Joe R

Paul, both rivers the smallies are very willing if you are in the right environment. Sunday Kish I focused on pike for starters in your old neck of the woods, and wow on big teeth, but in the afternoon when it hazed and clouded over there were a lot of smallies very shallow over gravel in 10" to 2' of water in current so i went through a lot of keitech and optimum opti shad swimbaits on 16th ounce jigs fishing them just sub surface and tickling the surface. Emulating fleeing baitfish was the biggest frenzy getter. Regarding the musky it was reported to me by a friend of mine who was wading my takeout area that day. He was fishing for smallies but he followed them around some waitng to see his go pro pics but he is a long time avid fisherman including a musky psycho so there is no doubt in his identification. 2 fish were hanging together good size.

No doubt they came up inimpeded from the rock im still amazed at the differnce in fish comparing early season cold months to this time of year. Clear water late winter and spring i see next to nothing but now i see a lot of gamefish and a large schools of quillbacks and suckers. Its all about no dams and fish having ability to get out of skinny water in cold season.

Geez havent logged in for awhile was busy traveling during the weekdays out of state helping my kids move into their colleges. Got back end of week and fished 5hrs south des plaines saturday and 8.5hrs south branch kish sunday. Boy super disappointed i didnt know about the outing i would have went for sure. Fishing was on fire brought about 60 fish to hand 7 to 1 ratio smallies to pike. Keep an eye out on south branch for 2 muskies swimming together. I assume must have run up way far from rock river.

So frustrating Illinois laws seem to be a rubber stamp year by year insufficent progressive thinking. I know there are a lot of non navigable waterways that get a lot of traffic that may at least have public access and for the most part landowners have more or less accepted people passing through. Id imagine its the less frequented rivers with just bridges for informal access are more problematic. Since i fish the kish a lot many different areas i always wonder if dropoing a yak in at a bridge is legal. Eveb if it was as soon as im down river some i may be on private land. Just seems crazy that if you are floating thru on a yak that its a problem in many illinois areas.

I think I'm good (as of now) for the July wade...as long as gauges look okay.

Desperation LOL, whatever it takes.

I hit the south branch Sunday started off downriver didn't like the looks (too stained) so headed up river where there was adequate visibility. Not a good smallie section but caught several and a couple pike. Actually where I was water was low and too slow.

I'm not planning anything in advance its always the night before deciding what river and if I'm fishing things are too unpredictable this year.

If you are using a MH rod in general I would consider that too heavy for smallmouth fishing. Characteristics of rods vary I would pay more attention to the feel or action of the rod versus the rating. I have a ST Croix ML rod that I like a lot but it fishes closer to a medium and I use that for light jig/grub presentations in lesser current situations. On the flip side I have another rod that is MH and it's rather whippy and fishes more light a medium (probably since its 7'6") Fast current I'm usually with a medium rod with medium fast action tip. If fish are in very fast current they may have to attack extra hard, especially with crankbaits. Recently I had my yak anchored (actually double anchored) in very fast water and all I did was short cast and set the rod in a rod holder and the crankbait was just banging away on the bottom as if I was retrieving it fast. The smallmouth would hit the crank so hard since current was flying by I'd almost thought the rod holder would break. In that case I cutover to my medium action rod with a deeper backbone and that eased the shock of the fish hitting with a rod that has too fast of a tip.

As Norm mentioned if you are losing hook-ups check the quality of the hooks. I've definitely noticed that lures with a lot of fishing time and fish caught may lose sharpness and you can actually tell that hook-up rates reduce. If you like crankbait fishing I'm really fond of Bandit crankbaits both 100 series (shallow) and 200 series (medium). I like the size of the hooks they are a tad bit smaller and good for smallmouth fishing, the hook-up percentage is good and I can usually free them up when snagged in rocks. They also behave very nicely in current.

What time?

Let me know when the 100 mile RT drive is worth it. All I request at least 10 inches of clarity and I'm game.

Good to hear Terry since I'm always afraid after making the long drive to find no visibility. Surprised it was that bad. I fished the north branch 2 weekends ago and I'd say it was about 1 foot visibility where I was at.

I suspect the gauge is okay and it just so happens to be the dynamics of this particular water event in this case. The river was low and a big influx of rain brought the river up quickly at a time when the entire river system was low and it will drain more quickly upriver. I know Fairdale isn't to far from that canoe launch but I believe gauge at Fairdale is probably okay. By the way I talked to the USGS worker who was doing a survey a couple hundred yards south of that gauge at Irene last year. They go through a lot of effort with survey equipment when calibrating gauges.

