best ever start to a New Year up in Illinois

[Norm M]

river is dropping, about 1/2 again it's normal flow, maybe couple inches visibility near shore in slack areas , water temps mid 30's . weatherwise, fairly nice, fished without gloves on but had them on while walking . sun felt good on the old bones .

First place I hit was an inflow and the point bar downstream . I worked a weighted keeper hook with a Eire Darter around and got nothing . I went back to point A and switched to a rattlebait worked slow and steady just off bottom . the walleyes loved it, the smallmouth ignored it . Walleye up toward the creekmouth, along the front, side and back of the point bar .

Next up , fished a pipeline crossing of the river. I stuck with the rattlebait, same deal walleye ate it, smallmouth ignored it. Again , slow steady retrieve just of bottom. Most productive spot was a deeper hole [well for this river] upstream of the pipeline. I worked thru with jig/plastic, jig/pig , hard jerkbait and a crankbait all ignored by smallmouth and walleye .

Next up drove a bit, hiked a bit more[ got well beyond forked stick country] to get to a good winter spot for this flow rate . There is enough water to put enough depth in the key areas . If the river gets lower , you can pretty much write it off in winter . It is a series of slack spots featuring soft bottoms off shore transitioning to cobblestone with some larger rock a bit off shore . There is one significant rock point coming off shore and out into the flow to set up a riffle . One small inflow that runs clear due to being feed further up from farm field drain tiles. There are two springs coming out a bit up from the riverbank where the land slopes a bit sharper than elsewhere. Both these springs run down to the river . A series of downed trees laying in the water as well as woody debris on the bottom . A few spots where the current undercut some roots of standing trees. The best part is no signs of other fisherman, only the tracks of beaver, raccoons, deer, and geese were seen in the damper, softer soils . In short the kind of place , I go to by myself . Bogart , maybe, but you have to have places like this in your back pocket to go when you really need to catch some fish .

I went to the 1/0 weighted keeper with an Eire Darter as I figured the bass weren't chasing at all. I used a drag, stop for about a 10 count and repeat . I also tossed the combo upstream of the trees laying in the water and let it sweep under the wood/debris piles . I dabbled it in amongst those spots as best I could reach. I did the same at the undercut roots.

The smallmouth were laying out on the soft bottom/rock transition , at the sweet spot at the upstream side of eddies and on the inside seams of eddies . I never got one sweeping under wood or roots or dabbling, that turned out to be rock bass country. I was kind of puzzled by that, figured the bass would be there but they rock bass were all very nice sized. Maybe the bass just preferred to be out in the sunshine, who knows . With the rock bass, I soon figured out either they hit as soon as it got under the debris/wood or it got ignored . Once that became apparent I just pulled the rig back out if it didn't get bite right away, cut down on losing jigs back in the wood . I also got three huge carp with the jig/darter, all three swallowed it . All three double digits in weight, I found out I am not in as good of shape as I thought. Those fish took it out of me, I had to take a break and sit down on a log .

I moved to a couple spots I knew elsewhere where there was wood in the water or undercut roots . I went with the same program, same results, rock bass that either took it first thing or it was ignored. Last spot I went to was a winter spot that also has spawning habitat so there is usually some smallmouth there . I stuck with the drag/pause with the weighted keeper, one smallmouth and called it a day.

8 smallmouth, the three carp, 11 walleye and 11 rock bass , what a day for January

[Al Agnew]

Great report, Norm.  I always enjoy reading your reports, and it gives me food for thought.  

I almost went fishing today, but figured that with nice weather on a holiday Sunday I might have competition.  Might try it tomorrow, even though the forecast is for rain.

[Norm M]

 I was surprised that outside of that spot I hiked to I only ran into one other person fishing . A teenage kid out fishing while his parents snoozed in the car .  Maybe all the area fishermen had too much holiday cheer last night . Either that or they are die hard football fans . They would have to be to watch the Bears at this point .

[Smallieguy87]

Awesome report Norm! would that darter happen to be the one made by poor boys baits? I use their darter and theirs tubes a lot.They make some quality stuff.