All of the river in the northern part of the state are flooded, looked this morning and the Illinois River in Ottawa at flood stage and the Kankakee River is dangerously high. So Im stuck to cooling lake and small retention ponds by the house.  I did get a nice 15" LM at Braidwood Cooling Lake on Tuesday. 

anyone fishing in IL this year...strangely void of pictures or activity lol.

Say the guy who just started posting again LOL

 

Been out every weekend only not always in IL  Here's the big one from the Fox chain this morning. Skinny 17"

 

 

I thought I was going to have a banner day. Had (3) 14 inchers on 3 consecutive casts first thing this morning. Picked up the one in the pic shortly thereafter, and not another fish. All caught on a swimjig. Had other bites but they were biting short. 1 blowup on a frog. 

Taken from braidwood on Tuesday morning 15" cough on mini bass Rapala 

We've landed a lot of big fish this year 4+,I always hate to see the spawn pass, now we have to work harder to find the hogs. That said here's a couple of our better fish from the last month or so 1'st one is 6.59 2'nd one 6.09 You can contact me at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scott-Bass-McCree/194871783870083

ive caught a bunch but nothing worthy of picture posting.

 

going the next few days if weather isnt awful. 

weather has sucked...

yeah have not been able to fish this much either.  Weather, funerals, work, etc. all seem to have got in the way this year. 

fished this weekend at Evergreen.

Water was 5feet of visibility or more a week/2weeks ago and Saturday with the wind and runoff 6 inches.  Caught a bunch of small ones and a bunch of walleye/saugeye in the 14-20 inch range.

Fishing Clinton this Friday Saturday and sunday so hoping for some picture worth fish.

Monday night. Total 11 bass averaging 1.5 lbs in 3 hours. Sure was muggy and mosquitos came out in force.

Fished Clinton Saturday and Sunday morning.  Saturday there were so many bass tx's going that I gave up after my first spot as every place I had planned on hitting had 2 boats on it.  Again, way too many bass boats out there for that size lake.  Hit the gravel pits for stripers but only caught about 30-40 whites and was off the water by around 8:30 am for breakfast.  Camped out there so wife daughter and I swam/partied most of Saturday so no fishing that evening. 

Sunday I had a later start at about 5:45 and had a limit by about 8am.  Went to make a run down to the power plant intake from by the marina and about halfway there I had a cylinder drop out.  I was able to limp back to the ramp at about 20mph and figured it was a bad coil pack (or at least I was hoping...)  took boat out of water and figured I would try to find a laptop so they could run merc program on the engine (I had hoped Clinton had one...) and while at the ramp took the cover off to check all the basics. 

what I found was a spark plug had come disconnected...pretty cheap and easy fix!  I must have knocked it lose putting oil in that morning as my head hurt and I was moving pretty slowly.

Ran to IP point and caught a bunch of walleye and wipers that were all busting the surface until about 11. 

Saved a handful for the fryer this week and will add pics once wife sends to me.

You know at some point I really am going to have to stop complaining and just put money where my mouth is but really don't have the urge to fish tourney's year round. 

but this many boats on one lake of only 5000acres is just too many and it was a really odd sight to see so many boats all fishing the same areas, all at once.  Looked boring and quite frankly, uncomfortable.  

 

 

6/27/15 Illinois Bass Nation-

Bass High School Nation

 25 boats

 

 

6/27-6/28/15 Illinois Bass Nation 50 boats

 

6/27/15 Jackpot Team Trail 40 boats

Certainly sounds crowded

 

 

Instead of looking for a job, my son was out fishing. He lives on Bangs lake and keeps bragging about all the monster bass he catches, to which I respond "pics or it didn't happen" He texted me this today. Frog fish from his backyard. He wears a size 12 shoe. My guess is 20"

 

fished Friday and sunday but only for wipers and stripers.  Lots of fish but no great ones.  Couple really big cats and a really nice walleye at 25.5''

You eat her or set her free?

You eat her or set her free?

Set her free. 

Will usually keep a few smaller ones but this one was too big for me to keep.  I know not a huge walleye, but the biggest I have seen around here personally. My buddy thought I was crazy, but I did not want to clean fish either so it was kind of 2 fold.

Set her free. 

Will usually keep a few smaller ones but this one was too big for me to keep.  I know not a huge walleye, but the biggest I have seen around here personally. My buddy thought I was crazy, but I did not want to clean fish either so it was kind of 2 fold.

