Are you floating, wading or bank fishing the river?

2 hours ago, Scott F said:

Are you floating, wading or bank fishing the river?

Usually bank, sometimes wading. It's pretty low right now.

I don't fish the Vermillion myself, but members of my club do and generally report nice catches of smallmouth. My club's forums do not allow guys to post specific locations to keep internet trolls from wiping out good spots so I can't help you there. Fishing from the bank may be your biggest problem. You may just need to cover more water.

26 minutes ago, Scott F said:

I don't fish the Vermillion myself, but members of my club do and generally report nice catches of smallmouth. My club's forums do not allow guys to post specific locations to keep internet trolls from wiping out good spots so I can't help you there. Fishing from the bank may be your biggest problem. You may just need to cover more water.

Where I'm at in Pontiac I can just about cast to the other side. It's only this river giving me fits. Interestingly, my best day and any time I do catch here, was and is largemouth. Never see smallies.

Another day, another skunk. Tried Senkos, Trick Worms, spinnerbaits and inline spinners, and a Whopper Plopper. Various different colors and techniques. About 5 miles of river fished over the course of the week. Nadda, nothing. I just don't get it. The water is low. Maybe that plays a part, and why I will not use a crankbait because it will be one and done. I'm actually shocked that I only lost one Texas Rig and one inline spinner. I have not struggled anywhere else this summer. My worst day anywhere else was one fish, one time. Next worse is 4 fish. Maybe I've been spoiled. 

I don't know what kind of water you are finding or fishing. Low water is the easiest time for me to find fish. I look for any place where the current is moving fast. Slow water generally doesn't hold many active fish. The best fish are often found near deeper water where there are riffles. Getting your bait very tight to cover like rocks, the bank or trees is critical. Miss the target by a foot and it means the difference between a catch and a skunk.

Went to silver lake yesterday. Two in the boat, missed 4. 10" worm was the ticket. It still amazes me when a 9" bass inhales a 10" worm. Missed being a keeper by a ½". Sexy hairy legs an extra bonus!

9 hours ago, Scott F said:

I don't know what kind of water you are finding or fishing. Low water is the easiest time for me to find fish. I look for any place where the current is moving fast. Slow water generally doesn't hold many active fish. The best fish are often found near deeper water where there are riffles. Getting your bait very tight to cover like rocks, the bank or trees is critical. Miss the target by a foot and it means the difference between a catch and a skunk.

Some of my best luck for numbers of fish on the Fox has been during low water and summer heat. The fish will stack up in deep holes in shallow areas. Add a little current and BAM!

Hello all.

 

I'm from Brookfield, IL.

 

I started fishing after a long hiatus a year ago and since then I purchased a kayak.

 

I'm looking for people to connect with and find some new fishing spots not much more than 1hr away.

 

Lately I've been hitting lake Shabbona and having moderate success. My other stomping ground is Blackwell.

 

Nice to meet you all and best of luck.

1 minute ago, James Baur said:

Hello all.

 

I'm from Brookfield, IL.

 

I started fishing after a long hiatus a year ago and since then I purchased a kayak.

 

I'm looking for people to connect with and find some new fishing spots not much more than 1hr away.

 

Lately I've been hitting lake Shabbona and having moderate success. My other stomping ground is Blackwell.

 

Nice to meet you all and best of luck.

Don't ignore the rivers in Northern Illinois. You've got the Des Plaines, Kankakee, Fox and DuPage rivers all within an hour of you. And all of them have good populations of smallmouth. 

Have a little time off this week, headed up to Newton (again). Had a pretty good time, caught quite a few. These were the best of the ones I got in the boat. The biggest one was really fun, back in a cove and threw the crank bait near a corner. When it hit the water it landed right on top of a school of shad that reacted explosively, which seems to trigger the big girl who then slammed the crank bait before I could turn the handle. Of course, after release I threw back into that corner again and landed the monster bluegill........ Then I took the shot at the ramp of the moon. It was a pretty awesome moonrise.

Bass were dismal today. Got a 17-1/2" walleye for dinner 

Fished the Fox Chain yesterday. Hot as hell to say the least...and I don't mean the fishing. Water temps were 10* warmer than they were 2 weeks ago. Lost 2 quality fish and boated about a dozen dinks. Weightless senkos, chigger craws, and Havoc pit boss were the baits of the day.

