I woke up a little late Sunday and headed down to the Red Rock Spillway. For a while it seemed like everyone was catching fish but me.  I saw a Hybrid Bass get pulled out that must’ve been at least 6 lbs, probably more. Eventually I got frustrated and the old lady wanted to be in the sun, so we moved to the other side.

The moment I walked up, this guy next to me pulled out another big one. This one took 5+ minutes to land because he was using an ultralight pole and a fairly light test. He kept pulling out smaller ones for the rest of the day. For a while, it was pretty slow, lots of snags. Then I finally got a bite and pulled out that Walleye. Definitely made the trip worth it.

Around 4 o’clock some younger kids, probably 14-16 years old come up and with this huge net and I’m thinking to myself, “What do they need that for?”  Then all of the sudden I hear one of the kids screaming. They had a 50-60+ lb bighead carp on the line. They landed this thing and I wish I would’ve gotten a picture. Some 8 year old girls were walking down the path that we are standing on and then they saw this beast and turned around and ran the other way. It was absolutely hilarious.

After the fishing was done, we went and wonder around the woods looking for mushrooms. We didn’t find anything until we got to the car and I had a tick on me! All and all a good day though. Now I have some fresh fertilizer for my garden from the sucker fish I pulled out.

Went out on Saturday, April 10 to Big Creek to fish for a few hours.  I also took my boat out for the first time since it was repaired last season, so I didn’t know what to expect, performance-wise. Especially since I neglected to winterize the engine. It was stored inside though, so I figured it would be alright. Thankfully it was, it started on the second pull, which was a relief, until it stalled out.  After about 5 minutes of pulling it was running smoothly and I was moving!

Anyway, I headed towards the Saylorville Lake Spillway, I didn’t go down the passage to get to it, I stopped near the area you drive by as you enter Big Creek State Park, because I always have luck around there early in the season. The bite was slow but after about 45 minutes I finally had the little guy pictured. Sadly, that was my only catch of the day.

I moved around a couple times and didn’t have any more luck. Oh well, it was great to be on the water, until the clouds rolled in. I should have some better luck next week.

Friday

It was unbelievably cold all weekend,  the 60’s, in July? Its unheard of! We got down to the Queen dock at the Marina around 6:30pm. The cabin cruiser we stayed on, ‘the TimTation’ is owned by my friend’s uncle, who was spending the weekend working on his new dry docked houseboat. Its over 60 feet long and has been completely gutted and is in the process of being entirely redone. After checking out the boat and drinking a few beers we went ahead and went back to the dock to night fish. We fished until we ran out of worms. I caught several bluegill and 6 catfish. None of my catfish were more than 1.5 lbs.  My friend hooked into the biggest carp I have seen in a while. It must’ve been 20-30 lbs. Its head was as big as mine! He tried to reel it in a little too quickly and it snapped his line after it broke the surface. He did pull in a4-5 lber. He held the pole and I got belly down on the dock and grabbed it by its lip to put it out.  We drank about 3 bottles of wine between both of us and our new friend Norm, before passing out in the Cruiser.

Saturday

Saturday morning my friend and I woke up around 8 AM, went to grab some breakfast and then headed back to the lake. Apparently his uncle needed some help removing a generator from the new houseboat. They had the bright idea to have my friend and I stand on top of a cube truck with ropes to ’stabilize’ it, while they lifted it over the side of the boat. Realizing this was a recipe for disaster they opted to instead just cut away part of the railing and use some rollers to get the generator to the truck.

After avoiding that disaster I went back to the docks to fish some more. I caught another catfish and a few bluegills before getting called back up to the dock because they were about to launch the boat. I had tried to use some cranks and spinners but the water was fairly murky and I didn’t have any luck.

The boat launch gave me a chance to start drinking. I had a few beers while they slipped it into the water. It only had bubbles coming up from one place, but we think that place was actually the tires. There was a leak however, from where my friend’s Uncle drilled screws through the bottom of the boat! Eventually they pulled it back out, grinded off the screws and patched it with some boat epoxy and told us it was about time to go boating.

