Des Plaines River - 5/18/2010

Blustery day on the River

My plan was to fish Heidecke lake again for Walleye during the late afternoon and early evening hours, but when I got there it was closed. I guess somebody fell asleep and didn't realize the high winds that came through earlier in the day had subsided quite a bit.

I called the Braidwood office and was informed that the lake was open, but then opted for the river instead. It was still a little windy but not so much that Heidecke should have been closed. I ran down river and fished for a short time before I had a small fish hit the crank bait I was throwing. He came off pretty quick but a couple casts later I had a much better fish on. I put this one in the boat, took a few photos and let him go.

Largemouth Bass

I fished on for a while without another bite so I decided to work my way up river. I couldn't buy a strike so I went even further up river. I probably could have done better had I targeted the spawners, but that's not my idea of sport fishing.

Bald Eagle

As I made my way up river, I spotted a Bald Eagle in a tree. He was tough to see against the dark sky but I stopped anyway and took several pictures.

I got to the first spot I planed to fish and struck out. I saw a lot of Gar coming up and figured they'd drive out a lot of the fish I was after so I moved. I got to the next spot, made my first cast and a giant Gar hit the lure. He came up, shook is head and as soon as the line came in contact with his beak, he was gone with my lure. A short time later I hooked a Smallmouth Buffalo. I brought him to the boat and decided he wasn't worth bringing up for a picture so I played him for another minute next to the boat until he was able to unhook himself.

A pair of Bald Eagles

I hooked one other fish briefly before I decided to head back. I never saw it but it felt like a nice fish. On the return trip that same Bald Eagle was still in the same spot, only now a friend had joined him. I took several more photos before stopping at one more spot to try my luck.

Deer

I hooked another Largemouth Bass that looked smaller than the one I caught earlier, but he was able to toss the lure when he came up and shook. After that I packed up and headed home wishing I had been able to spend the time on Heidecke instead of the River.

A lot of Bass are spawning right now, and on top of that, the wind was blowing all the smells from the nearby industry right down the river which did not make for a pleasant trip. The water was 62 degrees and high from the recent rain, but not so bad that it wasn't fishable. I've seen it much worse out there and at least I was on the water and caught a couple fish. The wildlife viewing was nice despite the smells and lack of fish, and that's never anything to complain about.

Des Plaines River - November 27, 2009

http://www.catchphotorelease.com/11272009.htm

Chris and I headed to the Des Plaines River about mid morning. Unlike the past several day there wasn't a cloud in the sky so I wasn't expecting much in the way of fish. We got to our first spot and noticed a lot of Shad. We snagged several and some of the bigger ones hit the lures and were caught fair and square. It took a while but I finally managed to catch a couple Largemouth from that spot on a new crank bait I haven't thrown before.

Largemouth Bass

Shortly after we left that spot, we spotted a couple of Bald Eagles in a tree. Chris had never seen Eagles in the wild so it was a treat for him. I've seen more than I can count and it's still a treat for me every time. I stopped the boat and began taking pictures.

Bald Eagles

After a minute one took off, then the other. They flew a wide circle before landing back in the same tree.

Bald Eagle

We began throwing crank baits at our next spot. Again it took a while, but I put two Smallmouth in the boat.

Smallmouth Bass

We went on to a third spot and fishing was even slower. I hooked a big fish which I think was a Gar, and as Chris was standing ready with the net, it broke me off and took my new crank bait with it. I tied on another one and was ready to continue.

Red Squirrel

A short time later we noticed we had an audience from a tree that was hanging over the water. Chris managed to catch a Smallmouth while he was watching. We fished that spot a little longer but didn't catch anything else. As we were about finished, we saw the stangest looking bird. It looked like one of the rocks it was sitting between at the waters edge.

Camoflaged Bird

We stopped back at our first spot and I caught another Largemouth before we struck out at our last spot. None of the fish we caught were worth bragging about but it was nice to be out there. The air temp never got out of the 30s but the sun made it feel warmer. The water was still in the mid 50s. We made it back to my house and got the boat put away just as the sun set.

Des Plaines River - September 22, 2009

More photos from today:

http://www.catchphotorelease.com/09222009.htm

The morning looked perfect for fishing. It was cloudy and foggy, and there was a light mist blowing in the south breeze. I don’t get too many perfect days like this to go out. I got to the ramps before the sun was up and headed out to follow the same route I did last time.

