10-3-08 Some Fox River Info

[Ken G]

The road from my house to Route 71 winds through an old section of Yorkville along the river and through woods, more or less. This past week has seen some trees lose quite a bit of their leaves, prematurely I think. The rest are just starting to change to their fall colors with a few maples leading the way with their top branches already turning bright red. Quite a bit of yellow is now mixed in with the lush green we had for most of the summer.

From Van Emmon to Orchard Road along Route 71 a farmer has been harvesting two big soy bean fields all week. Every night on the way home thick clouds of dust have been billowing across the fields as the harvester worked till the last of the light was gone. One evening when the wind was blowing just right, I drove through a near black out condition as the massive thick cloud moved across the road.

As of 7:30 this morning little was left of the standing soy bean field. Off in the back of the two fields black spots could be seen. Hundreds of geese had moved in to pick the ground clean of left over soy beans. Route 71 along this stretch pretty much follows the Fox River. From just upstream of Orchard Road to just beyond the canoe launch at Saw Wee Kee Park I know that hundreds of geese spend the night. I've seen them plenty of times and have spooked them on pre-sunrise fishing trips to that stretch. I've always known that by 7:30 in the morning all the geese, and ducks, were pretty much gone from the river. For the most part they don't bother returning to the river till late afternoon. I know by my house, which is only a few hundred feet from the river in Yorkville, there are stray geese returning well after dark. I've been in my yard at 9 P.M. listening to squawking geese flying over head as they look for a place to land on the river.

For now the geese are hitting the nearest fields. Later in the fall these geese will be seen flying in giant V formations heading even further south as they look for more freshly cut bean and corn fields. I've seen them heading south as far as Route 126, which is a good 4 or 5 miles away. One of these days I'll have permission to set up in one of these fields. It's very rare that I see any hunters out there.

Goose season starts on October 18th and this area is pretty well inundated with geese. As far as I can tell, this area isn't all that inundated with goose hunters. The early goose season had a daily bag limit of 5. For the regular season the goose limit is 2 a day. That's a shame. If you drive down Route 25 along the Fox River from Montgomery to Oswego in late November, into December, January and February you'll see thousands of geese out in the river that decided that this was as good a place as any to winter over. Why go further south if you don't have to I guess. I don't think a bag limit of 5 a day would do much harm to the goose population. As I mentioned, not many seem to be hunting them.

From Route 71, I drove along the Fox from Oswego to Route 30. Not a goose on the river. They must have been up for an early meal. It will be a few weeks yet before they show up in great numbers.

The river level was in near perfect condition. Fishing, not hunting, is still the way to go for awhile yet. With conditions like this, where to go doesn't matter. According to the IDNR map of the Fox River, the Geneva dam is about 58 miles up from where the Fox empties into the Illinois River. Over the past 12 years, this is the area where I've spent most of my time on the river. It's rare that I go north of Geneva and I'll bet I can count how many times that has happened on both hands.

That means from Geneva down to the Illinois River there is approximately 40 miles of river that you can get in, wade and catch fish. I also happened to check out a creek while driving down Route 25 this morning. It too was in perfect shape. If you throw in all the creeks that flow into the Fox from Geneva down to the Illinois River, you can easily add another 20 miles of places to go wading and fishing. Add another 40 miles of places to go wading and fishing if you approach and fish creeks like I do. There's more access out there than you think.

So, pick a quarter mile long stretch of river or creek, more if you're feeling up to it, get in the water and go fishing. This can easily be some of the best fishing of the year. If not for size of fish, then for shear quantity.

And don't forget to bring a camera. The colors are changing and they'll be changing quickly for the next two or three weeks. You will inevitably get the chance to see the river at it's most beautiful. May as well capture it for others to enjoy. The leaves are falling and they too will start falling quickly. Before you know it, this opportunity will have passed.

[bossbob50]

You should get bored more often; elegant, graceful, colorful and meditative prose, as always. Almost makes me wish to hunt, as I wouldn't mind reducing the goose population if I only could. But, I prefer to fish and photograph. So, this has stirred my blood, and now I wish to do both of these. A bunch of smallies, and a shot or two of isolated patches of the "nearby, but barely touched" would be nice.