Iowa's fishing hides in plain sight: the blue-water Iowa Great Lakes, driftless-region spring creeks with wild trout, and farm-pond bass by the thousand. Our anchor is the chain that defines Midwest resort fishing: Lake Okoboji.
Reports current for Friday, September 4
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
Iowa’s blue-water lake: Lake Okoboji (West Okoboji) is spring-fed, 136 feet deep and full of walleye, smallmouth and bluegill.
Iowa's ocean: the state's big Corps reservoir, grinding out walleye, crappie and wipers across wind-swept southern-Iowa flats.
The big blue sister: Iowa's largest natural lake, grinding walleye classics and jumbo perch across the glacial flats north of Okoboji.
The driftless pool: backwater sloughs and wing dams where Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota share the Mississippi's fishiest miles.
Iowa City's park lake: MacBride's no-wake arms grow muskies, walleye and the university town's fishing habits.
Iowa City’s reservoir: Coralville holds walleye, crappie and catfish, and a spillway that exposed fossils.
North Iowa’s classic: Clear Lake holds walleye, muskie and yellow bass in a town built around fishing.
The shallow twin: East Okoboji is warmer, weedier and fuller of walleye and panfish than its famous neighbour.
Northwest Iowa’s prairie lake: Storm Lake holds walleye, perch and a restoration story worth knowing.
Des Moines’ reservoir: Saylorville holds walleye, white bass and crappie fifteen minutes from downtown.
Iowa’s biggest lake: Red Rock spreads across the Des Moines River, full of white bass, crappie and catfish.
Iowa’s smallmouth river: the Cedar runs bass, walleye and catfish through the eastern part of the state.
Northeast Iowa’s Driftless river: the Turkey runs smallmouth through bluffs to the Mississippi.
Iowa’s wildest river: the Upper Iowa runs smallmouth beneath 300-foot palisades.
Species activity across the state's covered waters. Peak of the year: April.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for this state's dominant water type (estimated).
| Water | Type | County | Live gauge | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Okoboji | Lake | Dickinson | USGS | Apr |
| Rathbun Lake | Reservoir | Appanoose | modeled | Apr |
| Spirit Lake | Lake | Dickinson | modeled | Apr |
| Mississippi River Pool 9 | River | Allamakee | USGS | Apr |
| Lake MacBride | Reservoir | Johnson | modeled | Apr |
| Coralville Lake | Reservoir | Johnson | USGS | Apr |
| Clear Lake | Lake | Cerro Gordo | modeled | Apr |
| East Okoboji Lake | Lake | Dickinson | modeled | Apr |
| Storm Lake | Lake | Buena Vista | USGS | Apr |
| Saylorville Lake | Reservoir | Polk | USGS | Apr |
| Red Rock Lake | Reservoir | Marion | USGS | Apr |
| Cedar River | River | Linn | USGS | May |
| Turkey River | River | Clayton | USGS | May |
| Upper Iowa River | River | Allamakee | USGS | May |
Iowa runs three genuinely distinct fisheries: the glacial northwest (Okoboji and Spirit Lake's walleye-smallmouth-muskie chain), the driftless northeast (limestone spring creeks holding wild browns: Yellow River, Waterloo Creek: fished like Wisconsin's famous water without the crowds), and everywhere else's farm ponds and reservoirs where bass and bluegill grow fat on long summers. The Mississippi's pools add walleye, and the border rivers' flathead catfishing is quietly elite.
May: walleye on the Okoboji rocks, driftless caddis afternoons. June: bluegill beds statewide, muskie followers turning. Summer: dawn topwater on the ponds, slip-bobber dusk on the chain, trout creeks at first light. Fall: blade baits on the breaks, the driftless' best weeks. Winter: the ice capital: wheelhouse villages on the Great Lakes chain, bluegills through farm-pond ice everywhere.
The driftless northeast does: spring-fed limestone creeks with wild browns and stocked rainbows in Wisconsin-class scenery. A trout fee added to the license covers it.
Blue, deep, spring-fed clarity unique in the region: walleye and smallmouth over visible rock reefs, plus a century-old resort culture. It is the Midwest's classic fishing vacation, unchanged in the good ways.