I check the dekalb, Fairdale, and perryville gauges when I consider fishing the south branch. I know the Fairdale shot up high and came down quickly. I'm assuming that is the gauge you are talking about it did come down fast it seems.

I think I've done 4 floats in last 2 weeks in northern Kane. It's a chore fishing with the current and working shoreline structure. Today I was out 6 hours on a nice Saturday and I'm still yet to see anyone in a paddle vessel besides me. I did pull a paddle out of some trees in South elgin last week and up near dundee today I spotted a yellow pdf snagged in trees in the water so yes caution is in order.

I yak fish both lake and green bay side of the lake. Sturgeon Bay is the only are in door county I don't fish but I'm an odd ball I have to admit. The nice thing about door county is you can play the wind direction game and find relatively more tame lake conditions somewhere in the county. Its harder to find fish on the lake side but my best fishing days have been in lake side bays like moonlight , north bay, rowleys bay, etc. Less consistent and harder to find fish but when I did sometimes it was stacked fish in just some epic 1 hour times...

Ive looked at the water on lake side and then drove over to Egg harbor or Ephraim harbor for example and vice versa would leave the green bay harbors alone when wind pounded and may head to Rowleys bay (and Mink river).

Usgs Perryville heading up up and up over 11feet. No rivers for me this weekend I've had enough of it went down swinging on the fox friday and in the rain on des Plaines Saturday, catching fish but going to take a break from rivers for awhile and work on gear and do some lure making instead. Probably be tough spawn for fish this year.

I wouldn't worry about pushing it week to week it is spring time and its better to try and fish spots when your floating by a 3mph instead of flying by at 7mph

Wow that's something. Lifetime and low cost warranties are so important especially for fly rods. Which reminds me my reddington torrent needs to go back. Boy I was checking out an IoN at cabelas last year and I came oh so close to buying it. Great rod for the price but I couldn't justify adding a 5th rod at that time.

Less rain this week then expected and looking at the gauges I would say it's likely fishable but certainly not ideal. I'm in favor of the push of date. I may hit the kish sunday afternoon I'm so tired of all the largie bass I've been catching on lakes I need moving waters this weekend despite what conditions I may find after I make the hour drive

Very likely for me if the river isn't a mess and the weather terrible. You at the eatery until maybe 8am? In case I'm running late...

How's the kish looking now? Gauges still high but coming down slowly is brown and stirred up?

Sorry Terry I'm sitting next to a kleenex box and ripping through them nobody wants to be next to me today...

Jake I found smallies in medium current they were absent from calmer waters, they were not in a cold water state of mind.

Kish 53 deg

Rock 47 deg

Pec 45 deg

Raccoon Creek 46 deg

Okay I'm way late since I don't read most forum categories but have no fear shortening a rod handle. I do this with some of my long rods that have traditional cork handles. I buy preferred butts at Mudhole and simply hacksaw the handle to length. Push on the butt and glue or epoxey it if you desire. Takes less than 5 minutes.

I'm not going to make it. Was out today morning to evening. Rock, Pec, raccoon creek, North branch kish. 0 walleye, 0 pike, 20 smallie's. Smallies were pounding 4.5 inch suspending jerk bait. I'd love to talk fishing and pound pizza slices and thats worth the 100 miles of driving but I will save those miles for another day right now I'm toast.

If life doesn't get in the way I will be there. Dumb uninformed me really doesn't know about regulations since I'm 100 percent C&R all species all the time so I'm not regulations knowledgeable. Are these signs only applicable to the kish or do they apply to other rivers like fox and des plaines river also. Since I do some stupid access stupid places on kish and other rivers I could always toss up some signs in my spring outings in less common areas. I was way up river on kish Sunday took a skunk but boy water was clear didn't sight any smallies or pike. They are elsewhere but I won't do a pizza drive unless I wet a line for at least an hour. It's the principle of things. No fishing then no pizza.

It's a pressured stretch. They're in there but with easy access don't expect size or numbers. I've fished it a number of times over many many years. It's a nice park I've camped there a lot and fishing is secondary when I'm there.

Wow what a beautiful tank! I fish those tightropes I usually buy several at the schaumburg fishing show every year. Nice when you want to fish a smaller jig with a smaller trailer. Nice kid he gave me some trailers and shown me some tanks he caught on NBK nov/dec fishing those jigs slowly...

A lot of counties have underused campgrounds. Winnebago is one example. Sugar river park west of Rockton has a real nice campground in the pines...