Hello,
I used to live in Donnellson, just kind of southwest of you. Thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth since I used to fish all over the area. The main lakes in the area that I fished were -
Geode – Henry county in Geode State park
Shimek Forest Ponds – Lee county between Donnellson and Farmington
Lacey Keosauqua Lake – Just south of the town of Keosauqua
Sugema – Just past the turn off to Keosauqua on hwy 2 for the south of the lake or go through Keosauqua to hwy 40 for the north of the lake.
Tug Fork ponds/lakes – East of Keosauqua, same way as to get to the north of Sugema.
There was also another small lake the I think was called Wilson Lake between Donnellson and Fort Madison. Kind of back off from the highway on the dirt road that goes to an old Railroad museum/collection.
All these lakes have good fishing for bluegill, bass, crappie, and catfish. The smaller ones will generally have the better ice.
If you can hook up with some of the farmers around that have ponds. There are usually good bluegill, crappie and bass in those farm ponds.
Some of them are real decent about letting you fish. My neighbor had a 15 acre lake on his place and let me fish there all the time.
I never really ice fished the Mississippi backwaters as the ice can be hit or miss there in SE Iowa. I did most of my river fishing from a boat. If you can get access to some of the oxbows and sloughs, I think you would find enough fish to keep you interested.
Anyway, just happened to click on Iowa stuff here in IS and saw your post for SE IA and thought I would chip in. Live in NW Montana now. Doing more shoveling of snow that ice fishing this year. Hope this gives you a little direction where to start.
Good fishing to you. Greg
