Photo by Tom Evans

The time has come for walleye anglers in Iowa to be honest. When they make their annual pilgrimage to northern Iowa's natural lakes, or the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota, do they head north simply because that's where they find good walleye fishing? Or do they head north simply because they want to get away from it all, like the household chores, the job, the cornfields? Either way, going north isn't just a convenient thing to do -- it's a smart choice.

If their goal is simply to catch walleyes, they really don't have to head north. Several lakes south of Interstate 80 in southern Iowa offer walleye fishing on par with the best northerly lakes.

"I've fished walleye tournaments in over a dozen states," said Des Moines angler Mike Heller, "and there aren't many lakes in Minnesota, Wisconsin or the Dakotas, even Canada, that can beat the walleye fishing in Rathbun, Little River and, especially, the pool below Davenport on the Mississippi River.

"On Rathbun, it's reasonable to expect to catch your limit just about every time you fish there, and I've caught as many as 50 in a day. As far as the Mississippi below Davenport, it's got a lot of lakes in Minnesota and Canada beat for size and numbers; I caught a 34-incher in downtown Davenport, and the overall population of walleyes is really, really strong."

As an alternative for anglers interested in catching fish rather than spending their time driving north, Heller and several other walleye fanatics offered a run-down on how, when and where to catch walleyes in the bottom half of Iowa:

LAKE RATHBUN
A guide at Lake Rathbun, Ron Boylan of Moravia -- (641) 724-3501 -- says that unlike their cousins up north, who favor cloudy, rainy weather, walleyes at Rathbun like things bright and sunny.

"Clear blue skies in June and July in the middle of the afternoon is some of the best walleye fishing of the year at Rathbun," said Boylan, who riffled through his fishing journal to find random examples of his midsummer success at Rathbun. "Last year on the 10th of July, I caught 24 walleyes … on the 20th I caught 16. Those were just average days. They bite like that right through the end of July."

Boylan's preference is to cast 1/4-ounce chartreuse auger-tail jigs tipped with 2- to 2 1/2-inch minnows over shallow points and humps. Fowler's Point, where the Ham Creek and Honey Creek arms meet the main lake, has the features that walleyes seek out. An old creek channel swings near the point, and packs of walleyes prey on schools of shad that frequent the abrupt changes in bottom contour. Midlake humps dotted with rockpiles (often marked with buoys) and an old rock quarry on the big flat near the Island View area are also prime hunting grounds.

"One of the keys is to keep moving," said Boylan. "I'll fish a spot for 10 or 15 minutes, then move on. I'm after feeding fish -- fish that are aggressive. And after 10 or 15 minutes, you've taken the aggressive fish from an area, and it's better to move on, rather than sit and wait for other fish to get hungry."

Sometimes Boylan casts crankbaits to points and humps. He favors Wally Divers, Reef Runners and Rapala Shad Raps, all in shad or crawdad colors. He occasionally trolls to locate walleyes. The bluff shoreline from Ranger Point to Ballard Point, he reports, is one of his most productive areas to drag crankbaits for walleyes.

While trolling is second or third choice for Boylan, it's the first choice for Heller. "Rathbun has trolling written all over it," he said. "It has got big, wide flats with 5 to 10 feet of water, underwater humps, big long points -- it's a great lake to troll."

Heller trolls Rapala Shad Raps in shad colors -- white/black, chrome, chrome/black -- and uses Bombers in similar colors. "I always work the windward shore, and up to a point, the windier it is, the better," he said. "The more waves there are, the shallower they will be. But if it gets too windy, it's hard to control the boat when you're working that close to shore or really shallow areas."

Another walleye tournament angler who frequents Lake Rathbun, Joel Shaw of Fairfield likes to pull Wally Divers, Reef Runners and crawdad-colored crankbaits at Rathbun. "I troll crankbaits to find fish on the big flats at Island View, Southfork, maybe Rolling Cove," he offered. "Rolling Cove is good when the water level in that area is around 8 to 16 feet. It's not as good if the lake is high and there's 26 feet of water over it.