Ice out cats

Last of the ice has been gone only a couple weeks. Conditions today; slowly falling water, 27 degrees at 7:30am, water temp 47.2 degrees. I fished a local tailrace first thing this morning. Caught several small channel cats on nightcrawlers, nothing I would keep. Decided to fish a feeder creek about 20 minutes up river. Was hoping the water would be slower and warmer and provide better fishing. Upon arrival, water was slower but slightly cooler than the river, probably because the air temp had dropped to 27 the night before. Caught more fish in the creek than I did in the river but the average size was smaller. I used nightcrawlers and dip bait but caught most of the fish on the stinky stuff. I tried shrimp in both locations and did get a bite or two but didn't catch any on it.

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First fish of the year

I visited Big Creek Outdoor Supply, Mount Pleasant, Iowa and talked to owner Jim Smith. He informed me that several guys had been catching channel cats over the course of the last several days. Although the temperature had dropped 30 degrees and we have snow on the ground today, the fish were still biting. One angler stopped by the shop with 5 or 6 fish weighing from 2 to 4 pounds. Nightcawlers were doing the trick. Late in the afternoon I decided to give it a try myself and ended up catching just a few small ones. Conditions today were falling water, water temp 42, air temp 32, wind chill 19. Angler claimed to have caught 32 fish over the three previous days when the air temp was around 58 and the water was high and steady.

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teaser

Its been nearly sixty degrees the last several days so I decided today would be a good day to hit a local reservoir and try to hook a few channel cats. Just my luck, they started talking about snow last night and I woke up to thirty degrees, eighteen degrees wind chill, an inch on the ground and a wind driven snow still coming down. 4 to 8 expected. Hopefully things will be better next weekend. I want to drift cutbait over a large flat that runs about 3 to 6 feet deep.

First sign of night crawlers

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Winter might be on the down hill side, I think. Saturday, March 13. It rained on and off just about all night last night. Just after day break I got up to let that dogs out and to my surprise there were night crawlers on the sidewalk and driveway. I decided to walk the street and see just how many crawler were out and found just a few, mostly smaller ones. Make a note! March 13, 41 degrees, and rain. First sign of night crawlers.

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