While we were watching them put the boat in the water I saw 2 guys cleaning fish at the courtesy station. That had caught a lot of catfish. They had 2-3 in the 5lb range and a bunch of 2lbers. They said they were fishing up near honey creek.

While we waited for them to show up back at the docks to go boating we had a little contest to see who could catch more bluegill. We probably caught around 60-70 in about an hour while waiting. We could catch them at will on that dock. We went out boating and drinking for several hours on the cruiser. Everyone got extremely drunk, once I hit land again I tried fishing again but the wine would let me have none of it. I almost passed out with my hand on the line, laying on my back on the dock, but my friend grabbed me and put me on the floor of the boat.

Some of the Catfish from the first night

Sunday

We woke up around 9am and just lazed around. I found an extremely comfy lawn chair and sat in there with my line in the water for about an hour before catching the biggest catfish of the weekend. It was still less than 2 lbs so don’t get excited, but it was fun to catch.

Around noon we packed up our stuff and headed back to Des Moines after saying thanks and goodbye to our hosts.

Im trying to figure out how to work the camera - First cast on soft plastics of the season too!

This was my first trip to Lake Ahqabi and let me start off by saying the lake is gorgeous! The entire park is absolutely immaculately maintained. There is definitely a lot more to do out here than fish. You can rent a paddle boat for $7.50 an hour (32/day) and canoes for $8.50 an hour (37.50/day).  You can also make reservations to camp here.

Its about a 30 minute drive from the west side of Des Moines. Having never been here I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t get there until about 1. I started on on a crank bait at first before switching to plastics. I also had a worm on the bottom. Once I switched to plastics on my first cast with plastics of the SEASON I caught the bass pictured above. Not more than 15 minutes into the trip. Then a couple minutes later my pole that was sitting in my bucket started going off and I pulled another smaller bass out off a worm on bottom. I was in spot A(see map) at the time.

Then disaster struck. My reel broke. I actually had ‘reel’  problems all day after that.  I hiked back up to my car and replaced the reel (what you don’t carry a spare?) and went down to spot B (see map).  There is actually a point at the bottom of that hill with a picnic table, but it was taken so I just fished somewhat near them, walking down the shore a little ways. I didn’t catch anything here either. So I went to spot C. This spot looked great. There were 4 pieces of land that just kind of shot out into the water before retreating. Apparently nothing I used seemed to work on the fish because I didn’t catch anything. The replacement reel wasn’t exactly in pristine condition and the button on my spincaster stuck all day long. It cost me a crankbait too along with a little bit of pride because a family watched me walk into spot C and ‘cast’ and watched my lure fly about 3/4s of the way accross the lake. After about an hour or so I hopped in my car and went about a half mile south to Hooper Lake. I wasn’t sure I was going the right direction because I went on a gravel road to get there.

Hooper Lake is a much quieter laker. Ahquabi was packed. There were probably 15-20 people on the entire lake. Its not that tiny of a lake either. It has some great looking structure that is just out of reach of the shore fisherman. I parked at the boat ramp and hiked onto the prairie. There were about 4 other shore fishermen there and they didn’t appear to have too much luck while I was there, but as I walked up one guy had a fish in his hand. I didn’t have any luck here after about an hour so I went back to Ahquabi.

I had about 90 minutes left of fishing in me and I spent the 90 minutes at spot D. I had absoulely 0 bites here, well, I think. I might have had snapping turtle take my lure because I had it just sitting in the water near shore and then I looked away at something and turned around and it was snagged, I think, but when I got it free it didn’t look like it had been just snagged. Either way they didn’t like my worms, my plastics or my cranks. Or maybe they just didn’t like me being there. The guy who was fishing on the outshoot just north of me didn’t have any luck either.

After this trip I was just glad there was an A&W on the way home so I could eat some Ice Cream and to make me feel a little bit better about the catch. I’ll defintely go back though. The park area is amazing. One of these weekends I’ll probably try to camp out there.

I dug up some more information about the lake:

The campground is located by the lakeshore. There are 141 campsites (85 with electrical hookups), modern rest rooms and showers and two trailer dump stations. Each campsite has a picnic table and fireplace. A stone lodge overlooking the lake may be reserved for a fee. Constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, it is very popular for family reunions, weddings and other large gatherings. The lodge may be reserved online through the park reservation system.

