Ice Season 2025/26 is HERE!

 

A limit of BLUEGILLS to start the season

The season rolled in quickly this year catching many anglers off guard.  Last weekend marked he first "safe ice" in Iowa for anglers to enjoy.  "Safe ice" of course is a relative terms and one not to take lightly.  Same lakes in Iowa are still wide open with water, while others have 8 or more inches on them in areas.  SAFETY is the most important thing to keep on your mind this time of year with the varying ice conditions.  I get asked all the time, "How do you know the ice is safe?"  I always say, "There is only one way to find out for sure, go test it."  Accessing lakes with a safety strategy and the proper safety tools is a must this time of year.  These include: a spud bar, rope, flotation cushion, and a Friend.  A spud bar will help you gage the ice as you hit it on the ice for every step.  This allows you a test that shows how hard/thick the ice is before you walk on it.  It is a must this time of year for exploring new ice.  The most important tool...is to take a friend.  Fishing alone this time of year, or fishing without a rope or flotation device is simply a STUPID thing to do.  Check the ice often...and you will fish another day.

The 2025/26 season started off on the Mississippi River for me.  I headed to a local community hole, Bussey Lake on Friday, December 5th.  There were many anglers out with reports of "catching" by the local bait shop.  The ice was solid in the area, ranging from 5-6 inches.  I started to pick up a few bluegills right away in about five feet of water.  I was not seeing very many fish coming through the area on the Vexilar FLX38, so I decided to hop around a bit to see what else was out there.  I quickly some water that was a bit shallower and had some nice weeds present.  Fish, especially bluegills love weeds.  I immediately started catching gills once I was in the weedline.  The fish were coming through at a regular rate looking for their next meal.  Not only do weeds hold a lot of small creatures for these river bluegills to eat, the weeds also provide great cover for the bluegills from predators like largemouth bass and northern pike that swim in the area too.  For the next 5 hours or so I sat on two holes of the Mississippi River backwater and caught gill after gill.  The weedline was one of the keys for locating fish today.  It allowed me to keep my limit of 25 fish, enough for a couple of meals for my parents and a meal for my family.  I also caught a half-dozen largemouth bass and a crappie on the day too.  It was a great way to start the ice season!

2025 Indee Bass Club Year-End Banquet

2025 Indee Bass Club Year-End Awards

2025 AOY: Colton Cameron

The fishing season has come and gone for the local Indee HS Bass Club.  The club was started in 2017 and each year since then has given students the opportunity to fish tournaments all over the state, participate in seminars and learn about the great sport of bass fishing.  Coach Todd Reed offers a fishing activity once a month from April through October for kids to get out fishing.  The club is operated by volunteers, Coach Reed keeps things going on a daily basis while others help at the events, including Keith Donnelly, Garry Anderson, Randy Toale, and Dan Sweeney.  The club is supported by local and national sponsors which allows kids to participate in every activity free of charge.  These sponsors include: Colony Heating/AC, Smith D&L Insurance, Buchanan County Wildlife Association, Klever Concrete, Tim Reed State Farm, BankIowa, Cy&Charley’s, Shay’s Minn Kota, RONA Memorial, Hilltop Motors, SCHEELS, The Rod Glove, X-Zone Lures, Lews Rods/Reels, Strike King Lures, and Hot Rod Baits.  The club is able to provide students with fishing gear, life vests and rods/reels with the help of these great sponsors.  

The Indee Bass Club holds four official club tournaments per year to decide the Angler of the Year.  This year those events were held on Lake Okoboji, Lake Delhi and two events on the Wapsipinicon River.  Anglers fish two per boat along with an adult “captain” to help throughout the tournament.  Anglers collect points on their finishes and those are added up for the yearly totals.  This year, like many in the past, came down to the last event at Lake Delhi.  In fifth place overall this year was Carter Eddy.  He placed second, third, third and fifth in the four points events.  In fourth was Ranger Reed, he finished third, fourth, second and third in the 4 events.  In third place was Jackson Beatty, he placed first, second, sixth and first.  Runner-Up was Gable Eddy.  He placed first, second, first and fifth on the year.  Your 2025 Angler of the Year is Colton Cameron.  He placed second, third, first and first in the 4 points tournaments.  Another annual award given each year is the Big Bass of the year.  Gable Eddy takes the honors for 2025 for catching a 5.93 pound largemouth bass at the Okoboji Lakes in April…what a fish! Congratulations to all 32 anglers that fished this year, almost half of them received the “Limit Award” at our annual banquet.  Any angler able to weigh in a limit (typically 3 or 5 bass) receives this award.  Awards winners for 2025 include: Christian SImmons, Will Clark, Ty Hanson, Landen Putbrese, Brayton Kuhse, Preston Miller, Aiden Svoboda, Keegan King, Memphis Peyton, Cal Sweeney, Carter Eddy, Ranger Reed, Colton Cameron, Jackson Beatty and Gable Eddy.  

It was a great night honoring the anglers, families and boat captains that contribute to this club.  So much goes into each and every year and plans are already happening for the 2026 season.  You can find more information about the Indee Bass Club on Instagram, Facebook and their website. 

FALL is HERE

 

Strike King Lures will have
you catching more fish this FALL

The weather has finally changed and FALL is here in Iowa.  It is time to put the flip-flops away and get those hoodies out.  I truly love the month of October for fishing.  Bass start to feed up, panfish start to school up and larger fish like walleye and pike are very active too.  October has a lot of good memories and I look forward to new ones each and every year.  

