1-4 stillhigh water up in illinois

[Norm M]

river dropping, down about another foot, still over 5 times normal flow rate , visibility chocolate milk, water temps edged up to mid 30's . mostly overcast and windy, air temps supposed to be in 30's but with the wind it didn't feel that way .

day off work, got to fish a bit longer today, I decided to fish fewer spots longer rather than checking as many spots as possible . I caught fish , would I have done better with more spots, no telling .

First fish , a decent smallmouth took a jig/erie darter at the head of an eddy . The second fish , a very nice walleye took the same lure at the downstream end of the eddy . Both fish hit well enough to feel a definite tic and see a twitch in the line . I just quartercast upstream and let the current do the work . The third fish, a nice carp took the same lure while I was slowly dragging/pausing it thru the heart of the eddy . All fish from the same eddy .

Fourth fish, another nice carp , took the same lure , retrieved the same way in the same section of another eddy .

I fished a larger shoreline related slack area and the mouth of a larger creek with jig/plastics, jig/pig , rattlebaits, crankbaits, hard stickbaits, soft stickbaits and swimbaits, no fish caught.

I used the same assortment of lures at the two eddies that produced but only the jig/erie darter worked .

I catch a lot more carp on artificial lures in cold water than cool or warm water . A change to a more fish based forage perhap

[drew03cmc]

Norm, how do you fish those Erie Darters? I'm considering a purchase and was just wondering.

[Norm M]

 mostly on a mr twister weighted keeper hook, but they work with the your jig of choice.  quartercast upstream let them bounce with the current to slowly dragging to inching them along the bottom . I don't go to the real slow extreme unless I have to.

 

 I use the regular size , the juniors and the dropshot  darters.

[drew03cmc]

Thank you!