2026 Indee Bass Club Tournament #1 at Lake Delhi

 

Lake Delhi Champions: Jackson and Colton

Ten years ago, Jackson Toale and Kegan Postel had an idea for a school project..."let's start a bass club".  A week or so later after a few dead ends, they were sent to me for help.  The rest is, as they say, history. 

 The 2026 Indee Bass Club began its tenth year of helping kids get out on the water to learn and practice bass fishing.  We kicked off the tenth season on a cool, breezy morning at Lake Delhi this past Saturday.  Eight captains and their boats awaited for the sixteen kids to blast off at 8am for a day of fishing.  The goal for the day, catch five "keeper" bass that measured 12 inches or more.  The event concluded at 1pm with a weigh-in and prize giveaways for all kids involved.  The Indee Bass Club is a volunteer youth group that can only do what they do with the help of their great sponsors.  These sponsors include: Colony Plumbing Heating/AC, Smith D&L Insurance, Buchanan County Wildlife Association, Rick Wendling Memorial, BankIowa, Time Reed State Farm, Shay's Minn Kota, Hilltop Motors, Cy&Charley's, Cedar Falls SCHEELS, The Rod Glove, FishRX, X-Zone Lures, Hot Rod Baits, Lew's Fishing, and Strike King Lures.  Andrew Gissel of Gissel Custom Rods was present at this event to give away one of his custom casting rods, what a treat for a young angler to now own a custom rod from a local rod maker.  The club is able to give away rods, reels and fishing gear totaling about $800 for each event, while keeping it free for all anglers.  

The spring weather has been nothing but normal in the month of April.  Storm front after front have graced the state of Iowa brining higher than normal water to Lake Delhi and more than usual runoff and current.  Students and adult captains were greeted with temperatures in low forties with winds whipping around 25mph at times.  Water clarity was a little dirty for Lake Delhi in April due to the recent weather.  If you add all these variables up, it made for a tough day on the water for the student anglers.  Eight boats were entered into the event, but only four could catch a keeper to weigh-in at the scales.  In forth place was Even Hoyle and Clinton Junk, they had one keeper that weighed 0.96 pounds.  Coming in third was Ranger Reed and Cal Sweeney, they had one keeper bass that weighed 1.03 pounds.  Ranger reported catching the keeper on a Hot Rod Baits tube rigged "stupid style".  Coming in second was the team of Aiden Svoboda and Will Clark.  They caught 3 keepers that weighed 4.74 pounds.  Aiden also caught the Strike King Big Bass of the tournament, a 2.53 pound largemouth.  This young duo caught their keepers on Spinnerbaits and Chatterbaits.  In first place was the team of Colton Cameron and Jackson Beatty, they also won this event in 2025.  They had a limit of 5 keeper bass that weighed 8.25 pounds.  They reported catching their winning fish on crankbaits and a Ned Rig.  Overall the bites were few but spirits were high at the weigh-in.  It is early April and conditions can vary from day to day.  I special thank you goes out to the eight adult captains for taking these kids out on the water today; Andrew Gissel, Todd Reed, Dan Sweeney, Jeff Heinze, Joel Hoyle, Cyrus Butters, Bo Peyton, and Dalton Beau.  The next event is at Lake MacBride in May for the club, you can find them on the web, Instagram and Facebook for more details, or contact Coach Todd Reed on how to get involved. 

2nd Place and BIG BASS: Aiden and Will

 

Spring is HERE

 Open water fishing is off to a hot start this month.  I have focused only on bass fishing thus far this spring with some great trips already in the books.  Here are my must have 3 baits for early bass season:

#1- Wig's Jig and Chunk: This has been a favorite of mine for over a decade now.  This hand-made jig available in all the right colors paired with a Hot Rod Baits chunk is always ready to be pitched this time of year.  I have rotated between the Black/Blue Flash and the Bluegill pattern.  Get some today: www.hotrodbaits.com

Do these 3 Things NOW to keep your Ice Season Rolling!

The ice season is sadly on the downhill side of the season and some lakes are showing signs of the February slowdown.  Fish tend to slow down in February as the ice builds and the crowds are thick at popular Iowa lakes/rivers. There are a few simple things that ice anglers need to do to get through this tough time and onto the late ice bite...which can be even better than first ice.

#1- FRESH LINE: Now is a perfect time to get some fresh line on your reels.  You DO NOT need to take all the line off and fill your entire spool with new line.  Most ice fishing line spools come with 100 yards of line on them.  That is enough to re-line 2 or 3 reels.  Leave plenty of older line on your reel and put the fresh right on top.  If you need more than 100 feet of line on your ice reel...you aren't fishing in Iowa.

#2- TRAVEL: One sure fire way to beat the winter slowdown is to travel to highly populated lakes.  Some lakes are better than others, some just have more fish in them than others.  Water quality, reproduction cycles, and angler pressure can all lead to this.  Research and find what lakes are "full" of fish, it will make a huge difference this time of year.

