddy who was in his last day of Master’s Classes. Turned out to be a good move.

Here is the photo of the 23 incher finally!

Thanks for all the replies guys, I’ll be adding to the tackle. Can’t wait to try those different rigs out with the crawtubes. Looks like exactly what I needed!

John is right on with his description of dropper weights and line orientation, I mainly used 3/8ths to achieve the right balance. And I was using crystal fireline 2lb diameter. In my opinion, if I was using mono it probably would have required 1/2 oz to fish the same areas. You will need to experiment with the locations and fishing conditions you encounter. One suggestion, I’m not shy about using heavy jigs if they are called for to keep the line orientation and bottom feel I need to work this lure. This day if I wasn’t dragging bottom I wasn’t getting bit.

JD, I stayed within a mile or so of the dam. Current breaks, wing dams and water between wing dams all had a few fish. The fish were scattered. The nice thing about the DBQ rig is that it is a search bait almost like a crank, I was dragging it mostly with the trolling motor rather than cast and retreiving to a pinpoint spot. Best depths were 12-15 FOW caught a few shallower and a few deeper but that seemed to be the magic number.

They call it a barge, basically it is a floating dock that is anchored up by the dam. You can access it by going to Landing 615, the charge is $10. They ferry you over to it and back when you want to leave. I fish it 5-10 times a year, it is a nice option when you don’t want to play bumper boats and if the conditions are right you can catch as many fish as you can out of a boat with less effort. I didn’t feel like dragging the boat up and worrying about the wind, current, boat position and other boaters that day and it worked out pretty well. The barge was pretty full Saturday, it is generally a good social group and you can pick up a lot of tips if you have the right attitude and are willing to share information yourself. People typically help each other net fish, share ring worms if there is a special hot color and I’ve even shared beer and had beer shared with me. You will have your grumpy exceptions to this but you’ll find that anywhere you go.

I know that spot too.

AC, I pulled a few whitetips a few feet from your work during the break last week. Left you a VM before going so you can’t hassle me for not trying. They’re still going but you really have to pay your dues. Got some blades and got a few on those, they are a blast to fish with but plastic was the best bite.

JC, I see that the majority of those Senators that need to be reached are from the Western/Central part of the state. There are more Western Iowa folks on the Iowa Outdoors site. Most of the Iowans on this site are North and South Eastern. You may consider posting there too but be warned you’ll need to put your flak suit on you’ll get a ton of crap, particularly if you aren’t a regular contributor. But there are many reasonable folk there too, just not percentage wise as many as on this site in my opinion. Thanks for bringing this to our attention and outlining specifically how we can help.

So I want to know what happened to you with the height? 6’4″ cousins…
Seriously, sounds like a fun trip. I wonder if those fish would hit smaller cranks and the smaller spinner baits. If they would that would be a good way to cover a lot of ground instead of jigging or rigging. Good luck and make sure you post your results.

JJ, Yep that’s the one, the little mudhole west of 380. I’ve only fished it from shore but I’ve seen people with 2 man boats on it. Not sure if they carry in or there is a ramp. If you need a passenger for your powerton trip let me know.

Dr. J, How goes it dude. Cedar Lake is that polluted little pond used as a warm water discharge in downtown Cedar Rapids. It’s open water all year except when we have extended stretches of below zero weather. It has some hawg large jaws in it. I’ve caught many over 5lbs, big of 7lbs there. It’s a fun little place to get the kinks out of your line and tangle with a hog or two but it’s not really worth a 2 hour drive unless you are jonesing really bad. If you get up this way drop me a PM. Take care.

Hersh, good to hear you got into them on the same pattern. Always nice to get into a good bite with the kids. Luke, I was very surprised not to have to mess with the dinks and even more surprised at the size of 2 bluegills I caught. I followed the advice of some of your posts and went bigger and away from the crowds. Worked well, did you do any good Saturday?

I made the shorter trip to Dubuque and it paid off. Eyehunter is right on, that is a great pool. The current is much more mellow a lot like Pool 4. Even up by the dam you aren’t fighting it like Guttenberg. I would hazzard a guess that anywhere on the upper sippi would be good at this time. Good luck on 4, I wish I could make a trip there soon to do battle with those hogs but it doesn’t look like that is in the cards.

Happy to oblige. Can’t let you or Mossy or Andy have all the fun in Eastern Iowa…

Supser, Sad but true man. I saw some hero’s taking a whole stringer of 10-11 inchers out the other day, just about made me puke but what are you going to do when there is no length limit. I like the Dork Rig definition. I’ll add mine to the mix. Dork Rig – Anytime that I snag into some freaking circa 1932 line with 25 oz of lead and a rusted hook and say, who was the stupid @@S DORK that snagged that crap there . Typically this happens when I have an $8 crankbait on .

