north central illinois stream

[Norm M]

A lot of open water in the river, still many places with large amounts of snow/ice pack along the shore. As of Monday some of those places were not safe to walk on, extreme care is necessary . USGS gauge not functioning properly, most likely due to ice. I did not get into the water so I have no water temps. There were some nice sized chunks of ice pack floating in various places in the river.

Two successful trips in the last few days so I guess it's time for a report.

First successful trip was bouncing a 2/0 weighted keeper hook with a paddle tail fluke on the outer seam of an eddy. that got two decent sized smallmouth bass. The second trip I used a chatterbait tipped with a twin tail grub. I got two decent sized smallmouth bass working it slowly over the waterwillow stubble in an eddy. I got the best northern pike I've got in a while from the inside seam of an eddy.

Peace