north central illinos stream holiday weekend

[Norm M]

river has been dropping steadily, below normal levels, better than a foot of visibility, though stained. water temps maxed out at 72 degrees. algae better in many places , still getting it on crankbaits where it's at but just some on the hooks and the bill, not a complete green goo job . some emergent vegetation out on the flats, water willow 6 inches or so in height, green and leafing out at the top.

rain not much of a problem, weather man missed again. sunny to overcast depending on the day. same deal with the wind, varied thru the weekend. first bikini hatch of the year .

avoided the masses by wading out as far as possible and/or getting well beyond the access points.

the female smallmouth I've been catching still had full egg sacks. I've been avoiding known spawning areas so I can't say for sure what's happening there. when I walked up to take a look most of them were not being fished, not sure what that means on a holiday weekend. the best known crick was another story as usual, almost more guys on the crick than fish in it at some points when I looked . cpo's keeping an eye on it from what I saw.

with the lower levels the fish had definitely moved off shore . I fished heads and tails of riffles, cobblestone flats off the main channels, current seams, bridge pilings and around rock bluffs that had deeper water at least near by.

a rattlebait was the primary lure, square bill cranks, single spins, chatterbaits, swimbaits and magnum flukes on unweighted ewg hooks filled out what worked. I never fished a bottom bouncing jig at all, no need to .

excellent numbers and size on the smallmouth , some of the biggest on the magnum flukes. I tossed them on top of the riffle and just let them drift down .

had two decent catches of walleye as well, both on rattlebaits on cobblestone flats off the channels in 2 to 4 ft of water .

handful of cats most on chatterbaits, two really nice ones on the rattlebaits in the same area as the walleyes.

smattering of gar landed, more hits than landed for sure.

one pike about 26 to 27 inches on a singlespin behind a boulder just inside a seam .

the rattlebaits worked best at the head end of riffles, the square bills at the tail . single spins tight to bridge pilings and pulled around the downstream side was a nice option, never got a fish on the upstream part, kinda odd