Fog and light rain

By the time I made it to the first spot I planned on fishing, it was light enough to do away with the lights on the boat so I put them away before I made my first cast. I caught several fish in that area, but no big ones. I hooked a real big catfish on a crank bait, but he popped off about 10 feet from the boat.

Typical Smallmouth for today

After I was done with that area I headed off to the opposite end of the river but stopped at another spot I haven’t fished this year before I got there. I hooked one good sized Largemouth but he got away. A short time later, the same thing happened. The fish was slightly smaller, but it was still a good fish and that convinced me to add a new task to my to-do list. That would be getting rid of the Sure-Set hooks on several of my lures. I’ve lost more fish that I can count with those hooks and just don’t have that problem with standard treble hooks.

One of the Largemouth that actually made it into the boat

I gave up on that area and continued my run up river. Once I got to my destination, I caught a couple small fish and decided I’d go fish below the locks. I hooked and lost another nice fish up there but never brought anything to the boat. I cut my time up there short because a 3-wide barge was having some kind of difficulty in the lock and had to back out. I didn’t know how far he was going to back out so I figured I’d give him one less thing to worry about and headed back down river a little ways.

After fishing my next spot for about 10 minutes, I connected with the only fish I’d see in that area. It was a giant Gar. I had gotten my Bass net out first thing but it was way too small for this fish to fit in. I dropped the net on the floor and played the fish at the side of the boat until he popped free and took off. Gar are fun to catch, but they are slimy and can really stink up the carpeting in your boat so I generally unhook them at the side of the boat.

At the opposite end of that area, I tied into another good Bass that jumped right away and tossed the lure. I was really frustrated with that crank bait at this point but the fish were hitting it. I ran down to my last stop and managed to land a good Freshwater Drum on the lure that the bass were so good at tossing.

Freshwater Drum

I didn’t get any other hits but I could see shad being chased so I switched to a plastic worm. After a few minutes a fish picked it up and took off with it. I pulled back and the fight was on. As soon as I got the fish close enough I could see by the way the plastic worm was still on the hook that the fish wasn’t hooked. Sure enough he spit the worm and was gone. I was angry for not setting the hook like I should have and that cost me the best bass of the day.

The next fish that picked up that worm got his eyes crossed. I got a good hookset on this fish and it turned out to be a big Flathead Catfish.

Lifting the fish out of the net

I got his head in the net and juggled him up into the boat. I decided that I was done for the day after photographing the fish and letting it go.

Flathead Catfish

My outboard started beeping at me so I’m guessing I sucked up some of the plant material that’s floating around the river and making it hard to fish crank baits in a lot of places. Tomorrow I’ll take it apart, flush everything out and make sure everything is as it should be before I put the boat back in the water.

Deer through the fog

The water temp ranged from 76 to 89 at one of the discharges. It sprinkled quite a few times during the day but I only had to go for the rain gear once. For the day I think I caught 20 to 25 fish which really isn't anything to complain about.

Des Plaines River 9/11/2009

More photos from today:
http://www.catchphotorelease.com/09112009.htm

Our trip started out right at 7:00 am. My partners for the day were Dale Bowman who is the outdoors writer for the Chicago Sun Times, and Joel Greenberg who is a friend of Dales, and a Naturalist. We planned to do a little fishing and also to do some wild life exploration.

Sunrise at the Marina

Our expectations for fishing were not very high due to the bluebird skies so we decided we’d jump from spot to spot and see what we’d see. Within the first few minutes of the trip, we spotted a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree. We stopped for a couple photos and then continued on to our first fishing spot.

Bald Eagle

Dale managed to catch a nice Bluegill at spot number one, but fishing there was kind of tough due to all the floating vegetation coming from up river. We didn’t stick around that spot too long.

At our next spot I caught a little Smallmouth Bass almost right away. Before we were done with that spot, we had quite a few fish in the boat. All three of us caught fish. Dale was determined to catch a fish on a top water lure and had several fish hit the lure.

A fish tries to inhale Dales topwater lure

His determination paid off with a nice White Bass.

Dale with a White Bass

Joel also caught a White Bass and his first few Smallmouth ever from that spot. At one point, Joel and I had doubles so we were able to photograph a Largemouth Bass and a Smallmouth Bass side by side. Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass side by side

After things slowed a little, we moved to spot number three. We didn’t catch anything there, and once again, fishing was tough because of the vegetation that would hang up the lures on every cast. We headed onward to the next spot.

