Report 6/20

[dgames]

I caught several browns at watts this past saturday. The first one surprised me because I had never caught a brown on the Ill before.

[OKFlyFisher44]

I agree...I didn't know they stocked browns in the illinois. Thats cool to know though. Give the fishery a little more diversity! I agree with you Martin, I've only fished the lower illinois for the first time this past sunday and I have to agree that its very under-rated. I was really impressed with the fishery...I mean, its not the white river or taneycomo by any means but it has some respectful fish and you can catch numbers of fish. And for only being an hour and a half from my front door, I'm not going to complain at all.

Plus the diversity of fish you can chase with a fly rod is great. I know most guys seem to focus on trout but the drum and carp that are THICK in that river are a BLAST to catch on a 6-8wt fly rod. Not to mention the monster stripers that are cruising the river....those are some fun fish on the fly stick!

I think if the wildlife department would put a slot-limit in place on one of the sections of the lower illinois...i think the fishery could really take off and maybe improve to a trophy trout status water. Or is there already something like this in place? Something similiar to what you find at Taneycomo in the trophy area....anything between 12 and 20 inches has to be release immediately. That would allow for some fish to grow. Only thing is I doubt that many fisherman would follow the rules.

Martin...drop me a PM with your contact info and anytime I'm going to wet a line...I'll PM you on here, text, or call you. I try to fish as much as I can. I won't be around this weekend though...I'm heading to Taneycomo for the weekend with my nephew. I'm hooked on night fishing! Can't wait to do it again saturday night!!

[Okieflyfisher53]

Chance,

There are special regulations on a portion of the Watts property.

http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/fishregs/troutarea.htm

Stevbe

[dhopper]

So just a little story on the browns. Now I have only fished the river maybe 3 times in the past 4 years and caught plenty of rainbows but back in the day (lol) when my dad and I fished the river alot we used to catch several of them. We were mostly striper fishing and catching bait but I can remember catching several in the 12 - 16 inch range. I would say I caught 8 or so in a two year span. And what's funny is I caught them but dad never did. Then one day when dad was fishing for stripers by himself with the water on, out in the boat, he hooked into what he thought was just a carp until he got it close. Ended up being a big ol' brown. Needless to say, those big ones have teeth and after covering his hand he flew back down the river to have it certified. By his scales in the boat it weighed 7 lbs 14 ozs which broke the record by a couple. Upon losing alot of blood and getting weighed on butcher scales up at TNT it weighed in at 7 lbs 4 ozs. Pretty crazy! Anyways, sorry for such a long post. I'll see if i can get pictures of the fish if you wanna see it, it's pretty funny all hanging up on two big hooks up at TNT.

[dhopper]

oh, and i noticed that i didn't clarify but "them" would be browns lol SORRY!