So who wants to try to explain what I was doing wrong?

Sunday night I got a wild hair up my ass and I decided that Kankakee really isn't that far from my work, and that they are in the same general direction from my house, so of course I should go try to fish the river on my Monday before closing the brewery. The weather looked favorable, and if I got out of the house at a reasonable time I could fish for a few hours, and still get to work in plenty of time. I looked through some old posts here about where good places to go might be, and where I could put my car. I decided to take the easy route since I've never been down there before, which was park near Warner bridge and find my way around.

I got there around 9:30 and there were two guys right at the shore, one with a fly rod, and another with a spinning setup and crank bait. I walked in upstream from them a little, and could see another guy fly fishing on the north side of the river, just a bit up. So I opted to stay away from all of them and pick my way around a bit on the south side. The water was clear, very clear. Much less green and murky than the stretch of the Fox that I saw last weekend. There were however, weeds everywhere. I started by throwing that rebel craw that has so much awesome wobble action and every retrieve came back with greens that I had to pick off. The trebles were catching anything it touched.

I know that part of fishing a new spot means that you're going to have to do a lot of discovery and get the feel of the land before you're likely to have much success, but I tried fishing all kinds of different pools, seams, riffles, everything that looked like it would have fish in it with no luck. I made it to the bridge and switched to a white twisty tail grub to see if I would bring back less green on every cast. A little upstream from the bridge I saw this idyllic looking riffle.



That screams fish to me, but there was nothing going on. I hadn't even seen any fish beyond minnows and a few tiny bluegill swimming through the weeds.

I worked my way farther upstream and did see a fin sticking out of the water.



It was what looked like a carp carcass missing it's head.

Further upstream I finally found a patch on the south side of the river that had very little weed growth. It was near a duck blind, which I assume is one of those lottery pick deals where you get up at 2 am and wait until the game warden calls your name so that you can hunt on state park land. Anyway, I finally started to see fish. I saw a smallie sitting in a seam and as soon as my grub got near it swam away like I electrocuted it. I saw some largemouth nearer to shore, and the same deal. They weren't having any of it. I think I waded about a mile upstream and it was noon which meant I needed to make it to the trail to get back and on the road in time to make it to work. I did see a dog poop sign on the trail.

(I have photos of these signs from all over the world.)

So Norm, Ken, et. al. what was I likely doing wrong? That stretch just a bad one? Poor technique? Too many weeds? Wrong lure? I'd definitely like to go back again soon, it's a really nice looking place to fish, and there's a lot of river to cover. It's a lot easier for me to head down there for a few hours, and then backtrack to Munster than drive all the way out to the Fox on a Monday morning.

anything with trebles either you catch a fish real quick or pick green in that area. singlespins, flukes, nose or wacky rigged cigar type plastics as well as swimming jigs just off the bottom are workable options.You'll stick pick green but not as quickly, for the most part.

I used a pikey minnow today a bit downstream from there and got 5 smallmouth between 18 and 21 inches in about an hour. Outside the the five fish, every other cast I made, I picked green. Well worth it.

If you go upstream from that idyllic riffle by the head of that island, I think you'll like that better.

If you want to avoid picking green, you should go to the Bird Park Quarry access in the town of Kankakee. It;s off Wall St twixt Court and Station Streets. I spent part of the day there, no problems with the green gunk. Fish around the bridges and up to the pipelines there, should give you a feel for that area.

If you stick around Warner bridge fish the abutments and in the shade. ish by the old pilings especially the two right off the respective shorelines. Ventue downstream from the back parking lot on the north side. Go acroos the river and gowest on Rte 113 to Area 7, upstream or down from the access , either way can be good.

Look for an old ugly dude with a beat up ball cap, gray/white beard, stache and hair wearing waders. Tell him you are from this site and who you are. Kinda looks like Capt Trips.