Browns Lake - Iowa

[Shad_Master]

My club had a tournament on Browns this last week end - air temps were 30* at "blast off" with 25-30 mph winds.  Water temps were 49* at the beginning of the day but did struggle up to 51* in some areas by the afternoon.

With the reports of possible fish kill for this lake we were a little concerned, but it turned out that the reports were that the fish kill had primarily been shad and this proved out.  22 fishermen boated 68 fish with most being 14" or better.  Big Bass was 18.75" and about half the field had limits.  The thing was there was no real pattern.  My partner caught 6 fish on 4 completely different lures.  I caught all three of mine and lost one other on a jig.  1st, 2nd and 3rd were all on different patterns even in the same areas.

Based on observations, it appears that the fish are just starting to move up and fishing should be awsome in the next couple of weeks if the weather will cooperate even a little.

[sodaksker]

Shad,

thanks for the report. Sounds like a great trip. I have not tried Browns yet this year, due to the fish kill Rumors. Glad to know that it was not as reported earlier. Maybe i'll give it a try tomorrow.

[Shad_Master]

This is one of my favorite lakes on our club schedule - wish it was close enough that I could fish it more often.  One tip for you to try out, it was the common wisdom of the group that if the "fish kill" was shad then they are probably feeding on blue gill - lots of fish were caught on blue gill pattern jigs, chatter baits and crank baits.  I caught all of mine on a junebug jig - maybe with a chartruese trailer I would have had better luck.