1-3 up in illinois

[Norm M]

river dropped about 3 feet and down to about 25,000 cfs, both way above normal . chocolate milk for visibility, still out of it's banks, low 30's water temps. not as cold as it could be but still not pleasant, mostly overcast and some wind .

The catching has been nonexistent since 12-29 . Today was a welcome change .

The first place that produced was a flooded dead tree, the root mass at the upstream side. I dropped a jig/pig in a bit upstream letting it bounce back . It stopped in the slack pocket at the bottom of the root mass. I let it sit, lifted it , felt some weight and set the hook . A very nice smallmouth to hand. I worked all around that tree, no more fish . I worked the rest of the flooded cover in the area to no avail.

The other place that produced was a shoreline related slack spot. Once again the jig/pig produced a smallmouth but not as big as the other. It was holding amongst some flooded brush.

I tried fishing some current seams with ratlebaits, singlespins and jig/plastic , no hits. I fished a wide variety of flooded cover options with a variety of lure options, no fish .

I can't complain , two fish in these conditions is a great day .