Many people like to fish for the great tasting walleye, crappie or bluegill, or the powerful catfish or pike, but a lot of people really enjoy going after the elusive bass. Fishing for bass has become so popular that you can see it everywhere. I am sure that you have seen some “pro” fishermen on TV catching bass. They are often seen on ESPN2 and the Outdoor channel catching bass and getting big paychecks in tournaments, upwards of $100,000. Yes, that is right, $100,000 for catching bass. That is a rare prize, but these guys count on similar paychecks to pay the bills as professionals. While Marshalltown, or even the state of Iowa does not have “pro” bass fishermen, many local guys are involved in bass clubs that test themselves against each other and the bass.

Marshalltown, to my knowledge has two bass clubs, Timber Valley Bass Club and the club I am affiliated with, the Tri-County Bass Club. The Tri-County Bass Club is a group of guys who love to fish for bass and love the competition of fishing against each other, it also holds a few fund raisers each year to help out the community.

The Tri-County Bass Club has been around since 1981. The club normally has 7 tournaments a year in which club members can pay an entry fee and fish against other club members in the tournaments. The guys that catch the biggest keepers win the monetary prizes. The club also organizes one of the largest bass tournaments in the entire state, held at Brushy Creek Lake near Webster City. This allows the club to keep funds in their account and help out local youth and other organizations. The Tri-County Bass club have held several youth fishing days, casting contests and donated large amounts of money to various projects in the area. One in particular was money to help the Union Grove Lake project that is now in its last stages. This lake has been almost completely drained and will be re-modeled in the next few months. Recently the bass club made a large donation to the Marshall County Conservation Board. This donation was used to stock Red-Eared sunfish into Green Castle Lake just south of town.

There has been a lot of buzz lately about Green Castle Lake, and this is for a good reason. In short, the lake was overrun by carp, a species that was never stocked in the lake, and most of the panfish were not growing to normal size. People could still go out and enjoy fishing as the bluegills were always eager to bite, but the lake was not in balance due to the carp and the problems they create. The lake was drained, all fish removed and structure was added to the lake bottom. Silt was removed from portions of the lake and a few new islands were created too. Last June the Marshall County Conservation Board stocked about 800 adult bluegills in the lake. July they followed that stocking up with about 200 largemouth bass and 200 channel catfish. These three types of fish are essential to get a pond/lake off to a good start. The bluegills are great food for the bass and both should keep each other in check as they grow to normal size. This past month Green Castle got another jolt of stocking from Union Grove Lake. The DNR transported about 175 largemouth bass and 150 black crappie from the soon to be drained lake to Green Castle. With those fish stocking alone, this little lake on the south end of the county will be a great place to fish for years to come.

As stated earlier the Tri-County Bass club made the donation to add yet another species of fish to the lake, the red-eared sunfish. This sunfish look much like a bluegill, but will have a red stripe around their gill covering. They are pretty fish and grow quite rapidly. Anglers will notice that these fish will fight a little harder than the bluegills too, making some memorable moments for the kids that might hook into one. In all 400 Red-Ear sunfish were stocked to the lake because of the donation by the Tri-County Bass Club. Director of the Marshall County Conservation Board Mike Stegmann also informed me that walleye will be introduced to Green Castle Lake this fall, approximately 200 of them around the 8-inch size.

With all these great things going on to Green Castle Lake it will be a place for people and families to enjoy for many years to come. Please do your part when visiting the park to keep it clean and DO NOT bring minnows, as they are illegal to use at this lake. Worms, stinkbaits and artificial baits are all good choices. Check out Green Castle Lake by clicking over the Marshall County website, and if you are a huge fan of bass and want to learn more then check out the Tri-County Bass Club at www.tricountybassclub.net

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Contact Todd Reed at treedbass@yahoo.com and visit www.fishingwithtoddreed.com