HawkeyeSmallie

Anyone throw these in the summer? Or they more of a spring/fall bait? When I say "big" I'm talking like 5", 6" or so. I'm not throwing some huge trout looking thing here in little Iowa. lol I put together a nice combo last fall and used it a little. Can't really fish at all in the spring due to work. I don't see them mentioned a lot for the summer months. Break it out or wait until the fall? Thanks!

I also have a huge problem with baits that have been used. Once I've used something, I hate to put it back with brand new baits. Doesn't matter if it's a jig, crankbait, spinnerbait, etc. If my wife ever left me, it's because of all the used baits I have laying around in weird places. I need to figure it out. Glad you created a thread on it.

Has your opinion changed at all on these since you got them? I know a couple places I could take this and absolutely slaughter some smaller bass. I'm sure it would be a blast. Just not sure I want to spend that kind of money on them at this point.

Never heard of these things. Fish them mostly in the mornings/evenings?

I used to get Sportsman's Guide catalogs in the mail back in the late 80's early 90's. After a little bit of research, it's the same company. Looks like the founder Gary Olen passed away not long ago in 2022.

I can tell you my absolute favorite way to catch nice bluegills. Strike King Bitsy Minnow on UL spinning. Catches big bluegills and bass love them as well. I rarely just cast and reel, it's more of a cast and twitch back. Not kidding, it's one of my favorite ways to fish.

This has been my thought as well, especially since it's pretty clear. With this thinking, the last outing I fished until 11:00pm so I fished it a bit in the dark. Dinks. I'm going to fish the deeper area more during light and then I'm going to give it a good night outing. After that I'm done with her and moving on.

FIFY

I’m the same way. Went walleye fishing in Lake Sakaakawea and all we did was troll cranks and bottom bouncers with spinners. The most exciting part of the trip was when we located a big rock pile sticking up and I FINALLY got to cast and caught a big smallmouth. Fun trip but I’d rather be casting.

I love my pricey gear as well, but I don’t think I’d ever buy a NRX+ for topwaters. P5? Oh yeah.

To me, public ground/water is for ALL. If you have a day off (or whatever) and want to fish, 100% fish. You have the EXACT same right to fish that body of water. Might not be the best fishing with the increased activity but if you want to fish, fish!

The perch stocking also has me baffled. I'm assuming they are for the walleye. IDK To me it means there must be some decent depth. I guess if it is spring fed the water is cooler as well. Very rare to have walleye in lakes this size (aka ponds) in Iowa.

Nope, no walleye. Survey was last year. The perch were or are going to be added in 2025. Not sure if it's happened yet. They caught 93 fish. 10 bluegill, 2 catfish, and 81 largemouth. Species Avg Len(in) Min Len(in) Max Len(in) Largemouth Bass 10.51 8.20 20.00 The 20"er weighed 4.5lbs. I'm a numbers guy and my math agrees with theirs. 98.77% of the bass were between 8-12". 1.23% were between 15-20". It was just the ONE. I've said a million times I'm no expert, but this place just confuses the heck out of me.

Great question, I'm honestly not sure. I've gone on Google Maps and there are no streams feeding into it. Last time I went out there was a ton of rain. I was walking on a trail around the perimeter just looking around and along the trail there was a decent amount of water on the surface running into it from the highway. There was enough water that I had to stop and go back so my shoes wouldn't get all wet.

With only 20 or so minutes away, I'm going to give it a couple more shots. If no luck, there are better places also not far away. The large amount of frustration almost draws me in to figure it out. LOL

I would agree but apparently Omnia didn't have the rod in stock and Dobyns is shipping it. I've been a huge fan of Omnia but this doesn't sit well with me as they don't advertise not having them in stock. They are normally extremely good about shipping things right away, who knows how long it will take Dobyns.

