Indee Bass Club High School April Club Tournament

To sum things up...AMAZING!  That is the brief sentiments after this tournament, however the longer version is available as you keep reading.  The first club tournament of the year was scheduled for Saturday, the weather scheduled for that day was a high temperature of 39 degrees, several inches of snow and wind gusts up to 30 mph.  These variables take all the fun out of fishing and it simply isn't worth the battle.  Team coaches, Keith Donnelly, Garry Anderson and I decided to not host the tournament on Saturday and look at other options.  Postponing to another weekend was possible, but you never know about the river levels in spring.  A quick call to the DNR and we were able to switch the tournament permit to Sunday afternoon, which promised to have temperatures in the 50's.  Mother Nature tried to stop us, but we found another way.  Sunday afternoon it was, and it was one for the record books...literally.

This team found the only two
willing smallmouth bass to bite on this day.

Twenty-Seven students to the water at 3pm for the 4-hour tournament.  The goal for the 2-person teams was to catch five keeper bass on the Wapsi here in Independence.  This is never an easy thing to do on the Wapsi, especially a day after a blizzard.  Fourteen boats and captains took to the Wapsi to see what they could catch, and ten boats came in with fish to be weighed.  This was very surprising considering the conditions and the large number of boats on the body of water.  The have made huge progress on the basics of casting and pitching baits, and I think the big weigh-in is proof of that.  Many baits were working on this day, spinnerbaits, jigs, tubes, swimjigs and crankbaits were all reported as catching fish, including several Northern Pike, which is always a nice surprise at the end of your line.  The weather held out for us, temperatures were in the forties at the end of the tournament, but the winds weren't too gusty.  Things worked out for the best. 

As for the fish catches...the students set several records on this day.  The club has been in existence for three years now, and this was the seventh tournament held by the club.  Today, the club set the record for most kids in attendance at 27, the most teams to weigh in at an event at 10, and the most bass weighed in at 21.  Today, the largest bass ever to cross the scales at a club event occurred, Caleb brought in a 3.72# largemouth bass.  That was of course the biggest bass of the event which gave him the Hank's Bait and Tackle "Big Bass Award".  This prize pack included a variety of baits and lures from this tackle shop located in Waterloo.  Overall, the results were far past what I had imagined the Wapsi River was capable of producing, it has been a weird spring, but I guess the day after a snowstorm is a good day to go bass fishing.   One limit of five bass was brought to the scales today weighing in just over eight pounds.  That earned the team of Jackson and Dalton the SCHEELS Tournament Winner Tackle Packs.  A huge thanks to the 14 captains that provided boats and their mentorship, an invaluable part of this club.  The club also gave away 5 rod and reel combos to random club members.  A big thanks to Quantum Fishing for their support!  Full results can be seen on the club website HERE.

The Indee Bass Club is thankful for all their sponsors, please support them if you can!

Spring Time Bass Fishing- PODCAST

Recently, I had the opportunity to share some insight on locating and catching spring bass.  Click on over to The Sportsmen's Nation to hear those thoughts:

It has begun!

First fish of the year, 3.19# on a
Wigs Jig and Hot Rod Baits Chunk

The 2019 OPEN WATER season has started here in NE Iowa.  I was able to get out on the Wapsi River for a few hours today and look around.  It always amazes me how rivers change from one year to another.  Some things always stay the same, but there are always things that Mother Nature changes.  It is one thing I love about rivers and the one thing I dislike about rivers.  moving around on the Wapsi River in Buchanan County hasn't been easy the past decade, and this spring has already shown me that is isn't going to get any easier.   It will be difficult to navigate around the sandbars, but the current will hopefully carve out a place for boats to enjoy the water and fish that swim in them.  On this day, we were after largemouth bass.  This time of the year on interior rivers is best time to catch a giant.  We went looking and ended up with three bass over 3#, one just missed 4# at 3.91 pounds.  It was a good short trip and both Keith and I caught some bass.  A win-win for early April, it sure was a good feeling to really set the hook with the long rods!

