1-2-17 on a river in illinois

[Norm M]

Well I don't care what the gauge shows , I saw the river rising . I made a mark on the shore , 45 minutes later the water was lapping over it . The air temps may have been warmer than yesterday but with the completely overcast sky and almost continual rain of varying degrees of output , it was no where near as nice to fish today . Not that it stopped me , I've fished in much worse this time of year .

First place I fished was behind a levee that was flooded in the middle . I stuck to the slower side of the flow . First rig I used was an 1/8 ox mushroom head with a Zoom Centipede . I started on the seam and worked into progressively slower water just dragging it upstream on the bottom . Three smallmouth hit it with a solid thunk after it popped free from a rock . Two other smallmouth just picked it up as I was dragging it . I never felt anything but the mushy , something is different thing . I think they may have been swimming toward me as they picked it up. The biggest smallmouth 20 3/4 inches was on the seam . The rest got progressively smaller the further I got from the seam except for an 18 incher that came off a rock hump in the slower water .

I switched to an 1/8 oz ballhead jig with a Mr Twister Sassy grub and a jig spinner with a size 2 orange Colorado blade . I let it drop for a two count and brought if back on as horizontal retrieve as I could on the initial cast . A crappie liked that so I continued and caught a bunch of 10 to 14 inch crappie .

I went thru again with a hard jerk, a crankbait, a rattlebait and a singlespin, all ignored . I tried a straight shaft spinner, Mepps size two and picked up some small bass about 8 to 11 inches .

I went to the next spot, a well known walleye spot and saw someone fishing . I called down and asked if he minded some company . He said come on down , he had caught two walleye . Well I guess I jinxed the spot because neither of us caught any walleye after that . He caught some suckers , including his first Quillback . We were both fishing swimbaits . While chatting it turned out one of the guys that gave him some help in learning the river was a guy I went to high school with. Small world .

Last spot I fished was a pipeline area . I got a couple small walleye on a rattlebait swum slow and steady as close to the bottom as I could manage .
 

By then I was wet and hungry enough to call it a day .