Southeast
Lake Darling Management District
- Contact Person: Vance Polton – 319-694-2430
For more information on these lakes and ponds, call the Lake Darling Fisheries at 319-694-2430. Last updated on 03/04/2026
- Water Temperature (°F): 66.0
- Ramp Condition: Useable
- Black Crappie – Fair: Crappie fishing slowed down a little as the week has progressed. Anglers are still catching decent numbers in 6-8 feet of water in amongst the flooded timber. Try bobber and minnow or vertical jigging.
- Largemouth Bass – Fair: On sunny warm (70+) days, anglers were picking up bass along the north side along the more open shoreline where the sun could get in to warm the water.
Iowa River (Columbus Junction to Mississippi R) (Louisa)
- Ramp Condition: Useable
The water level is dropping, but is still only about a foot and a half from being bank full.
- Water Temperature (°F): 62.0
- Ramp Condition: Useable
Starting to see the curly-leaf pondweed coming up. Water clarity is good.
- Black Crappie – Fair: Bite is hit-and-miss. The last couple of days have been slow for catching crappies. Haven’t seen many up close to shore spawning.
- Bluegill – Fair: Starting to see a good number of smaller bluegills coming into shallow water. No sign of nest building yet.
- Largemouth Bass – Fair: A few more boats are chasing bass on sunny warm days. Anglers are catching some decent bass up to 4 pounds. Try working the lures slow and shallow along sun heated rocks.
- Water Temperature (°F): 66.0
- Ramp Condition: Useable
Surface temperature is 66 degrees; down four feet below the surface at 65 degrees, so the water is mixing. Water clarity is good at about 5 feet, especially after all the wind and rain. Lake level is about 6-8 inches higher than normal.
- Black Crappie – Fair: The crappie bite is fair to slow. Tuesday (4/21), anglers were doing fairly well along the rock piles and brush in 6-7 feet of water; decent catch of eaters with some sorting. Wednesday (4/22) morning the bite was slow and only for the smaller fish; started to pick back up towards the evening.
- Largemouth Bass – Fair: Largemouth bass are starting to occupy the habitat in the shallower water. The brushpiles and old willow bats in 4 to 5 feet of water are holding good numbers of decent sized fish. Haven’t seen any nesting behavior yet.
- Water Temperature (°F): 67.0
- Ramp Condition: Useable
- Black Crappie – Fair: Bite has been hit-or-miss; one day they will be along the brush and tree falls near shore, the next they will be back out in the habitat in 8 feet of water. They are not spawning yet.
Largemouth Bass – Fair: Depends on the day. Warm and sunny: hit the tops of the long mounds across from the beach or along the rock shoreline in the sun with crankbaits. Cool and cloudy: work the steeper shorelines where they can stay closer to deeper water.
Skunk River (Rose Hill to Coppock) (Washington)
- Ramp Condition: Useable
The Skunk River came down about a foot this last week. It is down to about 3 feet below bank full. The current remains fairly fast.
Macbride Management District
- Contact Person: D. J. Vogeler or Chris Mack – 319-624-3615
- Ramp Condition: Useable
- Channel Catfish – Slow: Try cut bait or dead minnows.
- Largemouth Bass – Good: Anglers report catching largemouth bass. Target the rip-rapped shorelines using plastics or spinnerbaits.