Rathbun

[Doop]

Anyone on here fish Rathbun for crappies?

We are moving to northern MO and I've always wanted to fish Rathbun when I lived in northern Iowa.....now we'll be a little closer and I'd like to give it a try. Does it ice over in the winter?

[Sailor Jerry]

Haven't a clue but it's nice to see someone post on the Iowa board. If you want information on Ruthbun go to iowaoutdoors.org for some information.

[Waygate10]

Yes, Rathbun does freeze over but not a very long ice fishing season. If you get on a good school of fish it can be dynamite. The open water season really is good, too. Don't forget the walleyes in Rathbun either. I took my family down end of May and the first fish of trip was a 28"er my wife had on in the first 20 minutes of fishing. Let us know when you get moved and I can help get you started on fishing spots/techniques I use to put fish in the boat.

Waygate10

[prchjerker]

Rathbun is an excellent Crappie meca.Especially now that the lake is back down to normal pool August and Sept.are awesome structure fishing.Walleye fishing is good even though 50% of the population went through the damn over the last 2 years.There is a void in the 11 to 12 inch fish,so ther are lot6ts of 6 to 10 inch and some very impressive 14 to 16 inch fish right now.

[prchjerker]

Managed about 4 hours of crappie fishing last Saturday on Rathbun.The water was back to normal and really looking nice and clear especially on the lower end of the lake.My son and I boated over 150 crappies.Most were 9 to 10 inchers which went back.We kept 26 over 11 iches 6 where in the 11 inch class, the rteat were 12to 13 inchers with 3 over 14inches.All came off brush anywhere from 8 to 15 foot with the larger fish coming in the 8 to 10 foot stuff.Had to fish the little guys off the tops to get down in the thicker stuff for the big stuff.Bad newswas Saturday night and Sunday morning alot of rain fell so I dont know what the water will do, but late summer fishing is looking good.PJ