Meteorological spring started on March 1st. It's about time. January produced one of the grayest months on record with 25 days of no sun. February always teases with peeks of sun and the occasional 40 degree day, but this one was considerably below normal. Right on schedule March shows up to set up it's spring pattern. The weather takes on a distinct 7 day pattern that can go all the way into May. 3 or 4 days of sun and warm weather followed by 3 or 4 days of some of the crappiest cold gray days that can still be mustered.
The problem is when this pattern starts. If it starts on one of the first weekends in March, it will screw up every weekend for almost 2 months. So far the pattern has been set for screwed up weekends. The last one, this one and the next one. Gray and rainy. The weekdays are looking down right beautiful though.
I used to be able to take advantage of these patterns with a flexible work schedule that allowed me to go fishing whenever I pretty much felt like it. Midweek stretch of 50 degree days? No problem. I'll be on the water for the 3rd one when things are really warmed up.
Those days are gone. With the resetting of the clocks I'll soon be able to make evening stops on the way home from work. Either one of the three DuPages or the Fox somewhere between Montgomery and Yorkville. Otherwise I'm delegated to weekends. I've tracked this crappy weekend weather pattern for many years and it's never failed. Looks like I'll be fishing in colder rainy weather for the next couple of months. It's hard to peruse different local fishing websites seeing anglers out there taking advantage of the these mid week warm ups. Reading of the slowly improving fishing opportunities. This month things are still pretty slow, but that could change dramatically in the next two weeks. Depending on the weather of course.
The plan was to get out both days this weekend. Saturday was just a little too gray and rainy to go stand around along a creek or river. I was also watching the river levels all that day trying to decide if Sunday would be worth it. The Fox topped out at 4400 cfs, which pretty much eliminated wading anywhere. Mill Creek hit 100 cfs, which doesn't sound like much, but it is when you squeeze it all through a 20 to 30 foot wide creek. I also went for a cruise around the Yorkville area. The Fox was up and dirty. One creek was up but looked relatively clear. Three other creeks were up and muddy. This wasn't encouraging.
Sunday I went out. Had to. Was climbing the walls. By early afternoon the rain was long gone and slashes of blue sky were appearing between the clouds. Fishing was going to be a waste of time, but I could use the exercise. I headed for Les Arends Forest Preserve and Mill Creek.
Ran into Brad/boogaloo from Windy City Fishing while I was pulling up. He was finishing, rod in hand. I asked if I was wasting my time. He never did say yes or no even though he had just come back from catching nothing. I like non-commital. It could be read as promising.
To get to Les Arends I had to drive over Mill Creek. It looked a little high, but no mud. A possible good sign. When I got to the creek, it really did look good even if it was a little high and fast. First cast showed a visibility of about 18 inches. I was cursing the last few days of rain. This could have been good. Instead there was a definite shortage of slack water holding areas. Good looking fast running cold water is useless this time of year. Picture yourself standing facing into a brisk cold wind. You wouldn't do it, why would the fish?
A couple of pools did look good, a little slower, and they did have the right cover, but apparently the fish didn't agree.
I fished all the way out to the mouth of the creek. Part of me wished that I still fished with live bait. Would have been nice to soak some bigger baitfish in the bottoms of the deeper quieter water. Instead, I wound up casting aimlessly to all spots that have produced fish in the past, taking in the sights created by sun, bright blue sky and the changes of spring.
My friend Kevin Summers goes back and forth on whether he agrees with my penchant for giving away where I fish. Part of him knows it makes no difference, but I do believe he draws the line with creeks. He pointed out that things have changed here on Mill Creek. People getting stopped and shagged out. In 12 years of fishing here, that's never been a problem. But I also don't fish here as often as I used to.
Years ago I would do my own clean ups of the creek. Got to know the security guards that way. We had talked about access to the creek. They told me then that as long as I'm in the creek I'm not on Mooseheart property, so they can't stop me. Funny how everyone seems to know that this is the federal law regarding stream access, except for the IDNR. I've had fisheries biologists tell me that I'm on Mooseheart property if I'm walking up the creek. I asked Marc Miller this question at the Tinley show. I thought his answer was a bit vague. Something to do with navigability. The federal law doesn't make this distinction. Who do you believe.
I do think my days of coming here are pretty much over. I may make my traditional fall run up the creek, but other than that, I'm done. It takes me about a half hour to get to this spot. From my home in Yorkville, in 15 to 20 minutes I can be anywhere from Montgomery to Millbrook. I can be on any one of 5 creeks. On those creeks I have a wider choice of access points. I can cover 20 to 30 miles of them over the course of a summer. I like options. I like exploring something new.
I soon headed out. I had to drive past the crap plant on the way home, so I thought I may as well stop to check it out. I parked on the downstream side of the outflow and hiked in.
When I got to the river I did not like what I saw. I could hear the water rushing out of the outflow a couple of hundred feet up stream. The water should have been crystal clear and flowing from shore out for about 10 or more feet. I've been here before when the river was flowing at 4500 cfs and that's what it looked like.
What I saw looked like flowing crap. Literally. The water had the look of diarrhea. The surface was coated with a bubbly shit look. A coating of caked crap slime covered the water in the slack areas close to shore.
I got to the outflow. On the other side 3 guys were fishing 6 rods and had the whole area tied up. Two of them had hopped the fence into the plant itself and were fishing in areas where they shouldn't be. I didn't bother pointing that out to them.
The water coming out of the plant is normally crystal clear. I've been here on other days during flood events and the water was pouring out even more, but still crystal clear. This was coming directly out of the plant looking like shit. The normally crystal clear slack areas were brown with the caked crap slime covering the surface. I watched the other guys bright orange bobbers floating around in the crap. Considered mentioning to them that they were fishing in crap, but decided against it. I'm tired of explaining the obvious to adults.
I never made a cast. There was no way I wanted any of that slime on my gear. I wandered down the shore to see if things were any better further down. It was worse. Slack areas full of crap. I was done. I made sure my boots stayed clear of the stuff. I did not want that in my car.
They have been doing a lot of work to this plant for well over a year now. Expansion and rebuilding from what I can tell. Wonder if that's caused this problem. Might be another spot I don't go back to again.
Don't forget to go back and read this to see how things have gone in the Les Arends area in the past, and for some ideas on how to deal with this high water.
Les Arends, Mill Creek and High Water Spots
