Sunfish Slough Fishing Guide, Muscatine County, Iowa

• Overview

  The Muscatine County entry here is Sunfish Slough, in Iowa. The water sits 571 feet up. At about 25 acres, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. By elevation it sits in the lower part of our Iowa listings. The nearest town is Buffalo, 2.6 miles away. Further out sit Andalusia (2.8 miles) and Blue Grass (4.4 miles). A border sits close enough to be relevant to the paperwork.

• Where to Fish on Sunfish Slough

  No chart reached our records; the first cast is your sounding. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Survey and observation records for Muscatine County include channel catfish, freshwater drum and bluegill. Records at county level tell you what is around, not what is stocked here. Read Sunfish Slough for ten minutes before the first cast goes out.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Climate normals give 75°F for July and 21°F for January. Winter closes the water for a while, and the reopening is worth catching. Firm cover through the cold months, then open water from mid March. The open-water window runs from around mid March to about mid December in an average year. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. At Sunfish Slough the season follows that pattern closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  Public data does not answer the access question here. A camping area sits within half a mile of here. A small crankbait along the drop and a worm in the thick stuff cover the bass. Look for a notice board at the entrance. A polite question at the farm gate opens more banks than anything else. Should this one be busy, Mud Slough is 0.5 miles off. Where Sunfish Slough is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.