north central illinois stream 4-24

[Norm M]

frost on the ground and freeze warning in effect for farmers/gardeners this morning . Water temps when I started were at 45 degrees, a drop of 15 degrees from last week. water temps low 50's by the time I got off the water in a soft bottom, shallow, slack area. river crested , a bit clearer today.

Today was much better fishing than yesterday. Started on a giant slacker flow flat adjacent to a much deeper and hard flowing main channel that has a small crick at the upstream end. Saw some surface activity under some over hanging trees not far from shore where there is a bit of a sharper drop than the surrounding area. Three smallmouth on a spook all had shad in the gullet . I picked up two more smallmouth on a crankbait before the fish stopped hitting. Tried a variety a lures there but either the shad moved or I put the fish down .

I hit the seam where the creekmouth meet the river with a weighted keeper/eire darter, picked up two walleye . I did a lot of walking upstream and down flipping and pitching the same combo into laydowns. Mostly small to medium smallmouth with some decent rock bass in the mix.

After that I hit a bunch of slower spots that abutted faster/deeper water and also the up and downstream side of rock bluffs. All the fish were on the seams in the slower areas, mostly rattlebaits, some swim baits. Around the bluffs jig/plastic, jig/pig and singlespin worked best.

A couple really good smallmouth, mostly the usual assortment of sizes. Ended up with 7 walleye 3 really nice, the rest regular. About 9 or 10 rockbass, all average to above average