A modern boat ramp is located at the northern end of the park. Another ramp is located in the campground. Lake Ahquabi is popular with anglers. A number of fishing jetties and a handicapped accessible fishing pier provide great places for a day of shoreline fishing.

Boats, canoes, kayaks, and paddleboats are available for rent through the concessionaire. Bait is also available through the concessionaire. The 115-acre man-made lake has a large sandy beach & offers unsupervised swimming.

Hikers, snowmobilers and cross-country skiers can travel all the way around the lake on a beautiful gravel trail. Other scenic foot trails wind through the woods.

“Ahquabi” is a Sauk and Fox word meaning “resting place,” and it is a fitting name for this scenic 770-acre park. The park site was recommended by “Ding” Darling, nationally known Iowa political cartoonist and conservationist, and was dedicated in 1936. Many of its structures were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930’s and remain available for the enjoyment of park visitors.

For information you may call the concession building during our hours of operation at 515-962-0013.

Hours Of Operation
Sunday through Friday 11 am to 9 pm
Saturday and Holiday’s 8 am to 9 pm

Regular hours begin after Memorial Day and end at the start of the school year (usually the week before Labor Day). They will often be open on weekends in May and into September. Call to verify the hours outside of the regular season.

Lake Ahquabi Map

This sign was located in every single parking lot. I took all the photos in spot D or Hooper Lake (except the bass, thats spot A)

Spot D @ Lake Ahqaubi- Most of the lake didn't have as many weeds on the shore.

Hooper Lake

The facilities need updated.

]]> http://www.bigbassfisher.com/2009/07/06/fishing-trip-07-lake-ahquabi-state-park/feed/ 1 http://www.bigbassfisher.com/2009/07/01/beaver-creek-meets-the-des-moines-river/ http://www.bigbassfisher.com/2009/07/01/beaver-creek-meets-the-des-moines-river/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:54:50 +0000 admin http://www.bigbassfisher.com/?p=103

I went out today and caught this Walleye. It was one of the bigger ones I’ve caught this year. There are several ponds back near “the Y.” The best way to get back here is to park on Beaver Ave in Johnston just over the bridge from Des Moines and walk along the levy. The trail right now was fairly overgrown near the street, but once I got in it wasn’t too bad.  I always have a fair amount of luck bouncing a worm on the bottom here. Sometimes I pull in a few little wipers too. There was another guy here today or I would’ve probably tried a little harder for them. He was bitching about last time he was here the guys before him left quite a bit of garbage.  So I thought I’d remind you to quit shitting where you live. Especially if the place you are fishing is about 3/4 a mile from the nearest road. No one is going to come up here and clean up your shit. Its just going to be sitting there next time you come fishing there. Littering is the kind of bush league stuff that ensures farm pond owners will be kicking you off their land. So please try to leave with whatever you bring fishing, its just common courtesy. I’m not going to rant anymore, but the guy had a point.

Big Bass Fishing in Urbandale

Well, I’d read rumors of there being some big fish in this relatively small, very weedy pond. People have reported dragging catfish out of here as large as 15 lbs.  I hadn’t fished it myself in about 8 years. I got there around 6pm and fished the north side somewhat near the road for about an hour and a half. Caught about 7-8 blue gills. Then I got a little bored and was about to leave but forced myself to do one lap around the pond. I walked around just looking for a drop off because most of that lake seemed very shallow. The water itself was actually very clear and the visibility was wonderful. Anyway once I found what appeared to be a drop off I cast out a soft plastic worm a couple of times and on the 4th cast I actually thought I was snagged for a second before realizing I had this bad boy on the line. I was pretty excited. I hadn’t caught anything of substance that day and I didn’t catch anything else after that. I tossed it back very much alive so its still in there for you to go out and catch for yourselves.

