A few of us from Cajun Custom Rods headed down the road, east this time to Three Mile Lake in Iowa … just east of the city of Creston. We’ve not fished too many of the reservoirs or lakes in Iowa, so with the day off and decent weather predicted, decided to load the boat and give it a try. It takes about 2.5 hours to drive with the boat from Omaha to Three Mile Lake and we arrived about noon at the ramp. After rigging out our custom fishing rods, we dropped in and headed toward the dam – expecting the water to be a little cooler and deeper … draw the fish up with some crankbait action. When we got to the dam, the average depth 20-25 yards from the rocks was only 7-10 feet, but we decided to give it a shot anyway. Tristan threw an alewife color KVD squarebill crankbait (1-3 feet) and I threw a sexy sunfish colored KVD squarebill (1-3 feet). We picked up a few smaller bass in the 11-14 inch size, but nothing to brag about to mom. So we picked up and headed back into the timber to try our luck there. We threw the cranks, but with the shallow water and weeds, opted to tie on a few frogs. Tristan threw a Bully Wa 55 (bullfrog color with dark yellow spot on white belly) and I threw a Spro all-black with yellow highlights bullfrog.
After just a few casts on the still water, we found what the bass wanted … frogs! The sky was dark overcast with little to no wind throughout the day so that’s why we opted to pitch frogs that had darker colors … so the silhouettes could be seen by the fish as they looked overhead to their target. Our planning paid off as we didn’t have but a few missed hits … and good follow-ups on the ones that did strike and miss. We pitched frogs to timber and cover on the deeper drop-off banks for the rest of the afternoon into the evening and did well for never having fished the reservoir. All in all, we managed 22 fish, with a solid 10 of them in the 3 pound range and a few in the four pound weight-class. The remainder of the bass we caught were smaller ones from 9-14/15 inches.
For those who don’t know, Three Mile Lake has excellent cover and in its deepest area (about 1/4 mile from the dam) is only 35-40 feet. Much of the cover is old timber with lots of brush and old fall-downs along the banks. The vast majority of the banks slope to shallow, but within 10 yards of the bank drop to deeper water in the range of 15-20 or so feet. There are weed-lines (now submerged), but prevalent throughout the lake and surrounding its perimeter. Several rock jetties extend into the lake in and around the boat ramp, near the dam with lots of rock banks around the dam area. The day we fished, there was very little wind and air temps were 80-85 degrees. Water clarity was maybe a foot and stained (tea color). Water temp throughout the lake was a solid 80-81 degrees and overall, the day could just be called “muggy.”
All-in-all, the trip was a success and we accomplished what we set out to do … see some new areas and try out a new lake in Iowa. I am not certain the next opportunity we’ll have to get back to Three Mile Lake, but I know Tristan is already asking to get back and catch a few more large Iowa largemouth. No matter, the trip was enjoyable for the two of us and I especially enjoyed watching that young man set the hook and pose for a few pictures with not only the bass he caught, but wanting to take one with his old man Fish and travel safe on your own adventures, take a kid fishing whenever you get the chance, and tight lines!
You can view pictures of a few of the bass we landed at Three Mile Lake in Iowa at:
http://blog.cajuncustomrods.com/2011/07/06/three-mile-lake-iowa-july-3-2011/Jaesen Yerger, Cajun Custom Rods
Phone: 904-738-0301
Email:
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