I Fished the Mazon from 6:00am – 11:30am with my Dad. River was at 356 CFS, with visibility around 2 feet. Very clear water. Between my Dad and I we managed 15 smallies and one largemouth (our first on the Mazon) all on Pin’s minnows. My fish all came on black/silver. My dad’s on purple/silver. Very slow presentation. Basically cast it out, reel it down to depth, then give a little twitch, jerk, or slow reel occasionally while letting the fast water do the work for us. A couple of the little guys didn't get photographed, but the majority of our fish were between 12 - 16 inches, with a few 8-10 tossed in. Only fished the creek spillway area down to the first turn where the water turns into sand/silt bottom. My dad wasn't up to walking all over in the fast current and higher water, and honestly neither was I. I didn't wanna take a spill, it's pretty damn slippery on all those rocks, and the water is still cold. Was a great outing, and a beautiful morning to be out. The river was rockin' pretty hard, but we managed to not slip and fall at all with some strategic positioning. Dad basically stood just down river of me so I could block the current and create some slack water for him. He's not quite as heavy as I am. Anyways... Here are some pics of the outing. These are all in chronological order of when they were caught. The last fish came around 11:00am, and we went 35 minutes without a bite after that, and decided we had a good enough morning for us!

Not a bad fish for the first of the morning:



Dad followed it up with another decent one:



(Same fish, different pic)



Then came this little guy:



Then I got another nice one after that:



The surprise of the day was this chunky little largemouth that I actually hooked into out in the current. Not sure why he was out there in the fast moving water, but he hit, and put up a nice little fight:



Another little guy came after the largemouth:



Within 30 seconds of letting the little one go, Dad pulled in another nice little fish:



Then came one of Dad's small guys:



I got another decent fish after that:



And another:



The next fish was the heaviest of the day I believe. Nice little chunker:



(Same fish, different pic)



Then the final fish of the day was landed about 35 minutes or so before we left, another decent one:




All in all, a great day out there. River was rippin' and that gave us some prime fishing in the fast water. We both had a good time, stayed dry, and enjoyed a nice morning in the water. The river is perfect right now with the levels it's at. It should come down a little bit over the next few days, but will still be in great shape to fish for the weekend barring any nasty rain, which I don't think we're supposed to get. If it stays like this all spring I plan on having many, many successful outings out there on the Mazon. These smallies in the Mazon are all tough as nails. Every one, even the little ones had a ton of fight, and would not come quietly. No pigs today, but if I keep pluggin away I'm bound to catch a few more. I wanna keep a pace of at least one 18+ incher per month through the spring, and into summer. I probably won't be back out until the weekend, but if anyone is interested it's the right time to go! I wouldn't recommend fishing with someone that doesn't know the river, though. The holes that are normally 3-4 feet deep are 5-6 feet, and if you don't know where they're at, they're easy to step into and take a swim. Good luck, good fishing! 8;)

It's funny how the smaller waters seem to be producing more fish.

Thinking of taking my daughter there in May. It's kind of on the way when I drive her back to U of I. It will be that or Kickapoo State Park.

Nice outing Nick. You can tell from the pics that the water was moving pretty good.

Anyone that takes their dad fishing as much as you do is good as gold in my book.Keep up the good work
and enjoy these moments.I did a scouting expedition of this river a couple of weeks ago,I like the looks of it.
Probably will fish it sometime this summer.I would love to wade it in late fall when the trees are changing colors.