Iowa Farm Pond Bass

[IA Born]

I just got back from a long weekend in Iowa seeing family that I haven't seen in a long time.  Long story short, my aunt (dad's oldest of his two younger sisters) has cancer again after 22 years of remission and, because of the treatment level last time, can't have treatment this time.  As she says "I'm ready to go be with Jesus and my Buddy.".  Her husband, my Uncle Bud, passed away 10 years ago this October.  She asked me to come back and see her down in Pleasantville before things get bad with the cancer.  I stayed at my best friend's house with his family in West DesMoines the whole time.  He and I have known each other since we were 2 years old.  We started at the babysitter together (my great aunt/grandma's sister), wen to preschool, elementary, junior high, high school, and college together.  All the perks of growing up in small town in Iowa.  After visiting my aunt and a handful of other family members from my dad's side, Jeff and I took off to a local farm pond he has access to near Winterset.  Of course, I had to take my fly rod back with me.  We hit the pond Friday night and Saturday.  I caught two bass Friday night on poppers.  The first one was my favorite because it was a popper tied up by my son, Jacob.  I ended up losing that in a tree (placed a new order with Jacob on the drive home), tied on a store-bought popper, and caught a second bass.  Jeff didn't want to try the fly rod, so he was hitting his spin gear.  He caught a nice black crappie and "future champion" bass on a weedless spoon/grubtail combo before I convinced him to switch to topwater action with a floating Rapala.  Jeff: "topwater never works here!". Me: "Bass are bass, no matter the pond, and topwater always works in the evening.  Trust me."  He switched and landed a 4-lb beautiful largemouth.  We went back Saturday for a couple of hours before dinner with his family and we each caught a "future champion" on topwater.  He is now going to expand his topwater arsenal and we're working on our next adventure. 

I wish I knew why these pictures upload wonky/upside down/sideways, but at least his Friday night pond monster is normal.  I'm also realizing I need to convince my wife to let me get a 7-wt fly rod/reel for bass.  Fingers crossed on that one I'm hoping to not have to tell her my 8wt bonefish rod will work for bass so I can get the 7wt!

First bass of the trip, on a popper tied by Jacob

Jeff's first bass of the trip, on a weedless spoon/grubtail combo.

Jeff's pond beast on topwater.  She pulled off two tail dances before being landed.

My last fish, on a topwater Rapala Saturday night.

[U.T.A.H. Camp]

Great looking bass and nice writeup. As a desert-rat, any Midwest fishing sounds spectacular. Thoughts and prayers for your sick family. 

-Patrick 

[bigorange]

Topwater is the best…nice fish thanks for sharing. 

[firstcoueswas80]

When I took my son to Texas to kill his first deer, he enjoyed the pond fishing more than the hunting!

[IA Born]

11 minutes ago, bigorange said:

Topwater is the best…nice fish thanks for sharing. 

I think Jeff now has a better understanding of my obsession with topwater anything!

5 minutes ago, firstcoueswas80 said:

When I took my son to Texas to kill his first deer, he enjoyed the pond fishing more than the hunting!

I grew up on farm ponds in Iowa and those are some of my absolute best memories.  I found out one of the family farm ponds I used to hit (my dad's mom's sister/ her husband) is still in the family and I can fish it anytime I want.  I'm working on my return trip just for that.  My buddy, Jeff, was cracking me up.  He was mad because he caught that crappie. I was giving him heck because I'm just about the fishing and could really care less what I catch.  I finally convinced myself I need to get panfish poppers, but I've also been tempted to go with the worm/bobber like my extremely youthful days just to have nonstop action.  To be fair, Jeff hasn't been fishing as long or as seriously as I have, so he hasn't entirely reached the point of "its not about the fish".