Lakeview Park in Urbandale at night

Walker Johnson Park

I’ve started using google maps to find places to fish in Des Moines. That led me to discover this fishin hole that is actually rather close to my home, right behind the Walker Johnson Park Softball Fields.  The fishing here wasn’t very good. But could be in a few years if it doesn’t completely freeze. The pond itself is barely an acre and surrounded in thick vegetation. Which makes it pretty hard to run a crank bait when theres 6 ft of lily pads and other crap on the water. There were a TON of frogs here. If you wanted to catch some frogs I would send you here. Also a good place to grab some bait before going out catfishing. You could probably get 20 of the fish I caught in about 20 minutes. They were so small to land them I didn’t actually hook them, I just let them close their mouth on my hook and as I pulled them out of the water I pulled them over the shore, so they would go flying off my hook and onto the grass.

]]> http://www.bigbassfisher.com/2009/07/01/fishing-trip-04-walker-johnson-park/feed/ 0 http://www.bigbassfisher.com/2009/06/30/fishing-trip-03-mill-pond/ http://www.bigbassfisher.com/2009/06/30/fishing-trip-03-mill-pond/#comments Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:08:11 +0000 admin http://www.bigbassfisher.com/?p=67

Worlds Smallest Bass

I went a couple spots last night before my softball game. I managed to pull out what quite possibly could be the biggest bass I’ve ever seen in my life, as you can see from the picture above.  I also pulled out a few bluegills. But nothing of any size.

Laura A Ward Park

I started at Laura A Ward park. I walked around the entire pond and didn’t see anything but frogs moving until I got to the where I took this picture below. I saw a couple small fish swimming in this little channel. After an hour, once I had completed my lap around the pond with no bites, I decided to head over to mill pond.

Laura A Ward Park

And I ended up here.

Big Snapping Turtle

The bite wasn’t great really, I was here about an hour and 15 minutes and I probably could’ve caught as many bluegills as I wanted, but I was here after bass.  The only one I caught was the tiny thing that is in the first picture.  When I got there, I walked in there was this big bullfrog that sat next to me for about the first 10 minutes of my outing here. Then I poked it with my fishing pole and it hopped away. For being 15 feet from a road it was pretty quiet. I hadn’t fished here in over a decade. The landscaping they added since then on the north side is incredible.

Swimming Muskrat

Saylorville Spillway

I started the day out fishing here @ the Saylorville Spillway. It didn’t take long for me to get extremely frustrated. First, I cast out and my line went completely out…. so I had to restring my line in the field. Which was disappointed. There was a lot of water coming out of the spillway which made the river’s current move pretty fast. I didn’t stick around too long in this area because the current was just too strong for the fishing I wanted to do. I could’ve gone further down but I figured I could just try my luck at the lake.

Saylorville Lake - Lakeview Boat Launch

I fished here for several hours, running everything from crankbaits, poppers, spinners and buzz baits. Nothing worked. There was a fair amount of boat traffic there which could have been part of the problem.

Saylorville Lake - Lakeview Boat Ramp

There were a LOT of carp swimming around, since I’d had such a slow day fishing, I thought I’d try snagging a few carps.

Carp in Saylorville Lake

4/0 Treble Hook for Snagging

There were about 100-150 carp all swimming on the surface in very shallow (1-2 ft) of water from about 5-6:45pm. The entire end of that bay was filled. So I pulled out my treble hook. I managed to actually snag one but it go off before I could land it. I couldn’t get them to bite at my floating jig head or a worm on bottom, which was rather diappointing.

A rather boring day fishing, but I had a good time all the same. I mean, I was out fishing at least and the weather was great!

Map of Big Creek State Park in Iowa

I headed out to Big Creek today from 11am-2pm. The bite was very slow. I fished in the southern half of the lake, casting cranks towards shore and cover  in the various coves on the bottom half of the map. The only fish I caught were a pair of wipers on a popper before we had to get out of there due to weather concerns. We got off the water right as it started to rain.

Oh and you know how they say there are 2 great stories to ever boat? Buying and selling it. Well I’m feeling like that right now because apparently my motor no longer wants to shift out of first gear.

Hopefully next trip I will actually have some fish to show you.

Air Temp  85*

Wind: 5-15 MPH