#3- TURN IT OFF: If you are using Forward Facing Sonar on the ice, it is time to turn it off.  Not all the time, but when you locate fish and use a Vexilar to catch them, do not leave the FFS in the water pointing at the fish you are trying to catch.  I have seen this over and over throughout the winter seasons.  Some fish will move from their location if you leave the FFS pointing on them.  The signal of a FFS unit is strong, the fish can feel the sonar and some will react negatively towards it.  Simple fixes include; pulling it out of the hole or pointing it another direction.  The signal frequency of a Vexilar unit will omit anywhere from 150 to 300MHz, while a FFS, like a Livescope will omit 600-1,100 MHz.  Yes, the fish can feel that and make the leave the area.

These are a few things you can do in the near future to keep catching good numbers of fish through the ice.  With the current forecast...you may want to bookmark this article because late ice may be here sooner than later.  :(

1 Often OVERLOOKED aspect of using a VEXILAR

 

Using a Vexilar while ice fishing is a typical thing anymore.  The Vexilar FL-8 was introduced in the 1980s and ice fishing has never been the same since.  The ability to see under the ice to locate fish, brush and weeds changed the game forever.  It is still the most popular device used on the ice today for anglers.  Even though it is the most popular ice electronic in the Midwest, anglers often forget a key element that a Vexilar can do for them while ice fishing.  

No matter what model of Vexilar you may have, this often overlooked information can be detected with your unit.  The easy things for all Vexilar users are visually seeing the bottom, brush, weeds, your bait and of course the fish.  On those great days of ice fishing as your jig starts to fall, the fish will swim out of nowhere and meet up with your jig, a little bump on the rod and up comes the fish.  Simple, and yet so satisfying.  Those days are few and far between.  Typically, locating fish and knowing whether there are fish under us or not while ice fishing is as far as most anglers get while using a Vexilar.  There is much more.

The most often overlooked aspect of using a Vexilar is reacting to the mood of the fish.  This is much more than following the fish "up and down" the water column.  Vexilar is a real-time sonar device and we as anglers need to use that information to our advantage.  Whenever our bait is down the hole we need to be analyzing the behavior of the fish.  Think of it as a Cause/Effect relationship.  If you are jigging your bait aggressively and a fish shows up...that action of your jig brought the fish nearby.  Use that information to catch it.  If the fish is getting closer (colors turning from green to yellow to red) then keep that jigging action going.  If that signal is not getting "stronger", (turning back from red to yellow to green) then make an immediate change in the cadence of your bait.  It truly is a cat/mouse game all the time.  The more you can focus in on what the colors on the Vexilar are telling you, the better you can adjust your cadence to get more fish attracted to you, and then get them to bite.  Some days all fish will react the same, mostly due to weather patterns or light penetration through the ice.  However, most days each fish has its own mood that we need to detect while it is under us.  Most do not give you much time to make this adjustment.  Be aware of the marks on your Vexilar and always think about the reactions of the fish, they are telling you what they like...and don't like. The more we can decipher this the more fish we will catch.

The ONE Ice Fishing COMBO Everyone Needs

 

Bluegills are known for light bites

Ice angling has changed so much in the past ten years, it is hard to believe at times.  One of the biggest advancements is electronics.  Vexilar keeps making their flashers better and better with each new release.  Their newest, the FLX-38 is a huge step above any other unit they have ever produced.  Forward Facing sonar (FFS) has completely changed the game on top of the ice.  These units can tell you exactly where the fish are...and more importantly where the fish "aren't".  However, one thing in the industry hasn't changed over the few decades which often causes anglers to miss out on opportunities while ice fishing.  I am referring to the rods/reels that we use.   

There are a lot of different rods out there to choose from.  Dozens and dozens of companies have a multitude of rod lengths, actions and handle preferences.  The "noodle rod" was all the buzz a few years ago and is still probably the most used rod on the market.  Again, every company has many offerings of this style of rod, however this is not the ONE ROD that everyone needs to have when ice fishing.  The one rod that I am referring to is a spring bobber rod.  This rod has a spring bobber designed into or along side of the rod blank.  There are far fewer companies that include a spring bobber option, the best I have found is Clam Outdoors.  They have several choices to choose from and they sell a good product.  A spring bobber isn't always needed, I may use it 1 out of 4 days that I fish.  It is a specialty rod that is made for jigs 4mm and smaller.  They really shine when using 2mm tungsten and light lead jigs.  If you are using some 4mm and larger jigs a properly balance noodle rod will work the same.  Back to the spring bobber...a spring bobber will help you see the lightest bites.  This has already helped me once in this young ice fishing season.  When anglers in the same area were reporting catching 5-15 fish, I ended the day catching dozens of fish...all because of the spring bobber.  The bluegills were hitting the jig so gently that other rods would not show the bite, thus the fish ended up just taking my bait.  As soon as I made the switch to a spring bobber, I immediately started catching fish at a higher rate.  It was like someone flipped a switch.  Again, it isn't like this every day on the ice, but when the bite gets soft, there is no better choice than a spring bobber.

The spring bobber is an extension of the rod to help you see the lightest of bites.

I hope this bit of information will help you get more fish on the ice this winter, as always, be safe out there.