Next time you get an eater, filet it, cut the filet into medallions and wrap with bacon. Put them on shiskabob skewers and cook them on the grill over indirect heat. I do that with bass as well.

Fished Delavan today. Man was it slow. Tried deep, nada. Caught 3 fish in 5hrs. 2 bass and a pike all on topwater in less than 8fow.  

Most of my fish this month have been on Senkos and Square bills.

 

Fishing in IL this time of year can be rough but they can still be caught.

Fished for about 3 hrs yesterday in the evening.  Did not have much time.  Managed 3 fish over 4 and about a dozen others all on 10'' powerworm on a deep ledge. 

also, I hate selfies.  Sorry for bad picks. Two big fish were both 4.7 with 2 more at 4 (3-15 and 4-1) and the rest all over 3 (except a 14incher).  Good couple hours but still no giants for the year.

Another terrific evening.

Me and buddy boated 9 fish over 4 pounds and one at 5 even.  Better yet, we were in his boat so I could just fish and drink beer and let him in on the pattern from sunday. 

I did have to double check, but these are all different pictures of fish, but yes, all caught in the exact same spot about the size of a fishing boat.  Ledge, with brushpiles, with a hardbottom transition. 

Truly a spot on the spot kind of place and pretty much stitching a 10inch powerworm. 

Still not giants.

Fished for about 3 hrs yesterday in the evening.  Did not have much time.  Managed 3 fish over 4 and about a dozen others all on 10'' powerworm on a deep ledge. 

also, I hate selfies.  Sorry for bad picks. Two big fish were both 4.7 with 2 more at 4 (3-15 and 4-1) and the rest all over 3 (except a 14incher).  Good couple hours but still no giants for the year.

It's not really a selfie if you don't make duck lips.

Went to Braidwood Cooling Lake this morning, for the last two weeks i've been doing well with early am fishing but today nothing. Not one bite. Water temps been high with the heat we've been having. 107 on the discharge side and 89 on the intake. Im giving up on Braidwood for the time being till the water temps get in the 70 again and the water clarity comes back. 

Dog days of summer. Haven't been able to land more than a couple fish per outing. Today was on a frog and a swimjig. Not a bite after 8:00. Saw something quite odd today. Watched a healthy, good size musky swim about 50ft with it's head and about a foot of it's body out of the water. Of course, by the time I got my phone out of my pocket to record it, she went under. Tried to get her to surface again with a buzz bait but no dice. Found 2 sunk boats with the side imaging and played around with my ipilot Link for an hour or so since the fish weren't biting.

 

I'm guessing everyone else isn't doing much by the lack of posts

Here's a link to a charity tourney on Bangs Lake on 9/11 Fish with the Chicago Blackhawks, Ike, Zona, JVD, local guy Steve Mui who I have competed against and is a helluva stick, Frank Hyla and others http://www.bickellfoundation.org/#!celebrity-bass-tournament/c1b9i It ain't cheap but I figured I'd post it anyway. Weigh-in tickets are $30

Fished Delavan last Sunday, got 10 fish, 2 over 18" the rest were 14'-17". Fish were as fat as can be. Caught all fish from 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

 

Fished Browns today. Got 8 fish, 3 fish just over 16", the rest were 15-1/2".  Caught all fish from 5:30 am to 9:00 a.m, I noticed this year that every time I go, there is roughly a  2-3 hour window where you catch them like crazy, and then you can't buy a fish anywhere.

Dog days of summer. Haven't been able to land more than a couple fish per outing. Today was on a frog and a swimjig. Not a bite after 8:00. Saw something quite odd today. Watched a healthy, good size musky swim about 50ft with it's head and about a foot of it's body out of the water. Of course, by the time I got my phone out of my pocket to record it, she went under. Tried to get her to surface again with a buzz bait but no dice. Found 2 sunk boats with the side imaging and played around with my ipilot Link for an hour or so since the fish weren't biting.

 

I'm guessing everyone else isn't doing much by the lack of posts

 

Ive gotten little over 45hrs fishing this past week numbers good and a couple with size 16-18". Every bait I threw I caught fish spinnerbait,senko,ika,hydrika,fat impact,impact pretty good week

 

this one 3.37#

 

brought in on nanofil8# with weeds too

 

can see trail this one made