Sunday Sunday Sunday. . . and the REST of the story

[Ken G]

Left this as a response on WindyCityFIshing, looks good enough for a post here.
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At 8 am Saturday, before heading out, the gauge was reading 7500 cfs. Already too dangerous to be in it and probably not very smart to be on the shore unless you know exactly where the shore is. I drove along about 5 miles of the river and over a few of it's creeks.

Nasty looking water.

I've been known to go fishing when the river is at it's worst and I won't touch this one. Even though I was thinking about it.

They must have installed a new gauge at Montgomery. It now will give readings over 7 or 8 thousand cfs.

Middle of the afternoon on Saturday it was reading 15.000 cfs. I kind of quit thinking about going out after seeing that reading.

I may be a moron, but I'm not stupid.

Still reading 15,000 cfs Sunday morning, but I think it's stuck.

By the time the water gets to Dayton, the river is fed by at least a half dozen creeks. Dayton's gauge is reading 27,000 cfs.

I think it's going to take a few days for all this water to drain out of here.

Waiting for the rain to stop to go get pictures. I hear that just down the street from me the coffer dam built to build the canoe chute on the Yorkville dam got blown out. Never did get pictures a couple of weeks ago like I had planned, but will go get pictures of this. Would have been nice to get before and after pictures.

The residents that fought so hard, lying and giving out misinformation about that dam are about to find out what the river is supposed to look like without it. It's going to take them awhile to plug that hole and in the mean time, the whole river is going to drain through it.

This is going to be good.

Be nice if it blew out a section of the rebuild and they gave up on this stupid project.

They pissed off the river gods and the river gods don't want their river blocked anymore.

[Ken G]

I've always been fascinated by the sheer destructive power of water. Especially moving water. I know part of the fascination comes from almost drowning twice. It made me want to know more about what almost killed me. The other part of this fascination came from watching the old World War II movie, Dam Busters, when I was a kid. When they finally succeed in busting a dam and sending that torrent of water downstream to destroy everything in it's path, in a kids eyes, it doesn't get any cooler than that.

So with the Fox River flowing higher and faster than I've ever seen it, as soon as the rain stopped I had to get out to do some exploring. My wife, who grew up along the Fox and has seen it worse, meets my enthusiasm for this with a "yeah, so" attitude.

No wonder I don't go fishing with her.

Back in March, I had heard that Nicor had blocked off the east channel of the Fox with a coffer dam at North Avenue on the south side of Aurora. Of course I had to go get a picture of this. Notice the barriers covered in plastic next to the water pump.



A couple of months later, at one of the many high water events we had on the Fox this year, I was driving between Oswego and Montgomery down Route 25 when I noticed the barriers that Nicor had put up were floating downstream. There were also quite a few stuck along the shore or jammed onto the islands. Of course I had to go get a picture of the blown out coffer dam.



The furthest down stream that I found one of these barriers was directly across the river from my house, at the mouth of Blackberry creek. There was also one stuck in the construction area of the canoe chute at the Yorkville dam. I thought the water was high then.



This next shot was taken Sunday after the rain stopped from almost the same spot as the previous picture. Now THIS is high water.



My wife has caught on to this horrible habit I've developed in the last couple of years. I procrastinate more than I ever have. So for the past month I've been saying how I need to walk over to the Route 47 bridge and get a picture of the dam, the construction and the coffer dam they've built along the south shore.

"You'll never get around to it," she said, "you only do the things you don't talk about."

She's right, I never got around to it. I wish I had, then you would have something to compare this next picture to.



But for some reason, I took a few pictures at the dam a little over a month ago when the river came down to normal. This should give you a feel for how high it is now.



The last time I looked, about a week ago, that pile of rubble was still sitting there. When you look at that area now, you don't see so much as a ripple. I think that pile is pretty much gone, probably laid flat.



Again, a few weeks ago I took a picture looking down stream at the Route 47 bridge. On the left side of the picture, you can see someone standing on the edge of the water, leaning up against the retaining wall.



This was taken from almost the same spot on Sunday.



For those of you that have fished around Yorkville, you should recognize the next two pictures.





I just checked the gauge in Montgomery. After peaking at almost 20,000 cubic feet per second, it's already down to around 9,600 cfs and coming down fast. That tends to happen this time of year. It's the spring when the river takes it's sweet time in draining. I have a feeling that by this weekend the river may come down to almost normal levels.

The creeks for sure will be back to normal and pretty clear. That always happens that way.

Not sure at this point if I'll be making it out this weekend. I tend not to go fishing when I have my daughter for the weekend, but we do go exploring.

And if, by chance, I do happen to get out, there's this little creek that had this big log jam. It's either moved or got bigger. I have no choice but to go find out.

One of these days my fascination with these things will probably kill me.

[Dan]

One of these days my fascination with these things will probably kill me.

Than who would answer ask all my questions??

[Ken G]

Than who would answer ask all my questions??

I don't know.

I know Bob Long can do a pretty good job of it, for river fishing in general.

I'm trying to think of who else I've shown stretches of the river to, but they've all kind of disappeared.

Maps, start collecting lots of maps. Then quit your job and go fishing all the time. Some place new every day.

Then you can be the answer man.

[Dan]

LOL!!!