up in illinois, multiple trips

[Norm M]

I got in a bunch of short trips before work while the river was below normal flow and dropping and one when it started raining and rising. One long trip in which the flow rate climbed to more than double the normal flow and in which the water temps dropped from the low 50's to the high 40's .

On the trips while it was dropping I was trying something different everyday at least to start. One day it was crankbaits out on the current seams , cranks designed to run 8 ft or so worked against the current in 3 to 4 feet of water. That worked well enough that I stuck with it the entire trip . 8 decent smallmouth . One day it was hard suspending jerk baits on flats , nothing doing. I switched to rattlebaits picked up 2 smallmouth . Next day I started with the rattlebaits on the flats, one decent smallmouth. I made the switch to paddle tail flukes on a 1/8 darter head jig, one more smallmouth . Last trip before it rained , fished spinnerbaits over stubble on water willow humps. islets that I kinda pushed it a little to reach wading wise. Had a very nice day 11 smallmouth , mostly decent , a couple good sized but not trophy status .

On the short trip in the rain started aggressive with cranks, rattlebaits and swimbaits on flats and seams. Ended up with one mercy fish on a jig/twister behind a bridge abutment, this bridge has a history for me of producing mercy fish .

On the long trip with the high muddy water, it was a no brainer , inflows , slack areas and flooded trees . I hit a large slack area twixt two inflows, one permanent the other intermittent . I got some smallmouth on a single spin fishing around flooded trees and where the flow from the intermittent creek met the river, I started hearing splashes up stream , looked like gar feeding all the way up to the permanent creek in a zone from right off shore to about 20 feet out into the river. I switched to a paddletail fluke on a 5/0 unweighted ewg hook. I just slowly worked my way up staying on shore to avoid spooking the fish. Hooked 17 , landed 11 , which considering I had no metal leader was pretty good. Went thru 3 hooks and a dozen flukes, and sustained no injuries unhooking them . That's also pretty good for an old dude with slowing reflexes and a short pair of needlenose pliers, I tossed a weighted keeper/twister up stream of a debris pile and let it wash under . Saw the line jump, felt the hit, set the hook, landed a largemouth about 14 inches . I worked up into the permanent creek with a weighted keeper/power pulse worm , got 3 rock bass about 6 -7 inches and my smallest smallmouth of the year , almost 4 inches long .

nice week on the water, not a single skunk trip, although one came perilously close