Northwest Iowa Musky Report

The bite in the Iowa great lakes region continues to get better as fish are staging for fall patterns. Spirit
lake has been good, water temps are 75 and dropping, fish seem to be in areas with milfoil and sand as
well as cabbage and sand. Most of the action as been on small plastics such as regular bulldawgs and
shallow bulldawgs. Spinnerbaits have also been producing lots of fish. Lots of smaller, younger year class
fish are in shallow. Overall, the action on spirit is good, but difficult to find sizable fish. With extremely
low water the two southern most boat ramps are unusable at the time.
West Okoboji has also been a good bite lately with fish moving from the open water back into the deep
weed lines. We have been getting action from a lot of diverse year classes of fish on west. With more
bigger fish being seen than up on spirit. Bigger bladed bucktails slow rolled over the weeds and
swimming dawgs have been getting a lot of bites and moving a lot more fish than rubber baits have
been. As the water continues to cool down more big fish should move in, and the rubber bite should get
much better in September. West Okoboji water temp seems to be lingering around 76 degrees, and
after Labor Day the lack of pleasure boaters will open more good spots to find some clear water big fish.
Tanner Bouchard
Prairie Lakes Guide Service