How to catch the ‘common man’s trophy fish’ thrilling anglers on Iowa’s Rathbun Lake

Anglers stand a good chance to catch “the common man’s trophy fish” on south-central Iowa’s Rathbun Lake.

That’s how Department of Natural Resources fisheries management biologist Mark Flammang describes the fast-growing, hard-fighting hybrid striped bass that are thrilling anglers and tearing up their tackle at Rathbun and several other Iowa reservoirs.

“People do catch giants,” Flammang said, noting that a 25-inch hybrid striper — a not uncommon catch on Rathbun — qualifies for an Iowa Master Angler award. With a 25-incher weighing about 7.5 pounds, “that’s a quality big fish,” he said.

Flammang, who fishes “almost exclusively” for hybrid stripers several days a week from May to September, said he considers himself “pretty good” at catching them.

Although they can at times be elusive, “you can catch from 40 to 50 on a good day,” said Flammang, who recalled catching a pair with a combined weight of 19 pounds on back-to-back casts on one particularly good day.

Their elusiveness, he said, stems from their extreme mobility. “They travel in schools, and they don’t stay in one place very long,” he said.

Hybrid stripers often follow schools of shad, their favorite prey, and in their pursuit drive them to the surface. The skittering shad, in turn, attract flocks of gulls hoping to cash in on the collateral damage — in the process alerting anglers to the presence of hybrid stripers.

“At times like that fishing with topwater lures can be very exciting, but it usually does not last long before the fish move,” Flammang said.

Other productive lures include swim baits, jigs, flutter spoons and crankbaits , he said.

Flammang said live scope sonar technology — which provides real-time, high definition underwater images — helps him track the fishes’ movements.

First-time hybrid striper anglers are advised to beef up their tackle with strong line, stout hooks and big lures.

Flammang typically uses 20- to 40-pound test braided fishing line for the hybrid stripers — a cross between a white bass and a striped bass.

The DNR stocks several reservoirs and lakes with fry imported from Arkansas and also stocks some fingerlings raised at its hatchery in Mount Ayr.

In Eastern Iowa, hybrid stripers are stocked in Lake Macbride, Coralville Lake and Terry Trueblood Lake in Johnson County and in Pleasant Creek Lake and Prairie Park Fishery in Linn County.

“Anglers like them. The big ones are very powerful and hard to land,” said Paul Sleeper, the DNR fisheries management biologist at Lake Macbride.

Sleeper said most of the hybrid stripers caught on Macbride range from 12 to 16 inches. Anglers typically fish for them with topwater lures in the morning and evening when the lake is usually calm.