I've never heard of this but I'm very curious as to the "Why". I'll have to do some Googling. Thanks for the suggestions, everybody! I'm either going to catch a hoss or I'm just going to cross it off the list. PS I do see plenty of smaller bluegills if that matters.

Oh wow, fishlegs said the same thing. When I looked on Amazon it said the seller was Dobyns so I "assumed" Dobyns were the ones shipping the rods. The one I just bought from Omnia apparently is getting shipped from Dobyns. They better said the correct rod!

Yeah I actually purchased a perch colored 110 +1 after I saw they were stocked. It could work in the deeper area maybe. Otherwise too much grass. I'll have to get some bigger jigs and work the deeper area slower. Heck drop shot? It's pretty clear water so I think I need to keep it as natural as possible. I thought night would be the best but last time I was out I fished the swim jig quite a bit and just dinks. Maybe a buzzbait might be better. Bigger baits I have a 6" Magdraft and one of those S Wavers but they might just collect weeds. I did some googling trying to find some 6" weedless swimbaits. 6th sense appears to make a Sweep that looks pretty cool. IDK, I'm such a competitive person I feel challenged to find a big fish in this "lake". LOL

I'm in a kayak. There is a deeper area where it seemed less weedy yes. I fished it with no luck. I did catch a crappie on a smaller swim bait, like 2.5". I brought it for my wife as it catches mostly everything. The main bait I was throwing was a swim jig with a 4" trailer so it's a decent sized bait. The neko rig was hard to fish with all the weeds. I honestly can't remember if I fished it in the deeper less weedy section. The subsurface weeds? Hmmm, I'm not an expert on weeds. All I know is that a lot of times you would bring back a 3 foot long weed with your bait. Not sure about the walleye. They show recent stocks. All catfish other than the perch this year.

American Legacy has Spro and Berkley products 50% off.

There's a "lake" around 20 minutes from my house. I say "lake" because most would call it a pond, as it's only like 10 acres. But it's a county lake. On the DNR website, they describe it as a surface mine lake. It's right next to a major highway so I'm assuming they needed some dirt and dug a hole. There are thick reeds that circle 95% it, almost zero shore access. Water is pretty clear. There are subsurface weeds everywhere. In most areas, if you are working a lure below the surface it's coming back with weeds on it. Zero weeds on the actual surface. There's no map available and I have no electronics. I have zero clue how deep it gets or even where the deepest areas are. The website says there are walleye in it and they actually stocked some 6" perch in it this year. So there must be some decent depth to it. Here's the deal, whenever I go there I catch nothing but dinks. I'm talking dink central. I talked to a guy (not sure how much I trust) that said there's some good bass in there but it's nothing but dinks. The DNR actually did a survey last year and they shocked a 4.5 pounder! Other than that one fish, they were all 8-12 inches. Which is what I typically catch. Two nights ago I finally caught a 14 incher. Which for my past results, was a "monster". So a quick summary of the maybe four times I've been there in the last couple of years: 40 dinks that averaged 10" and one 14". Yet the DNR shocked a 20" 4.5 pounder. Where are the 15", 16", 17" etc. fish? Last year I mostly threw a wacky senko into the reeds. A bunch caught, ALL dinks. A couple days ago I thought OK, they must be deeper. Tried fishing a neko rigged worm and a swim jig out deeper. Once again, ALL dinks minus the 14". Actually the larger fish came in more shallow water near the reeds. This is turning into a novel. Sorry. How should I fish this? Should I keep fishing this? Where are the bigger fish? Deeper in the weeds? If so, how do I go after them? I've never been so confused with this place. It's not like a 1,000 acre lake. It's TEN acres! I'm seriously wondering if there's someone harvesting the bigger fish. I just don't get it. I'm not a pro, but I ain't bad either. LOL THANKS!!!!!!!!!!

Nevermind.

Well that's good, because it's a pain in the a&&!

I rarely fish mornings. I'm always a late afternoon/evening guy. Whenever I do get up really early and get on the water it's always great. Need to do it more.