With the fall season here, it does translate into a some tackle refinements.  Jerkbaits become a mainstay on the boat, they work great for bass this time of year and a walleye will be fooled every once in awhile too.  I also like poppers this time of year.  As the water cools bass will look towards the top of the water column for their next meal.  This doesn't last long but it sure is fun when you can blast some bass on topwater in October.  Spinnerbaits, a bait that I do not use most of the year, becomes my favorite search bait.  I begin fall with large willow leaf blades and as the water cools I will trade the large blades out for smaller blades.   Lastly, a Texas-rigged Hot Rod Baits tube...this bait is good year-round.  

These are my main baits this time of year, a fifth selection would be a crankbait, shallow or medium diver depending on your location.  As you can tell by the bait selections, fish are starting to feed more on smaller fish than crawdads.  Crawdads will soon...if not already...be making their way under some rocks in a state of dormacy for the fall and winter.  Fish love crawdads, but with fewer and fewer of them roaming around all fish species will focus more on smaller fish to fee on.  

If you don't have a few of these baits tied on...you better get to it and get out to your favorite body of water soon.

Indee Bass Club Visits Lake Delhi

The fourth and final stop of the Indee Bass Club took place on September 20th at Lake Delhi. Anglers from the club also had tournaments on the Okoboji Lakes, and two on the Wapsi River here in Independence this year. The day was a wonderful one for fishing, partly cloudy, mild breezes and little boat traffic. Lake Delhi is known for a lot of bass, both smallmouth and largemouth, making it an ideal place for a youth tournament. The anglers had six hours to figure out what the bass wanted to eat on this particular day, and that they did. The club set a new record with weighing in 33 bass at one event, also a record with the most weight weighed in at a tournament, 57.21 pounds. As mentioned, it was a great day to be in the club and a great day to be on the water fishing.

Nine adult captains took 18 kids out fishing on this day, with 16 anglers able to bring bass to the weigh in. Kaden Shannon and Preston Miller found one bass that weighed 0.76 pounds. In seventh place was Ty Hanson and Antonio Moore with two bass that weighed 1.80 pounds. Sixth place belonged to the team of Landen Putbrese and Keegan King, they had a limit of five keeper bass that weighed 6.76 pounds. In recent years that weight would have put the anglers in the top 2, but on this particular day the big bass were hungry on Lake Delhi. In fifth place was the team of Gable and Carter Eddy, they had 7.88 pounds. Coming in at the fourth spot was Aiden Svoboda and Will Clark, they had 8.18 pounds. In third place was Ranger Reed and Cal Sweeney, they had 9.55 pounds, including a 3.94 pound largemouth. This pair used wacky rigged stick baits and a stupid rigged tube from Hot Rod Baits. In the Runner-Up spot was Memphis Peyton and Brayton Kuhse, they had 10.83 pounds, including a 3.30 pound smallmouth bass. The Delhi Champions reported catching their keepers on wacky rigged stickbaits and ned rigs. Jackson Beatty and Colton Cameron had 11.45 pounds, including the Big Bass of the tournament, a giant largemouth weighing 5.27 pounds caught by Jackson. As you can tell these kids really found a way to catch some great fish! What a way to end the regular season. The anglers do have one more chance to fish representing the Indee Bass Club. The Eastern Iowa Bass Club Battle, which will have the Cedar Falls Fishing Club and the Cedar Rapids Prairie Fishing Team going at it on Coralville Lake on October 11th. Indee has won this fun event 2 of the 3 years it has taken place.

The captains that provided their time, expertise and boats include: Shane Beatty, Bo Peyton, Todd Reed, Jeff Heinze, Dan Sweeney, Dalton Beau, Garry Anderon, Jesse Roscovious and Todd Ristvedt. The club is sponsored by; Colony Plumbing/Heating/AC, Buchanan County Wildlife Association, Smith D&L Insurance, Klever Concrete, Tim Reed State Farm, BankIowa, Cy&Charley’s, Shay’s Minn Kota, RONA Memorial, Hilltop Motors, Scheels of Cedar Falls, Lew’s Rods/Reels, Strike King Lures, Hot Rod Baits, X-Zone Lures, The Rod Glove. These sponsors make it possible for all anglers to fish without cost. They also provide trophies/awards and all anglers receive fishing gear at each tournament. You can find much more about the club and many more pictures on their Facebook, Instagram and Website.

Do you CHANGE color or weight first?

 To all my jig and Texas-Rig throwers out there this question can make the difference of a bad day and a good day of fishing.  I have done a lot of experimenting with this over the years and I was reminded of this once again last week.  I had spent three straight days on the river catching bass on one of my favorite color of tubes; the Hot Rod Baits GreenPumpkin/Blue tube.  Like most anglers I will change color of baits first, typically depending on the water clarity, which if yo are fishing river systems can change in the matter of a few hours or with a change of scenery.  Two straight days I was catching bass on a 3/16oz Texas Rig, on the third day the bites disappeared.  Same stretch of river, similar current and same water clarity.  The GreenPumpkin/Blue tube was working so well, and it looked so good in the water I wasn't boing to change up colors.  Instead, I changed the weight of my sinker.  I retied and placed a 1/8oz bullet weight on the Texas-Rig and continued fishing.  Several fish later I was feeling like a genius.  So, my inquiring mind took over and started to question the change.  Was it the weight...was it a different stretch of bank...different logs I was pitching at?  So, I turned the boat around and fished the laydown logs that had no bites...sure enough I caught some fish.  This was in the matter of 30 minutes so I am pretty sure the weight had EVERYTHING to do with the fish catches on this particular day.  

On that particular day I was reminded that fishing can literally b a the difference of 1/16th of an ounce, hardly anything.  This instance also reminded me that fish can be quite picky when selecting food to eat.  Not only is color important of obviously the speed of the bait can be crucial as well.  

I hope this tip helps you catch a few more fish this year, stay safe out there and keep your baits wet!