a river in illinois 05-07

[Norm M]

It was just too nice a day to not go fishing , I haven't been able to go lately, so I went . I really needed it to relieve the stress and it certainly did that . 

The river is dropping but still out of it's banks . It was flowing at 18,000 cfs which is about three times the normal level . No clarity , green in color , still some debris floating downstream . Water temps were in the upper 50's the two times I checked them . 

Sunshine, not much breeze , guessing upper 60's may have hit 70 . The sun felt good on these experienced bones after all the rain and damp we have had lately . 

I took the medium light spin gear and the matching tackle as I was just looking to catch some fish . In fact with the stuff implanted in my body I really did not to tangle with anything too large so as to avoid pulling something out . All that mattered was hopefully feeling a tug or two at the end of my line, enjoying the weather, the outdoors and the camaraderie of the other fishermen I was sure I was going to meet . What more should you need than that for a trip like this .

I fished a rattlebait along the first current seam off the shore both upstream and downstream . I continued the same in the slower water from the seam to right along the shore . I got a few smallmouth bass , enough to put a smile on my face . 

After that , I figured I would try for some rock bass, sunnies or crappie whatever might be in the mood . I switched to a 1/0 weighted keeper hook tipped with a 2 inch plastic leech . I started out casting as close to shore as possible as swimming it slowly as possible above the bottom . That is where I found enough rock bass to put a smile on my face . I was feeling good and back in the groove so I switched to a 1/6 oz ballhead jig tipped with a 2 inch twister tail rigged on a size 1 jig spinner . I fished that from the seam in through the entire water column . That brought some sunnies and crappies and then I knew it was enough for this trip . 

Feeling stress free and happy I put the gear away and went for a walk to enjoy the outdoors on this nice sunny day . I put Poco on for the ride home , it was the perfect ending to as fine a day as I've had for some time . 

Peace be unto all of you .

[timinmo]

Norm

So glad you were able to enjoy a beautiful day.  Hang in there my friend you will be good as new in no time.

Tim