Creek Fishing Oswego 4_23_08

[Ken G]

This time of year it's not a question of whether or not you should get out fishing. It's a matter of where do you go. Starting some time in April and going to at least June, you have the best opportunity to catch some of the biggest fish you'll catch all year.

I'm primarily talking about river fishing for smallmouth bass and specifically talking about the Fox River. If you're going to fish rivers you can target other fish, but really, what's the point. Everything else pretty much pales in comparison. I've done it. I've caught nineteen different species out of the Fox and I never go back out to key in on any of them but the smallie.

What creates the problem of where to go is water. Possibly lots of it. The warmer weather melts off any remaining snow and causes storms to develop. Storms that seem to dump buckets of water from the sky at times. This is what has happened to the Fox. It's been flowing high and fast for weeks now and as of today it's flowing at 4,200 cubic feet per second. That's a lot of water and it's flowing fast and pushing hard.

All but the most experienced fishermen should keep their feet planted firmly on solid dry ground. Two or three feet from the rivers edge would be even better. I know miles of this river like the back of my hand and I would be hard pressed to think of a spot where I would feel safe and comfortable standing in the water right now.

Creeks, on the other hand, have much smaller watersheds and tend to drain and clear up much quicker. Usually in about a week after a deluge, a creek will already be getting back down to normal. That is exactly how things are now. The creek I was in was flowing normal, but a little stained keeping visibility down to around 18 inches. That is a good thing. Creeks normally run crystal clear and a little stained water keeps the fish from getting spooked.

When it comes to fish, everything is temperature driven. The warmer air warms up the water. The warmer water wakes the fish from their inactive winter stage and gets their metabolism going. This makes them hungry and they eat just about anything that moves. All this eating and their higher metabolism makes them want sex. They only get it once a year so they get pretty damn aggressive about it. Which makes them even easier to catch.

Food and sex, what more can a fish want. Most guys I know live for pretty much the same thing.

So when they're in the feeding stage and the river is high, fast and a little muddy, where do you go?

Along the Fox it's simply not a problem. From Geneva down for many miles there are many miles of parks, forest preserves and trails that line the river. Basically, just pick a stretch. Plenty of open land, open shore line and lots of parking around to get to both.

Walking the shore is easy. The biggest mistake you can make is to cast out into the fast moving water. Good chance their won't be anything there. You want to be fishing as close to shore as possible. Doesn't matter what you throw in, just cast down stream parallel to the shore and very slowly reel in your lure. Make sure your lure is going in and out of the slowest moving pieces of water. It's a can't miss presentation.

I see far too many fishermen casting out into the fast water this time of year. Think like a fish. Besides food and sex, just like you the other thing a fish wants is cover. Think of it this way, water is to a fish what wind is to us. Right now the water is somewhere between 45 and 55 degrees and flowing fast. Imagine that a 4000 cubic feet per second water flow reading is like a 40 mile per hour wind. Where would you be standing? I really doubt you would be standing out in the open in that 40 mph wind if it was only 50 degrees out. Good chance you would go look for something to stand behind to block the wind flow.

That's exactly what the fish are doing. They are hunkering down behind things to get out of that 4000 cfs flow. Now and then they'll move out into it to get somewhere else, but when they get there they'll hunker down behind something. Just like you would. Anything that looks like food that comes within striking distance of where they are hunkered down will get eaten. Why chase food when you can just sit and wait for it. The bait fish are looking for those slow spots too.

Some fish that live near creeks will realize that they don't have to sit there being abused by that current flow. They'll notice that there's some bait fish moving up into those lower slower waters and they'll follow them up looking for an easy meal. After a few weeks of eating everything in sight they'll realize that they're in an ideal spot to have sex, so why move.

The problem I have this time of year is that I've fished all those easy to access spots many times over the years. Not really all that interested in them anymore. The spots I like to fish still have access to them, but you have to fish the shores from out in the water. Dense woods grow on shore and there are no paths. Fishing the shore line effectively is virtually impossible.

So for me, that leaves the creeks. The first two miles inland are the best places to go. Despite wanting to eat constantly and then have sex, fish are about as lazy as most fishermen I know and will only go so far for either. You could get lucky and find a creek where the fish go even further in, but I've been there. You don't see too many. They won't bother exploring further inland till those other two needs are met.

I stopped at the creek in Oswego on my way home from work. That gave me about an hour. In that hour I had three smallies on that I got to take a peek at and 3 more smallies just wandering around doing not much of anything. I also had a number of sharp taps that I chalked up to bluegills and crappie, but my hook setting capabilities pretty much sucked. It was nice to feel that tap either way.

The closer I got to the mouth of the creek, which was still a half mile away, the more fish I saw. Only these were river red horse, by the hundreds, with the occasional northern hog sucker thrown in. They too were on their feeding binge and following it up with an all out orgy. Can't remember who told me, could have been Bob Long Jr., but sucker eggs are some shade of green. The suckers head up stream to spawn first. Other fish follow them to feed on their eggs so use some kind of lure with some green in it and cast down stream from the spawning suckers. I've found that the color doesn't matter.

All these fish moving around all this water in the river and creeks and not another fisherman to be seen. Can't decide if that's what I went fishing for or was it to actually catch a fish.

[Dan]

Nice read and It's funny now common sense is sometime over looked:) U fishin this weekend Ken? Say, I wouldn't mind a tour?!

[Ken G]

Not sure what I'm doing this weekend.
It's one of those hit or miss weekends.

Man, I used to have so much more free time. Where'd it go?

I should just put together a small group one weekend and we all go out.
Spiz and Tim would probably go. I'll check with Spiz what weekends he has off and we'll work something out. There's a few stretches I want to learn, but that requires lower water. Never been there myself wading anyway.

You'll get to know a few people maybe that have more time than me and know the river.

Let me work on this.

[Dan]

On stand-by