OK, truly the last time

A couple buckets of BIG
Clear Lake Yellows

This time I am for real, this past weekend was the last day on the ice for me this season.  March 23rd, the second latest I have ever ice fished, last year I was able to ice fish into April.  Clear Lake was our choice on this day, knowing the ice was good and a chance to catch some yellows was all I needed to pack the gear in the truck and head north one last time.  It is always a long ride home, thinking back over the year and already looking forward to next year.  It was a good day on Clear Lake, and the yellows did not disappoint.

There were four of us in the group on Saturday which always makes things easier when trying to track down the yellows.  We made quick moves at first after a few smaller perch and a couple nice crappies.  Once we found an area that the yellows were cruising through we made smaller moves to try and stay on the hungry fish.  The day was beautiful, temps were in the high forties with a light breeze and plenty of fish to keep us busy between telling stories.  On this particular day at Clear Lake the yellows seemed to be very close to and in the weeds.  We found a nice big patch of eel grass that the fish were relating to, no doubt chasing bugs and worms, and caught most of our fish there.  Time of day did not seem to matter as they bit pretty consistently through the noon hour and into the early afternoon.
Hoping from hole to hole with my bucket system and Vexilar FLX-28 helps me to stay on the move and see if active fish are below me or not.  If not, it is a quick move to the next hole.  Something that I am getting more and more comfortable with is the 36-inch Jason Mitchell Meat Stick paired with the Quantum Throttle.  The length of the rod and smoothness of the reel make for easy work hopping around and dropping down to jig for another yellow.  Spoons seemed to be the best option on this day, several colors were working well, silver, gold, green, and my white/yellow Reins Tungsten Spoon.  I am really looking forward to using these more this summer and next winter.  A great spoon with a quick fall and flutter action.

That is a wrap on the ice season...I really do mean it this time.  It is once again time to transition to the boats for my next fishing adventures.  It was a great ice season, and I am looking forward to the next one.

The Last Time for the Winter

There is always "one last time" at the end of the season, and this past Sunday was that for the ice fishing season.  David Gissel and I decided to make it a full day and try to hit three different lakes for three different species.  We headed south to our crappie lake and started popping holes around some brushpiles.  We started seeing fish immediately on the Vexilars, we just had to find the right baits that they wanted.  Jigs with plastics started to get some fish immediately and soon David started to pull the crappies up with spoons.  It was more of a bet here at the right time to get the fish to bite.  The crappies were on the move and no matter what we tried they were in and out very quickly.  We hopped around the lake hitting the deep basin, and several brushpiles, along with adjacent drop-offs.  All areas gave up some keeper crappies but the locations nearest the brushpiles were definitely the
best on this day.  After about 30 keepers we were off to the next lake in search of some big bluegills. 

This lake had the potential, but nothing panned out.  We hit many different structures, deep and shallow water, nothing...and nothing.  We struck out and didn't want to spend anymore time on this last day of ice fishing searching.  We had decided to head for lake #3 on the day in search of some Yellow Bass and a to try a new jigging spoon.

The REINS Spoon in the 2 and 3.5 gram model

I was looking forward to the third lake as I had a new jigging spoon I wanted to try out.  Reins fishing came out with a tungsten jigging spoon this year in multiple sizes, large enough for open water bass and small enough for panfish too.  I had a feeling they were going to be great for the fast-action yellow bass.  Yellow Bass are always fun to chase, and when I say chase that is exactly what it is.  You have to drill, and drill, and drill to chase them down.  We did find a pattern pretty quickly as looked at the piles of fish on the ice.  All the fish were in a straight line, all in 11-12 feet of water.  They were cruising this contour up and down the lake.  The Palputin Spoon from Reins was the ticket.  They performed to my expectations and then some.  The quality of hook that comes standard with these spoons is like nothing I have ever seen before in the world of ice fishing.  When you set the hook on a fish, there was no coming off.  These are the real deal, and when you see a mark on the on the Vexilar while hole hopping these spoons get down to the fish fast!  It went perfect with my favorite rod/reel of the year, the Quantum Throttle and a 36-inch Jason Mitchell Meat Stick has been a go-to combo all year long for hole hopping.  It was perfect on this day too.

Will this be the last day on the ice, probably?  The next weekend is pretty busy and traveling several hours north to get on safe ice just isn't in the cards. It was a great day on the ice, and a perfect way to remember the year on the ice!