Mossy, shhhh…There aren’t any walleyes in the Cedar in CR

The best part of that picture is the sweatshirt. We sure could use some sweatshirt weather down this way. It has been HOT! That is enough incentive to get me motivated to check my calendar.

Nice fish Sean.

Andy, Smallies in IC? Surely you jest…

A 20 panfish limit is very reasonable in situations without panfish overpopulation. Unless you are a total meat monger who is trying to feed the whole neighborhood you can’t tell me that you need more than 20 crappie and 20 bluegill per outing per person. For those who disagree please go to MacBride and pull every 5 inch bluegill out of that lake and put them in your bucket and get your paper thin 4 inch fillets until your heart is content.

Good point on the water clarity, something that I hadn’t considered. Could have some impact on their sensitive eyes in the relatively shallow clear water.

Nice report MD, can’t beat the small stream wade fishing. Those are some beauty smallies, we never caught one over 2 pounds in the Volga when I was a kid, but we always caught big numbers. Good to hear that the stream is still supporting a healthy population.

We call that the bare hook set up, sometimes it’s the hottest thing going when nothing else is working. I get caught up in a lot of flashy baits, sometimes going simple is what it takes. Last night we were pulling cranks and I switched over to a simple crawler harness with a small blade and that was the ticket. It was wiper city. Those things are the fastest fish in fresh water. I still think it is a close comparison with smallies for overall fight but they are definitely faster than any freshwater fish I have caught.

That report sounds pretty good to me for 1 hr of fishing. What kind of lead did you have on your harness? I like the worm harnesses with colorado spinner blades and I run a bass style bullet sinker above a swivel that then connects to the harness.

Congrats on the rare catch. Just to chime in on Trout on the Miss stories, I saw none other than Mr. Holst and Mr. Stewart fishing together on pool 4 when they stuck a piggie of a trout, looked like a brown. I think they posted it as well. It surprised them and us, I wasn’t reaching for my flyrod though.

Amen Andy, that dude was getting cranky . He put a whuppin on me that day though. As they say he was due.

Hey, if you want to get a couple boats and chase ski’s on PC or walters on the Res let us know. Sometimes several heads are better than one in figuring a pattern out.

I hear ya Mike, congrats on the monsters . I keep fish to eat as well but like you 20″ is my cutoff for walleye. I prefer the smaller ones in pan anyway. Good fishing.

VF, for the most part I’d agree the March Iowa River bite sucked. But there was one day for sure that it was gangbusters, just prior to the full floodgates opening. It was definitely a timing situation. And sounds like things are straightening out again so now may be the time to hit it again. It’s a much quicker drive for me than Dubuque, Gut, Prairie or P4. Funny observation on the brown on brown color situating Andy, but lots of times when that occurs I don’t question it, just take it for what it is document and repeat. Good luck guys.

Hopefully they weren’t all kept fish …I don’t want to start that debate but sheesh thats a load of hogs that could be contributing to the gene pool.

Nice report Andy. Interesting on the brown and orange, that’s a killer sauger combo on P4. I wouldn’t have thought to try it in the brown mess in the Iowa right now. Good to hear you got out and had success. I had a busy weekend last with volunteer tech support of a community event so I was only able to get out for 2 hours Sunday evening with my 5 year old daughter and my 9 year old nephew. We got into some nice Crappie(most 9-10 inchers but one mongo mamma at 14 plus) on the North arm of MacBride in a location we had ice fished and had some luck. Lots of options this time of year, early Crappie bite and prespawn Walters sometimes can be a tough decision when you only get 2-4 hours and 1 trip per week so your updates and others help. Good luck tonight.

I think Kornking is a jinx . We go to DBQ last year and hardly catch a cold. I go by myself and hit the mother load. Sunday I have 2 hours to fish the tube and catch 2 nice fish and have lots of misses(too much socializing). Yesterday the best thing that came over the gunwhale in 5 hours was someones catfish rig from 1950. I’ve fished the sippi when its just as turbid and caught plenty of fish so who knows what the deal is. For now I blame it on Kornking and his bad luck mojo! All joking aside you can’t find a better fishing buddy, he brings lunch, keeps a positive attitude even when getting skunked for 5 hours and gets into 32 degree water to help trailer the boat. So to sum it up, if you want to catch fish, don’t put your boat in at the tube and go to the slack water area with everyone else, don’t use jig and minnow, don’t use jig and ringie, don’t use jig and do’s, don’t use jig and twisters, don’t use lindy rigs, don’t use Sonars, don’t use jigging spoons because none of that crap works in this river. Is the freaking Mississippi ready to fish yet?