And what a great day it was! We fished "New Water" today. I have marked this area on maps before, and with some Wallys being on the move lately, I thought... Why not! New water here we come!
Meet up around 10am and fished till 4pm ish. We were really on the hunt for some DPR Pike action with a bonus Eye if we could get lucky. How far off I would be surprised.
Brian put in a order the night before, so he asked what color I thought would work best for the day... I told him, any of them will catch fish
He tossed on a #5 Silver/Yellow/White and off we went.The water is still SUPER LOW even after the little rain we received last night. Gauge was at 305 or something like that. We put in and started upstream. It was chute after chute after chute. Looks perfect for some Walleye action with a little higher water.
This is what we were fishing.
Today felt like we were nowhere near a BIG city! I even said to Brian... Man Bri, this feels like I'm Steelhead fishing. Current, Current, Current.
What a stretch this is
For the most part, the water was no deeper than 2' anywhere we went. We fished I would guess 3/4 of a mile upstream coming to an area where the river widened very nicely. Here is where the FUN began!
We walk up on this area pretty stealthy to ensure we didn't scare any fish in this pool. Were casting into this hole for maybe 3-4 minutes when I start to think... Man! I hope this isn't one of those days... Just then a TANK takes pass at my #5. WOW! I had this fish on for 15 seconds. I couldn't believe my own eyes! It was a HUGE large Mouth! 4+ no doubt! Brian and I look at each other and say... AWWW MAN!!!!!
I have lost big fish before, but never a tank like this from the DPR of all places. With nothing to show on our wade up, this was it. Go big or go home.
Few casts later out comes this girl.
A sizeable fish for the DPR that's for sure.
After that it was on! We fished this hole for the next 2 hours with non-stop action.
They were simply crushing our In-Lines.
Check out the marks on this fish?!
Another.
A few of our fish had those strange black markings on them?! Who knows?!
Brian was next up. He started out small but he upgraded as the day went on
He then quickly hooks up again.
I snapped this pic while he was about to release the fish back. You get the idea of what I was trying to do...
I'll get a better one next time out.
I decided to move to another section of this pool. The second I get there we both have fish on. Brian across the way and me a few yards away.
In total, we didn't get 8 fish on camera. Some were small other wise it was just a pain to take pic alone with no tripod.
Brian across the way with a fish on.
Next fish was all Brian.
Close up.
Next comes the fish of the day... I have a #5 White/White tied on. She hits my bait HARD! It was like "Insta" drag peeling. I knew it was a nice one. She had my 7' Shimano casting rod bent in half.
Biggest Largie I have ever seen come out of the DPR.
Another.
She was a biggin
Next fish was definitely WAY above the Des Plaines average as well.
Brian then gets in on the action as well...
Weird thing is... All these fish came from the same area of the river?! Close to heavy current with a kinda of soft bottom?! No Smallies around here today.
We pack up around 2 and decided to make the move to another spot for the Pike we came for.
We changed up baits for this... Not really
Brian tied on a #4 Yellow/Yellow and I tossed on a #5 Silver/White. Fishing here was a little slower. I missed a few fish right off the bat. I believe they were all following our baits from mid river and hitting them close to shore. A few casts later this guys hammers my #5.
He ripped drag quite a bit for his size
I was pretty happy to get into some Pike action to top off what was already a great day on the water!We wade to a few more hole in the area with nothing much else to show. Our last stop for the day had something in store for Brian...
Casting current Brian hooks up with this nice Bass!
If I could put together days like this every outing... Aww Man!
Dan
I am not saying you were fishing that stretch, but fish can come from all over an adjoining Stream.