Relocating to Iowa

[Whiskeyriver]

My wife and I are relocating to Iowa from Washington State. Besides pheasant hunting and whitetail hunting the thing I look forward to the most is catfishing again. We will be close to the Iowa and Cedar Rivers near Atalissa. Any hints, hot spots, or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[beeheck]

No idea where that's at in Iowa but welcome to a great catfishing state. May not get a lot of help in your search as Iowa folks on this site are pretty much a quite bunch. Good luck!

[armynavy]

I would say that your best spot would be the Mississippi at Muscatine, but I grew up fishing the Cedar at Vinton and Cedar Rapids both produce good size kitties.

[Gordhawk]

My wife and I are relocating to Iowa from Washington State. Besides pheasant hunting and whitetail hunting the thing I look forward to the most is catfishing again. We will be close to the Iowa and Cedar Rivers near Atalissa. Any hints, hot spots, or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Welcome to the Hawkeye State! If I'm not mistaken isn't Atalissa up around the Quad Cities area? When you say you are relocating to Iowa,I take that to mean that you have lived in Iowa in the past,and you're coming back,is that correct? If so,where did you live when you lived in Iowa previously? Good Luck on your relocation,and good fishing to you.

[Whiskeyriver]

Yes, I used to live in Iowa City. Atalissa is half way between Iowa City and Muscatine. I never did much fishing when I lived there before, I usually spent my free time chasing women, not catfish, and studying. I got married and graduated. Now I fish when I can. Coralville res looks promising but I am closer to the Cedar river and the Mississippi so these are probably where I will fish. Should I focus on certain structures like bridge pilings and log jams? Or should I work the main channels? I really would like to focus my efforts on flathead but any advice on getting the channels would be appreciated as well.

[postbeetle]

You sound like you were from Iowa City, chasing women. Went to summer school there a long time ago, in chemistry. I chased women, but I wasn't good looking. So I did a lot of studying chemistry. Used to live in Riverside. Try fishing that river with the campground next to that green dinosaur.

[FishinginDavenport]

I hear lots of stories of good size catches on Cedar and Iowa. You will find the Iowa is a faster running river and can often be bank full when it rains a lot upstream when others are near normal. I fish the Quadcity area and am still learning. Have an open seat on the boat if you want to try the Mississippi.

[Whiskeyriver]

Thanks to al for the responses. Fishingindavenport; Dude I'm gonna holla atchoo when I get back there and take you up on that offer. Thanks and happy fishing to you!:tounge_out:

[DAREWOOD11]

WELCOME TO IOWA...I LIVE IN SOUTH CENTRAL IOWA AND I ONLY FISH THE DES MOINES RIVER AROUND RED ROCK AND THE CHARITON AROUND RATHBUN...I FISH RATHBUN A LOT SINCE ITS ONLY ABOUT 20 MILES AWAY...GOOD LUCK

[graybeard]

Both the Cedar and Iowa are great catfish rivers, I fish the Iowa mostly, but quite a ways upstream from Atalissa, around Marshalltown. You've also got some good county and state lakes in that area, but SE Iowa is known for its rivers.

[Oldbear]

I fish the Iowa river around Marshalltown also and is a good fishery with stripers, northerns , channel & flatheads. Lost a good flathead off a bullhead last night. Say graybeard hows the hand after getting gored by that catfish last Sunday. Suppose your wife didn't have a lot of sympathy for you when you got to the hospital. Hurts thinking about it.

[graybeard]

Hand is doing fine, Steve, it was pretty sore and swollen for a day or so, but it's back to normal now. You are right, I didn't get much sympathy when I got to the ER. Everybody had to look at it and put in their 2 cents worth, and to add insult to injury, they stuck me in the room with the fish painted all over the walls. At least when I was leaving, they had just got the call about all those detassellers getting sprayed, so they were getting geared up for a mob, and I managed to slip out.

[Whiskeyriver]

May I ask what ER you went to? I used to be an ER RN and may be again very soon.

[graybeard]

Marshalltown, my wife works there.

[kkyyoottee]

My wife is from that area and she has some pictures of monsters her dad and her caught when she was little. I suspect there are some huge ones still in both. Good luck and welcome to Iowa. If ya want to lake fishing gives us a message we are in Rathbun area.

[teaysvalleyguy]

Good luck on the move brother.

[CatFishingFinatic]

I have seen some Monster cats come out of the Cedar River North of West Branch. There is great water over there. My dad pulled out 3 nice cats (of course you won't believe me likely) but they were what we call blue channels, each one weighing between 8-10 lbs, on Frog, in about an hour. Good luck, Iowa Rivers have some great cat fishing. Patience is the key.

[Longjohn119]

If you have a boat a good spot not to far away from you is the park in Moscow ... Just below the boat ramp is a railroad bridge, usually some nice snags on it around the pilings ... if you go upstream there are some nice snags along the east bank .... if you go downstream there is some nice riprap on the same side, it's a long bend in the river with a high cutout bank

Lots of good spots in that area but you really need a boat to get to them .... it's not very far from where you are at, a 10 minute drive tops

JR

[Whiskeyriver]

Thanks Longjohn, That is just the kind of intel I was looking for.:0a23:

[KingVille]

hey welcome home....i,m really from georgia but stay in waterloo now ...and the catfish here r off the chain seem like they never stop biting until that nasty winter gets here

[King Flats W'loo]

:roll_eyes:Hey partner glad u finally is made a B.O.C. member welcome , now its time to post them big cat pictures

[greg]

Both the Iowa and Ceder will yeild you some good cats. Good luck on the move.

[rippinlips]

The cedar and the iowa will be coming out of the banks in the next few days. Fish the flooded areas and hold on.

[Whiskeyriver]

Thanks for all the great comments and tips. We close on our new house in Iowa in 1 week. I am seriously PUMPED to be moving back to Iowa. Where we live now is beautiful and scenic. It is close to the ocean and the mountains. There is a lot of outdoor stuff to do here. It is also crowded, expensive, and overrun with rude and pretentious people. There is hardly any pheasant hunting or catfishing. The only thing I will miss is my salary and being able to golf in the winter oh and the coffee is really unbelieveabley good here. Anyway thanks again and I hope to see some of you soon out on the water.