Norm M

the learning never stops, amen to that .

I guess it depends on what an effective bite means to the individual angler. I'll fish in 32 degree water for a single fish during the entire outing. In the extreme cold water, it may be a couple , three trips with only one fish to show for it. For myself, it's worth doing , just because I enjoy the challenge . That's one of the great things about fishing, everyone is able to enjoy it in their own way as there is no absolute right way .

www.illinoissmallmouthalliance.net They just added ways to connect with the social websites, you might be interested in that. I know I'm not but there seem to be many that are.

Air temp was 34 when I started, it was 30 when I quit. Wind WSW about 20 mph, no sun to be seen, completely overcast with some snow flurries. Only took the water temp once at the start, it was 39 degrees. There was about 6 inches of visibility, 2000 CFS, 1.40 both rising but still below usual levels. Lots of chop on the water, some leaves/weeds still flowing. Saw a single hawk, handful gulls out searching for a meal, most other wildlife not doing much. Some fish activity on the surface. I did see a real nice buck crossing a field, no does in sight. No ducks sighted, a few geese on the water. I started at an area that has cobble/clamshell/sand bottom. It starts at a large riffle, has a deeper hole about 4-5 ft deep, has a larger island with mature trees and several water willow islands. The main channel of the river passes thru this area but it only accounts for maybe 1/8 of the total width of the area. There is a lot of water with reduced flow but nothing you would really call slackwater. I waded out to where I could cover a variety of current options from the main channel to the slowest flow as well as a variety of depth options from the shallowest to the deepest availible. With minimal amount of wading I could move down to where the channel cut between the large island and a waterwillow island or with a little more up to the riffle. It's one the the reasons I like this spot, mutiple locational options with minimal movement. I opted to start with a topwater because of the chop on the water, well that and it was too darn cold to pick algae off the lures. I started with a real aggressive retrieve and worked down. The winning cadence with the Rattling Spook was 5 twitches then a five count of drift and repeat. I was standing in crotch deep water[i'm 6ft] and the first fish hit about 3 feet in front of me. With that I decided to concentrate my efforts on the shallower areas with less flow. That also turned out to be the right decision as I ended up with 2 more fish. I tried the other options again before I left but no fish to be had. Pretty good for the conditions, three smallies 15-17 inches in a little over two hours of tossing a topwater on the last day of November. After that I had to get out and warm up a little as all the crap I take for my heart, thins the blood. i just don't do cold as well as I once did. I moved to an area of the river that doesn't have much algae so I could fish one of my big crankbaits[Norman DD-20]. Thie two areas I fished were 1 to 4 feet deep, boulders, cobble, sand bottom. One was a nice eddy, the other on the first major bend below a dam. In the eddy, I tossed a large jointed Rebel minnow in the slower flow looking for some pike. I'm sure they were there but no takers. I switched to the large crank and fished the eddy throughly but no fish. I moved to the inside bend and continued using the crankbait. In this area there is also some linestone shelf with some cover like large rocks and a nice sized branch that got hung up on a rock. I got the best fish of the day, an 18 inch smallie, in a spot where the shelf transitioned into a cobblestone bottom. I worked a number of boulders bouncing the crank off them from as many angles as possible but no takers. By then the air temps were continuing to drop, the wind was increasing and my legs were getting numb. 4 fish in about 5 hours of fishing, all on more agressive lure choices than many would opt for. I didn't bring the F-N-F stuff with and never tied on a jig.

I think the front that blew thru northern Illinois Monday evening put an end to any warmth in my fishing for the rest of the year. I'm still going to wade for smallies until[hopefully it won't] the river completely freezes over.

Mostly the Rattling Spook, Rapala SkitterProp, Spitting Image Shad. I also use a Devils Horse, Chug Bug and Pop-R on occasion. For slightly subsurface I like the jointed Raps and the Sub Walk. Sluggos and flukes might also work in the situation you describe and they have the advantage of only having a single hook to deal with. That can be an advantage when wearing gloves. I recently ran into an instance when fishing a point pool that the fluke seemed to have too much vertical movement. The bass just nipped at the tail. When I switched to a suspending jerk with a long pause I started catching fish.

Start aggressive and work back. That includes location and technique.

Al, Thank you, for the kind words. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it is a function of that type of flow. It actually all got started after a couple of drought years the bottom was carpeted with algal type growths and fishing anything on the bottom was impossible. The fish couldn't see the bottom let alone forage there, thus they were all feeding up. I've been continuing to fish topwaters all winter since and have found that even in my flow it doesn't work everywhere. It isn't a high percentage type of fishing to be sure but it is an option. It works best in areas where shad are present and surprisingly days in which the winds are pushing whitecaps upstream can be the best. I wasn't advocating everyone rush out and try it, just wondering if folks in other parts of the country had any experiences with it.

most definitely, trophy smallie time. how many of you fish topwaters in the middle of winter?

I don't worry about what kind of bugs are hatching but when the birds start swooping down, I'm there. I ignore the little fish chasing the bugs on the surface and fish below them to catch the bigger bass eating the smaller fish above. Big and little brown bugs, big and little white bugs is about as far as I go with the bug id.

I was out this morning fishing a seam that holds bass and walleye. I waded out to a spot where i could cover it fairly well with plans to adjust position to cover the rest of it. Two guys in a boat who were about 1/4 mile downstream see me catch a few and immediately motor up. i thought maybe they just wanted to chat about what I was using but instead they started fishing the area. As i was wading back to shore to move further upstream one of them asks how fishing is. I told them I was catching fish in that spot and his reply was, yeah we saw that. I moved up to fish a flat with boulders on it and got a few there. You guessed it, here comes the boat. This time they asked what i was using as I left, I declined to reply. The only consolation was those clowns snagged up about every third or fourth cast and lost quite a few crankbaits. Instant karma or just lousy fisherman?

