2009 Outdoor Report 

• January 2 & 3 - Todd fished Lil Emerson Bay on West Okoboji for bluegills. The fish were going great in 8-10' of water in the heavy standing weeds with holes to the bottom. The best jig was a #14 Diamond Jig tipped with maggots or a "T-boned" wax worm. The water was not as clear as normal, but still great fishing for gills into the 9" range. Also saw lots of bass and caught one crappie.  Other anglers are reporting a torrid bite for perch and walleye on Angler's Bay and Miller's Bay along with an epic bluegill bite in front of the ramp at Emerson Bay. Contact Ryan Hale for a guide trip over there.
• January 2009 - I've done a lot of ice fishing (Todd). Here at the end of January we have about 20" on area lakes and we are coming into the mid-ice period. We have a lot of snow cover and water is "milking". The fish are more sensitive to light period feeding and your presentations have to be very precise.  Get on the water with a plan, and start out with smaller lures than you think you should use - when you catch fish - up your sizes and aggressiveness. I've really seen some strong bait preferences this month. On certain days and times of days waxies will out-produce maggots and vice versa.  I've also used plastics more and more, I don't catch as many fish with things like Little Atom micro noodles - but I seem to catch nicer fish. It's fun to try different things. One thing I've found is that plastics work much better on locating crappies and other fish sometimes. Be safe out there!
• February 2009 - I've gotten out a number of times on area lakes with good friends. It's been a good ice season but as I type this we are probably done. Our warm-up eroded the shores and now our -8 below nights have been under 6-7" of snow. Glad I ordered those few thousand maggots!  This was a good ice season overall, it just ended too soon. I've met a number of people on the ice this year and tried to help a great deal of people learn about how to select lures, put on bait properly and use electronics. Often I see anglers with equipment big enough for lake trout, line heavy enough for catfish, and lures intended for walleye trying to catch panfish without electronics. Folks, honestly - downsize, get a nice sensitive rod and use 2-4# test. If you don't have a flasher, often you are simply wasting time - not ice fishing!
• March 6, 2009.  Ryan Hale invited me (Todd) and some other buddies on an epic ice fishing trip. We hit three ponds over in NW Iowa and 1 public lake. We had a ball catching perch, gills, bass and bullhead, yes, bullhead.  CamperJack felt his "old coot" neighbor would take all we caught so 50 bulheads and 2 buckets later Jack was set. (I think he sold them for 50 cents outside a Catholic Church for Lent but he claims he didn't :) )   The hot lures for me were Fiska and Diamond style jigs in Firetiger or Gold. It was quite a day - 20" bass, 12" perch and 09"+ Gill. All the bullheads were a pound lol. Ok, it was fun. I don't care what you think!  Ryan - awesome day!!!
• 3-20-09 Todd and I had a fair outing to the tailrace of Lewis & Clark Lake at Yankton.   The wind made jigging extremely challenging, but we did manage 5 walleyes and 1 catfish (don't forget my epic White Horse John! :) ).   The biggest 2 eyes went right at 18.5 inches.   White jigs dragged on the bottom seemed to be the choice set up.  Sounds like the tailrace bite is going pretty well up and down the Missouri River right now, also the bite at Running Water and Niabrara has produced some action.  If the weather will ever straighten up this bite will only get better.  Dress warm and get those boats in the water.
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• 4-13-09 Went to the woods on Monday to do some early season Iowa turkey hunting.  My wife and I havested a pair of nice gobblers, a 19 and a 22.5 pound pair.   One had a 9 1/2 inch beard and the other a 10.   Needless to say we were very happy.   John McAllister with my daughter Katie.

• April 14 - Doc Cohee and I slipped down to a local lake and caught a few little bass. It was a great time and great weather. They were taking little twister tails and Jackall 'FlickShake" worms rigged wacky style. Todd
• May 9 & 10 - Fished Francis Case for Bass. What a great weekend. Went out with the Springfield BASS club and Tom for some pre-fishing. I just had a ball. The smallies were way back in bays on the boulders. Tube baits were hot. The big fish came on a spinnerbait (just under 5#) for one of the participants.
• May 13-16 - Lewis & Clark. John and I had fantastic fishing with plugs all over the lake. The west end is the best but the drops by the dam are good too. Water was about 60 deg. Whiteys are in the river.
• May 25 - Fished Lewis & Clark again with my wife, Peggy and daughter Katie.  Fishing was slower than last weekend, but we still managed some fish up to 25 inches.   A variety of plugs worked and we fished the Gavins Point area and the Flats out west.    John Mcallister
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• I'm transitioning my reports only to the message board. Todd