My 2023 Iowa season

[duckhunt]

Saturday was the last day to fish. Put in at Lynxville and did some more trolling.



First couple hours I landed two keeper walleye, two keeper sauger and one short sauger. Then the grass and weeds started flowing so I switched to jigging. Landed three short sauger and one huge carp. Dam thing felt like a nice walleye so it was pretty disappointing to see a carp come to the surface.

 

[Gellar]

Vacation time well spent!

 

[duckhunt]

Took dad out doing some drifting with crawlers one morning over the weekend. One keeper walleye and one catfish.



Also looked at some park models, sheds, and carport for the new place. I think (fingers crossed) we got a park model bought. Got quotes on electric company, water, and sewer. Waiting on electrician with the panel and possibly just a septic holding tank. Hopefully things will start moving along a little quicker soon.

 

[duckhunt]

A couple yard deer my wife saw this morning.

 

[duckhunt]

We just got back yesterday from a short trip to Colorado to visit my older son Connor. He lives in Lakewood wich is on the west side of Denver. I hate cities so we booked a bed and breakfast about 45 minutes west in silver plume. We love old west history stuff so this was a perfect fit.

Silver plume is a historic mining town. Only a few miles from Goergetown (also a mining town) there is a railroad that connects the two.

The b and b we stayed at is the windsor hotel. The hotel was built in 1884 during the mining boom. From what I understand is the boom didn't last long when gold and silver was found a little farther to the west in Lead.

Anyone that likes old west history would appreciate this hotel.

 

[duckhunt]

We took a ride on the Goergetown loop railroad. The train was used during the mining boom between Goergetown and silver plume.

 

[duckhunt]

Connor took us up to Berthoud pass. I guess it's a popular snowboarding area for the locals.

 

[duckhunt]

Had to have a new pump and pressure tank in the well pit. Just so happens this big guy was calling the pit home.



He was put in the ditch for the time being. I'm sure when we were done he made his way back home.

 

[BrentD]

The Iowa DNR released pheasant roadside counts and analysis. Looks pretty glum. Y'all should probably move along to South Dakota this year...

 

[Gellar]

The Iowa DNR released pheasant roadside counts and analysis. Looks pretty glum. Y'all should probably move along to South Dakota this year...

I thought I read they were the highest since 2015? Still nothing compared to the 90s.

 

[BrentD]

I thought I read they were the highest since 2015? Still nothing compared to the 90s.

No, you misread that. They were the unhighest since 2015. In fact, they were worse than 1915, and probably are headed for extinction before the last weekend in october.

keep'em rollin' - to South Dakota

 

[duckhunt]

No, you misread that. They were the unhighest since 2015. In fact, they were worse than 1915, and probably are headed for extinction before the last weekend in october.

keep'em rollin' - to South Dakota

A couple farmer neighbors of mine put in some wetlands and set a side habitat a few years back. The last couple of years I had seen a bunch of birds around but this year it looks pretty tough.

 

[Gellar]

No, you misread that. They were the unhighest since 2015. In fact, they were worse than 1915, and probably are headed for extinction before the last weekend in october.

keep'em rollin' - to South Dakota

They are an invasive nonnative species anyways.

 

[duckhunt]

They are an invasive nonnative species anyways.

But still dam fun to hunt.

 

[BrentD]

They are an invasive nonnative species anyways.

Exactly. So I sacrifice many a day this fall to do a little avian weeding as a public service. My expenses should be tax exempt, but .gov disagrees.

 

[duckhunt]

Bluegills are on fire on the big river.

 

[duckhunt]

Friday morning I jumped in dad's boat for the day. We started with drifting for walleyes with no bites so we decided to switch it up. Headed out to big lake in search of perch. After moving around to multiple different spots we got skunked on that also. Time for another change we pulled up to a brush pile and found the mother load of bluegills. Ended the morning with each a limit of gills and a couple bonus perch.



Saturday I took my wife into town to sign some papers on our park model trailer. Just waiting on a quote for concrete and we can actually start setting up the new place.

Dad took mom out to the bluegill spot we found and they had another great morning



Before I took my wife to town I did manage to get in the boat for about an hour. Tried some vertical jigging for some walleyes. Not even a bite but that's all the time I had for the morning

A nice Mississippi River sunrise.


Also put some marinated backstrap on the grill for supper. Ooohh yeah turned out great.

 

[duckhunt]

Made it up to the the the big miss Thursday night. Met with another concrete contractor for the new place Friday morning. Hopefully I get a quote in writing from this guy. Getting quotes on paper is almost impossible these days. This is the last road block before final approval from the bank.

Dad made it over Friday afternoon so we decided go try and get some perch. 3 hours on the water we ended with 3 perch and 5 gills. Dad had one real beauty.



Back on the water Saturday morning we moved around quite a bit in search of more perch. First thing I landed 3 keepers and the two of us caught about 100 6 inch bass. The bass were actually getting annoying so we took off in search of more gills. Back on a hot bite we ended with 40 between the two of us.



Drove home Saturday evening and plan on a few house chores and getting gear ready for my Wyoming antelope hunt in 2 weeks.

 

[Gellar]

Nice mess of fish!

 

[duckhunt]

Nice mess of fish!

I think I've had enough gills until ice season. Hopefully get after the walleyes later this fall.