I fish about 250 days a year, pay the tables no mind at all. Local conditions are what matter the most.

flow about 103o cfs this morning, water clearing up- too much for my taste, weeds breaking free and flowing along with some leaves. clearer water allowing more algae growth on the bottom, rather have the planktonic algae suspeneded in the water column but the cooling water and possibly shorter days are reducing it's growth. didn't take the water temps, it was 72 a couple days ago. same pattern since late July, rattlebaits in faster water. switched to gay blades for a while, they caught fish as well. heads, tails of riffles, pools in between especially if short pools twixt riffles. fish in pools relating to seams, ledges, boulders and rock humps. channels in between riffles. neckdowns, bridge pilings, seams around midstream humps as well as the lift and drop right off the humps. I used the spoon plug Phil gave me when I moved to a more algae free stretch of the river. I got three smallies on it before i hung it up, prolly in a piece of concrete with rebar that got tossed in the river when they rebuilt the bridge. After I lost the spoonplug, I decided to try a jig/plastic, 45 minutes and nary a pickup. Got hungery, hit the road. All told 53 bass between 10 and 19 inches, most in the 12 to 15 inch range. Creeping up on 900 smallies on rattlebaits since end of July, amazing stable pattern.

gotta have moon pies with the yoohoo

I won't mention tinsel, mylar or flashaboo jigs then.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/bowman/2010/05/midwest_fishing_report_high_wa.html In Fisherman June-July 2003 If river the river smallies site was up you could do a search there author Creekyknees Illinois Smallmouth Alliance search author Norm M If you were a member of the Illinois Smallmouth Alliance you could do a search for past articles in the Bronzeback Bulletin Google Creekyknees or Norm Minas www.chitownangler.com search author Creekyknees www.chicagolandfishing.com search author Creekyknees

no, I'm not putting you on. mostly stuff that pushes a lot of water. say for instance flooded trees, 3/8 to 1/2 oz single spin size 6 to 8 magnum willow or colorado blade, reversed living rubber skirt, 5 inch twister and skin the bark on the flooded trees. in others, large jig/pig or weighted keeper hook with 5 or 6 inch twister. If there is enough room a big crank like a Norman DD20 fished extremely slow and against any current flow if current is present in less than 4 ft of water. Big, fat, dumb, slow, eat me. I was one of the guys featured in an article in In Fisherman a few years back for this kind of fishing. Steve Quinn and I both spoke at an Illinois Smallmouth Alliance banquet and after I talked about my experiences we got together and put together the material for part of his article. I've also had the outdoors reporter for my local paper and the chicago sun Times do features on this. I helped the guy from the Sun times catch his first smallie on a crankbait in 33 degree water temps. I have written about this in the Illinois smallmouth Alliance Bronzeback Bulletin and on multiple websites relating to smallmouth fishing like river smallies and other websites in the upper midwest. I've also caught smallies on topwaters in the dead of winter, a time or two in high cold muddy water but generally in much more normal winter flow regimes. You just have to be willing or possibly crazy enough to do things a touch differently than conventional wisdom dictates. After all, it wasn't all that long ago that the books and fishing magazines all pretty much said forget about fishing for smallies when the temps fall below 40 degrees. Now you can't pick up a magazine in the fall/winter issues without at least one or two articles expounding upon the coldwater opportunities in river smallmouth fishing. I know I was inspired by Butch Ward as were others many years back to give winter fishing for smallies a try. He also felt that high water made location much easier. edit for spelling

high cold muddy water. when the river is out of it's banks and chocolate milk is clear by comparison, I have the river to myself, location and presentation is fairly cut and dry. It's a big fish deal, definitely not numbers, sometimes all day for that one fish, sometimes a couple three of them and other times a lot of exercise out in the cold.

http://illinoissmallmouthalliance.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7200 We were doing a stream monitoring demo trying to recruit folks for the River Watch group to be monitors. The lady filming is doing a documentary on the Kankakee River and Mike Clifford the ISA Conservation Director made a short video of that. The long haired teen in the water is my son Zach and Mark O'Donnell is with him, both ISA members. I'm the yahoo flapping his jaw.

" and if this song you cannot sing, you must be playing with your own....." Chuck Berry

Well for me it was a divided reaction, outrage from many, acceptance from more than one would think and the chicks loved it. All of which were cool but the chicks digging it was the best part.

I'm guessing more hair gunk than Jimmy Johnson.

Back when I was a guide I had clients that wanted to know how many of each species were caught that day and it was generally me and two clients. So I taught myself how to do it because a happy client is generally a repeat client. There are times now that i don't guide when I wish I could turn that little corner of my mind off. Keeping track of only a single species of fish for only one person over three days would be a breeze. Everyone enjoys fishing on different levels and has thier own definition of success. What difference does it make how they enjoy it as long as it's legal and ethical? Green pumpkin or green firetiger have a place in fishing, green with envy isn't needful.

Back in the day, I had hair down to the middle of my back, a beard to the middle of my chest, orange plaid bell bottoms, paisley shirt, love beads with peace sign, fatigue coat with Woodstock emblem and sandals. Multicolored mohawk seems tame.

About a week ago but I'm quitting account it cuts into my fishing. Nah, twas the fly guys having an doctrinal discussion up here about the merits of keeping strippers in a basket. I always thought they jumped outta cakes and did thier thing but then I'm old school.