Apple River Full report

[MattC]

Just got back yesterday, weather was just about perfect. It was a little cold in the mornings which is probably the reason for the lack of success in the earlier hours of the day. Once the sun came up the action picked up. Still the action was not what i was expecting, it was pretty slow fishing for the most part. Tons of creek chub and small smallies but there were some good quality fish mixed in. All together my brother and I probably caught somewhere around 50 fish. From being there last year i remember spotting fish all over the place, not so this year. There was tons of bait fish and smallmouth fry in the shallows but the smallies where not in there like last year. Maybe a little farther into the warmer weather is the ticket.

This is just a short version, we took well over 100 pictures so its going to take some time to go through them all. Mostly scenery with just the better smallies. All in All we had a blast.

Got back from our trip to the Apple River Sunday. It was just my brother and I and we left Friday after work and stayed until Sunday afternoon. The fishing wasn’t at good as the last trip but did manage some nice sized smallies. We probably caught between the two of us around 50 fish of small in-line spinners and yum craw bugs.

If you have never been to the Apple I highly recommend it. It is one of the most beautiful places in Illinois as you will see by the pictures.

Day 1:

Our trip started out arriving at the state park just before dusk. We set up camp and decided to do a little shore fishing. Not much action, we caught a couple smallies and some creek chubs and decided to go back to camp and drink some beers and get ready for and all day wade for the morning.




Day 2:

We waded upsteam from the main park a stretch that KenG recommended. I don’t know what to say, I’ll let the pictures do the talking. We fished all the riffles, runs, pools, catching many small one with the bigger ones mixed in.
















This is a cool cave that we came across, it is after the deep pool with all the mud that is nearly impossible to get around, Ken I believe I remember you telling me about that pool




Nice little action shot




As you can see more pictures of scenery than anything, but how can you pass up the beauty of this place.
We probably waded a total of 6 miles that day. That river will kill your feet. Here my brother is taking a break



We were beat after that and decided to take a ride into downtown Galena and grab some grub.
This is your campfire for that night




Day 3:

We fished a stretch down stream from the State Park called the Thompson Unit. I had previously fished this area last year and did good but this time was just ok.







Look at the colors on this Smallies, it has some orange in it




All of the male smallies we caught had these black spots on there belly, anyone know what that is from. Maybe the spawn?





All in all we had a great time and will be making this trip every year, Maybe beginning of summer. It was still a little cold in the mornings and I think that had some effect on the fishing.

[Ken G]

When you think about it, they had to be around. The dam in Hanover pretty much keeps them from going back to the Mississippi.

Unless high water blew them all out.

Then the dam keeps them from getting back.

What about the deep pools.
Looking forward to the pictures.

[pezdek1]

Beautiful pictures and it definitely looks like a good time Glad to see you enjoy yourselves. It looks like something me, my brother, and my dad would like to do sometime

As for the black specks on the bellies, here:

from

http://www.kdfwr.state.ky.us/fishboat06 ... 20IN%20FIS H
PARASITES AND GRUBS IN FISH

Kentucky anglers will occasionally clean a fish and find a white or yellowish color worm in the fish’s flesh that is about the size of a grain of rice. Or, when stream fishing, an angler will encounter a smallmouth bass or sunfish with small black specks on its belly or across its body.

This is a parasitic fluke that requires different host animals to complete its life cycle: a fish eating bird, a snail and a fish. The grub matures and produces eggs inside a host fish-eating bird such as a Great Blue Heron. The eggs enter the water from the bird’s droppings or from its mouth. The eggs hatch and tiny larvae of the parasite burrow into a snail. After a time in the snail, the parasite changes form and swims to its next host, a fish. Inside the fish, the parasite changes to a grub form and waits for the fish to be eaten. Then, the cycle repeats.

The angler’s first instinct is to discard any fish with either the grubs in the flesh or black specks on the body. Grub-infested fish are safe to eat. Grubs do not infect people. Remove any grubs found and prepare the fish as you
normally would.

I would think this is exactly what you're seeing in the smallmouth there on the apple river.

[MattC]

Wow, thanks Pezdek, quite interesting. If interested in the Apple just ask questions, its about a 2 1/2 hour drive just east of Galena.

[Ken G]

Matt, did see these and they're great. You never did mention if you got to try the creek chub thing.

How'd you like the camping? We're thinking of going there with my daughters in July.

Worth it?

[MattC]

No we never did try the creek chubs, I kind of regret it also. Didnt really feel like carrying the bucket along, we had so much to begin with, tackle, camera, water, snacks, just thought it would be a hastle. All the creek chubs were in the shallow fast riffles, not that close to the deep pools. Probably should have just thrown em on a hook and let em swim while we waded to the deeper sections.

I would definetly recommend camping. It was 7 bucks a night, just dont go on fourth of july weekend. Theres about 50 sites and on friday there was probably about 3 other sites filled. Saturday filled up to about 25 sites but they all packed up sunday morning and headed out.

Other than some people fishing in the state park where the two forks connect and one guy at the bridge at the thompson unit we didnt see a soul the whole time which was great. I would highly recommend fishing the salem unit. On sunday we fished the thompson and when we got out to the takeout at the next bride we decided to wade a little further into the salem unit. From that bridge for about 100 yards the bluffs line the one side of the river and there is a very nice section of deep water with tons of scattered boulders and rocks. Thats about as far as we went as we had to pack up and head home but if i knew better i would of fished that instead of the thompson unit.