Before the docks were even put in for 2014, we couldn’t wait to get the new Alumacraft Competitor 175 in the water to open up the 70 hp Yamaha 4 stroke. The fishing boat worked as advertised and is so quiet. The RPM control is amazing. We were able to take a trolling speed of 2.2 mph under the normal RPM setting and reduce it to 1.7 mph with just adjusting the RPM setting. When I was back trolling, on the lowest RPM setting the Yamaha kept us at about .8 or .9 mph, which is just about a perfect trolling speed for lindy rigging.
It was a great day to be on the water fishing. We decided to fish Coralville Reservoir mainly because we wanted to test out the Yamaha outboard to its fullest. It did not disappoint. However, the fishing could have been better.
This trip was more for trying out the new fishing boat with the new iPilot on the Minnkota Terrova trolling motor. This technology I must say has revolutionized boat control and staying on top of the fish. Fishing hands free without having to always focus on the direction of the trolling motor hopefully will put more fish in the boat. That didn’t work today, but I’m excited to use this new anchor feature and stored trolling tracks to playback and troll a section of water based on GPS memory.
The structure scan is as advertised. The Lowrance HDS-8 with side scan and down scan can really pinpoint structure and where the fish are holding on the structure. I’ve watched a number of YouTube videos on how to read the electronics, and tested out scroll back function. It’s kind of like rewinding live TV on your DVR. You can scroll backward on the electronics to any point and place your cursor on a fish or stump or rock on the down scan or side scan and place a waypoint to return to and fish.
The main focus of the trip on Saturday was to get the boat in the water for its maiden voyage and test out all of the new electronics and gadgets. They all worked perfectly, and I can’t wait to continue to learn how they work and put them to use to catch more fish. While fishing Coralville Reservoir was secondary on this trip, what became a focus on this day was the massive fish kill that occurred on the Coralville Reservoir.
Winter of 2014 in Iowa and many places in the Midwest was a brutal one with respect to the temperatures and snow cover. The ice grew thicker than in recent memory, and the snow cover was deeper on the lakes and lasted longer this year. This combination of thick ice and deep snow cover prevented the suns rays from penetrating the ice to keep the vegetation alive. When the vegetation dies in the lake in the winter, the oxygen content diminishes and there isn’t enough oxygen for fish species to survive. This is what happened on the Coralville Reservoir this year, and sadly the shorelines were littered with dead carp and flathead catfish. These seemed to be the bulk of the dead fish along the shorelines that we could see. I’m sure there were other species as well, but what we saw were primarily carp and flathead catfish.
That begs the question, why was it just carp and flatheads? While I’m not for sure, but I have heard that the oxygen content becomes less at the bottom of the lake first, while the top of the water column still stays oxygenated longer. Some fish species like carp and flatheads almost hibernate in the winter, and hug the bottom of the lake until the ice goes out. Conceivably what must have happened was that they refused to move off the bottom when the oxygen ran out lower in the water column, and they simply died a slow death, and must not have known it was happening. I’m sure you’ve all heard of how you can put a frog in a pan of cool water and slowly bring it to a boil, and it won’t ever jump out because it acclimates to the warmer water, until the point it kills them.
The game fish like crappie, bluegill, bass, walleye, northern pike and even the channel catfish move up and down in the water column during the winter that they must have been able to find enough oxygen to survive long enough even with the thick ice, deep snow cover, and the army corps of engineers drawing the Coralville Reservoir down significantly this spring. The water was down easily 6 feet from normal on Saturday. The Navionics lake maps showed depths consistently on the HDS-8 as being 6 feet deeper than the sonar was reading.
Even though we didn’t catch any fish on the first day out with the boat, I look forward to fishing Coralville Reservoir more often this summer in search of crappies and walleyes on the structure scan and spot locking on to them with the anchor feature on the iPilot.
One things for certain on this day, the seagulls, pelicans and turkey vultures had the “spot lock” on any fish they wanted on the shoreline. I’ve never seen so many fat and happy birds in my life. I suppose nature runs its course, and the circle of life is just a natural cycle. But that said, it was pretty sad to see all the dead fish….even if they were primarily carp and flatheads.
Until next time…good fishing.