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Moving to Des Moines!

Tomo

Tomo

Member
A few days ago I was offered a very good high tech sales job requiring me to move the family to the Des Moines area. I cannot pass up this opportunity so it looks like we will be moving to Iowa very soon.

I have a 16 yr old son who will be a junior and an 11 yr old daughter that will be in the sixth grade. What areas of DM should we take a look at? Any areas to stay away from?

Ironwood has agreed to help us in our house hunting adventure.

I am looking forward to becoming an Iowa resident and the legendary whitetail hunting that Iowa is so well known for. Around here knocking on a few doors will gain you access to good timber but I heard all the doors in Iowa have been knocked on already. Any advice?

On another note the waterfowl hunting here in South Dakota is very good, what can I expect around the Des Moines area? How about fishing? I love to fish for bass, crappie and catfish. Are farm ponds accessible? What lakes are around?

Your help is greatly appreciated and I hope to meet some of you at the archery shops.

Thanks,
Pat
 
SDbow said:
A few days ago I was offered a very good high tech sales job requiring me to move the family to the Des Moines area. I cannot pass up this opportunity so it looks like we will be moving to Iowa very soon.
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Congrats!!!

I have a 16 yr old son who will be a junior and an 11 yr old daughter that will be in the sixth grade. What areas of DM should we take a look at? Any areas to stay away from?

Ironwood has agreed to help us in our house hunting adventure.
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A good Realtor should know such things. (sorry Mike, couldn't resist:D). Not being from that area, can't help ya there.

I am looking forward to becoming an Iowa resident and the legendary whitetail hunting that Iowa is so well known for. Around here knocking on a few doors will gain you access to good timber but I heard all the doors in Iowa have been knocked on already. Any advice?
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With lots of people living in DSM, you will probably have to be willing to drive a little further than most people to gain permission. Still, many times it is sales, something you appear to be familiar with. You might be surprised about gaining permission if you have above average people skills.

waterfowl hunting and fishing?
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Saylorville might offer both.
 
First off, congrats on the job!

As for the whitetail hunting....you'll be able to find some good areas within an hour drive of DSM as long as you are willing to knock on a few doors and put in some time. If you can't connect on private ground (which i'm sure you'll be able too), you can always hit up public ground. Every year I have friends who connect on nice whitetails on public ground around the DSM area. I'm pretty sure that Marion county (within an hour of DSM) has the most amt. of public ground in the state.

There is good waterfowl hunting around Saylorville, as well as the Red Rock area which is just down the river from DSM about 30min.
 
Thanks Randy!

Pat PM me your contact info. It is time to get serious. I will show you where JNR does all of his hunting. You'll enjoy his spots.
 
When do you move? I grew up in Urbandale, so I am a little partial to that area. Urbandale, Grimes, and Johnston are all nice suburbs IMO. I live in West Des Moines now and I like it also.

Like the other guys have said, get 30+ miles from Des Moines and start knocking doors around any land you see that looks good. You'll get on some areas. Unfortunately, I've found alot more people deer hunt than anything else......at least it seems that way. I turkey hunt on land that others deer hunt, but not many guys seem to bother with turkeys or anything else (ducks, geese) for that matter. More for me lol.

There's descent waterfowling around the area. Same story, get away from the city a little bit and your success will go up. Less pressure and sometimes, more birds too.
 
urbandale, grimes, waukee, ankeny, bondurant, north polk (alleman), earlham, van meter, all good towns/schools next to, or close to des moines
 
Johnston and Ankeny have a little higher taxes but great places to live. Can't go wrong with Urbandale, West Des Moines, and I hear Grimes is nice :)
 
I'm not from the Des Moines area to give you any advice on where I suggest you live but I can give you a pretty honest analysis of Iowa waterfowl. You better be prepared to put in A LOT of time to have the success your used to in South Dakota. I primarily waterfowl hunt and bowhunt and put in lots of hours scouting with mediocore success. Seems like the flyways part right over central Iowa and the birds fly down the Missouri or Mississippi. Don't get me wrong we kill lots of birds but it will definately be a different ball game. The reciprocal of that is that Iowa's bowhunting is in turn historically better than South Dakota. Put the time in and you'll harvest one of those legendary Iowa whitetails. Good luck and if your ever in the Marion/Mahaska County area PM me and we'll meet up for a waterfowl hunt
 
Just like everybody else has said, put in some miles and knock on doors until your knuckles are sore, you'll eventually land something decent...

As far as fishing, you'll be delighted with the amount of farm ponds we have. Access is generally easy to gain, in my experience. The Des Moines River offers fair walleye fishing if you know what you're doing and GREAT catfishing. Also the Raccoon river is a good smallmouth fishery. Stick to farm ponds for largemouth, in my experience.

We do have some good waterfowl hunting. There are some decent public marshes that are awesome early season spots and many private ponds or large streams/small rivers can be good too. Lake Red Rock is a good spot too if you're looking to shoot multiple species.
 
Thanks for all the replys guys. And I just trained a new dog on ducks!! Oh well, at least I will be able shoot an Eastern turkey as I have never got one before, all Merriams and hybrids where I'm at.
 
Theres quite a few public areas all near Des Moines along the Des Moines River if you quite find any private ground to hunt. I'd check out all the suburbs on where to live: Ankeny, Johnston, Urbandale, West Des Moines, Altoona. There are quite a few small towns near Des Moines as well, and acerages. Personally I'd stick to the suburbs and not even bother looking for a house in Des Moines itself.
For the best fishing I'd stick to asking for permission to fish farm ponds, getting permission shouldn't be to hard. The Des Moines River, Saylorville,and Red Rock all have great catfishing if you know what your doing. Plenty of cats to be caught, and it always seems as though there are a few 50+ lbs flatheads caught every year in these places.
 
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