112-24 up in illinois biggest smallie of the year for me

[Norm M]

Went out and fished today before it was time to get ready for work . Riveru p over 4 times normal flow, no visibility , water temps low 40's . Kinda windy and raw but better weather than usual for late December .

with the river up , the current seam in many places is just a few feet off shore. I stuck to fishing shoreline related slack areas . I wore the waders to keep the mud off and cut the wind, boots hardly get wet . I used two lures , a weighted keeper hook/erie darter and the fat ika reverse rigged on the 5/0 ewg unweighted hook.

I didn't fish either lure very fast, just played with speed until it got bit . The weighted keeper/erie darter worked best with a lift -drop retrieve , got 5 decent smallmouth. The Ika rigged worked best with a dragging retrieve. 2 smallmouth including one pig.

Time on the water pays, got my biggest smallmouth of the year, 22 inches on the tape

[Mitch f]

Wow, that is incredible!

You da Man!!!!!!!!!

[Norm M]

put enough time in and sooner or later you end up at the right place at the right time .

 

 I've often wondered about stuff like this, what if I was there 15 minutes earlier or later, would I have had the same results ?

[Mitch f]

15 hours ago, Norm M said:

put enough time in and sooner or later you end up at the right place at the right time .

 

 I've often wondered about stuff like this, what if I was there 15 minutes earlier or later, would I have had the same results ?

I think so,  I don't think the fish move too much if they have what they want in that spot

[Norm M]

16 hours ago, Mitch f said:

I think so,  I don't think the fish move too much if they have what they want in that spot

  Mitch

 

 I think that is the case as well. I was thinking more along the lines of would they be feeding or least be interested in biting in a different time frame .