Once we arrived I put a nice Flathead Catfish in the boat right away.

Flathead Catfish

Before we were done with that area, Dale had a couple more nice fish in the boat. We also spotted a big Red Tail Hawk circling above the river holding onto a snake he had captured.

Dale with another nice Smallmouth Bass

As we headed down river, we kept a lookout for different species of birds and other wild life. We saw the usual ducks, cormorants, deer, herons, swans, and egrets. We also spotted a couple of Osprey that were a little too far away for good pictures. We also stopped to fish along a Lotus field that was blooming but struck out there.

Lotus blooming in the distance

Once we got the point where the Des Plaines River and Kankankee River meet to form the Illinois River, we stopped to take some photos and talked about the history of that particular spot and how early settlers of our country passed through there.

Joel on the IL River with the Des Plaines River to his left, and the Kankakee River to his right.

At our last fishing spot Dale caught the first fish. It was a big Smallmouth Bass.

Dale with a big Smallmouth Bass

A short time later, I hooked a slighly larger fish. My first thought was that it was a Drum but Dale got the first good look at it and encouraged me to "get it in the boat". Then when it jumped again, I saw that it was a real nice Smallmouth.

Lifting my Smallmouth Bass into the boat

I noticed it was hooked pretty well so I quickly horsed it up into the boat. We tried for a few more fish there but struck out.

20 inch Smallmouth Bass - Thanks to Dale for providing this photo

As we were heading back I asked Joel about a bird I noticed. He looked at it and determined it was a black-legged kittiwake which is rare for that area. We were able to get quite a few photos of the bird.

Black-Legged Kittiwake

Joel has a blog at http://www.birdzilla.com/blog/

Dale’s column can be found in Wednesdays and Sundays Chicago Sun Times, and his blog is at http://blogs.suntimes.com/bowman/

We stopped to notice more sights, birds, animals, and plants on the way back to the boat ramps. It was nice to be out there with a couple guys who appreciate all aspects of the outdoor world as I do, and who I can always learn a thing or two from. The water temperature was anywhere between 82 and 86 degrees depending on where we were. The was hardly a cloud in the sky and a comfortable breeze was blowing out of the East Southeast.

Swans

At the end of the trip we all agreed that the day turned out better than expected.

Bridge

LaSalle Lake March 27, 2009

http://www.catchphotorelease.com/03272009.htm

I got to the lake just after sun up and it was cold and windy. There was a lot of fog blowing over the water from the warm side of the lake. Once you left the ramp area, visibility went down and you had slow way down.

A boat ahead in the fog.

Once I approached the spot where we did good last week, I saw there were three boats on it so I moved down the bank a ways and started to fish. It took about 20 minutes before I caught the first fish. It wasn't the biggest fish in the lake, but it was a fish. As I moved down the bank I noticed a large bird in the same tree where we had seen another large bird the week before. This time it was a Bald Eagle and I was able to get a couple photos despite the fact it was a quarter mile away.

Bald Eagle

There was a lot of wildlife around the lake today including nesting geese, turkey vultures, redwing blackbirds, and seagulls. There were plenty of large carp spawining in the rocks on the warm side of he lake and a few of them came all the way out of the water whle chasing each other over the rip rap.

Turkey Vulture

Nesting Goose

I spent most of the day throwing crank baits and I probably chose a larger bait than I should have because I ran across a former fishing partner who was using a smaller lure and he had a couple real nice fish in his livewell that he released after I took a couple pictures for him.

I tried a couple more spots with similar results and then ran to a spot where boat control would be a little easier in the wind. I deceided to throw a plastic worm and managed to land a decent catfish on it. He could have swallowed the bass I caught a couple casts later.

I worked my way around to the wind blown bank and the average size of the fish went up a little, but after looking at my watch I realized I had better head for the ramp after the next fish. It took about three minutes and another 15 inch Largemouth was in the boat.

The water temperature was 63 at the ramp and in the mid 80s in the discharge canal. I didn't spend any time in the discharge canal because the wind wasn't making it easy to fish in there the way I wanted to.

The wind was so strong out of the north that even after I hooked the boat to the trailer, the tail would blow off to the side making it impossible to pull the boat out of the water without having the boat rest on the fender. Lucky for me another boater was kind enough to hold the boat steady for me while I pulled forward up the ramp.