Newton yesterday afternoon, from about 1 to dusk. Deep cranks back in the coves. Funnily enough I use a huge deep diver in like 6-10 feet of water and drag it along the bottom making sure it smacks everything in sight and it gets a lot of action. And black and blue jig in the laydowns. What is really cool to see is IDNR has been back in the coves cutting all kinds of small trees and dropping them in the water. I didn't take a lot of pictures but this one was worthy. I'm thinking 4 plus, maybe she went over 5. I really need to get a good digital scale so I know for sure cause I really stink at guessing weights. If anything I underestimate just so I am not that fisherman who constantly claims "6 pends at least!" for every fairly above average fish I catch... lol

The cheap analog scale from Walmart is actually quite accurate. Nice fish! I might be going to coffeen a few times this week. Might try that technique their.

On 9/3/2017 at 10:09 PM, Can't Catch Bass said:

Hello all.

 

I'm from Brookfield, IL.

 

I started fishing after a long hiatus a year ago and since then I purchased a kayak.

 

I'm looking for people to connect with and find some new fishing spots not much more than 1hr away.

 

Lately I've been hitting lake Shabbona and having moderate success. My other stomping ground is Blackwell.

 

Nice to meet you all and best of luck.

Hi there Can't Catch Bass.

 

I as well have been fishing Shabbona and Silver lake at Blackwell and both have not been kind to me this year but this year has not been as good as past years anywhere I have been.

 

 

On 10/1/2017 at 8:33 PM, toni63 said:

Newton yesterday afternoon, from about 1 to dusk. Deep cranks back in the coves. Funnily enough I use a huge deep diver in like 6-10 feet of water and drag it along the bottom making sure it smacks everything in sight and it gets a lot of action. And black and blue jig in the laydowns. What is really cool to see is IDNR has been back in the coves cutting all kinds of small trees and dropping them in the water. I didn't take a lot of pictures but this one was worthy. I'm thinking 4 plus, maybe she went over 5. I really need to get a good digital scale so I know for sure cause I really stink at guessing weights. If anything I underestimate just so I am not that fisherman who constantly claims "6 pends at least!" for every fairly above average fish I catch... lol

I've gotta get out to newton soon! Never been there but I heard it can be good at times

White bass are stacked thick on the Fox Chain. We found schools on Channel and Catherine that were 10ft thick from top to bottom and probably 40-50ft in length. Crappies are moving into their winter haunts. Water temps still in the high 60's.

These are all whites. Not huge, averaging about 8". It was fish after fish after fish this morning.

 

WOW! Proves the old saying, 90%of the fish are in 10% of the water! Where do your crappie normally hang out for the winter?

11 hours ago, Skunked again said:

WOW! Proves the old saying, 90%of the fish are in 10% of the water! Where do your crappie normally hang out for the winter?

Same place I catch them in the spring. 

Seriously though, the Fox Chain is a great big mud hole. The crappies I target winter where the hard bottom is. Water depths less than 10ft. There not schooling as of yet and we caught one here and one there. Water is still a little warm. As far as the 10%, we found 3 huge schools of 8"-10" whites with some small perch in the mix. I may have graphed 50 acres out of 9000 to find them BUT I have been fishing this water for maybe 15 years and I know it well. I know where the drops are and I graphed schools of what I assume were whites multiple times the last few weeks while I was targeting largemouth. Last Sunday I fished the same river only 100 miles north and the crappies were schooled in 5ft of water on a hard bottom. Fished every dock on a small 3 acre inlet and found crappies on only one of the docks. When I fish for panfish, my attitude is stick and move. If they don't bite right away, they are not there. 

Sounds good! I've only recently began paying attention to maps and electronics. Waiting for the right deal to upgrade electronics. Currently using a 2d grayscale. I'm stoked about upgrading! 

Was out the end of last week. Map showed two holes in the middle of the lake. Went there, wasn't holes, humps! Caught my first "offshore" fish.

The power plant lakes here in north east IL will be closing to fishing in mid October.  The same goes for some of the smaller public lakes. Other than Shabonna, is there a decent fishery within 75 miles of the Joliet area?  I just can't bring myself to put the boat up for the winter before the lakes start to freeze over.

IL, Des Plaines, Kankakee, and Mississippi Rivers. There's a number of small lakes up near the Fox Chain. The Chain itself requires a user sticker and they will draw it down right after waterfowl season ends. You've got Bangs, Loon, Deep, Long as well as some others to choose from.

Hit Bangs this morning in the wind and rain. Water temp 44* and the air temp colder than that. 3 bass in 3 hours. They're pulling the docks out. Might be 1 or 2 more weeks before they pull the launch pier. Winter is on it's way. 

Illinois here. I'm going out for what looks to be my last fishing trip of 2017. We've had warm 50-60 degree temperatures for about a week or more now. I'll be starting with a slow rolled finesse spinnerbait, and a quarter ounce lipless crankbait. After that I'll be moving to 7 inch ribbon tail worms with a quarter ounce bullet weight, as well as 4 and 5 inch weightless Senkos. Hopefully it's gonna be a good one...