My weekly report for the DesPlaines River watershed. Posted every Wednesday in the Chicago Sun-Times, and ever Thursday at Prairie State Outdoors.
March 8, 2010
It’s almost the spring season and I am glad to be fishing, writing, and reporting to you all for a second season of the weekly DPR report.
For starters, I was able to get out for a float trip over the weekend with Dan Cahill, our first one of the year. Our goal was to pound the living daylights out of the backwaters, ditches, and creekmouths of the river in the southwest suburbs for Northern Pike. Unfortunately, with water temperatures only running in the 40 degree range (42 as of Saturday with bright sun out), there was a lot more ice still present than originally expected.
In the way of fishing, most of any living life forms in the river right now are running slow and cold. However, don’t let that deter you from fishing as Pike will be your best chance along with some Sauger.
There have been some confirmed reports of Pike up to 26″ inches being caught throughout the entire system with most catches taking place in northern Cook County and southern Lake County. Fish are beginning to stage for spawn and waiting for marsh areas and spawning sites to become clear of ice. This can happen at any day now, and probably will, as significant rain is expected to come within the next few days. S-L-O-W is the name of the game right now for these fish as they can be taken on live minnows (shiners & suckers) drifted through the slow current, suspending jerkbaits, swimbaits, slow-rolled spinnerbaits (extremely slow-rolled), and rattlebaits.
This early into the season in which water temperatures are only 40-degrees, I would concentrate my time often and hard around ANY and ALL shallow backwater areas that are devoid of ice. First, once the ice leaves, these areas will act as spawning sites for Pike, followed a month after by Panfish, and will immediately be a refuge area for warmth and food sources for most other fish. And if the sun is out, these areas will cook themselves up thus the fish will come in to seek warmth. The key here is to look for shallow sand and sunken timber as they act as heat absorbers. If such areas are located, there is a great chance for some fish to be either on top of them, or nearby.
In addition, other places to also try for while it is still cold out are main river channels with current for staging fish, especially for Walleye and Sauger, as well as creek mouths and small ditches for more Pike. The shallow zones and incoming water sources are generally good because there is a greater chance for the water temperatures in these areas to be a few degrees warmer than the main river.
Few anglers are trying for either Walleyes and Sauger, but some smaller fish are being caught on jig with minnow bounced along the bottom through deeper current and hard bottom areas.
Think of this period as spring training. It’s still cold and early with temperatures only running at 40-degrees and not much being caught, but the fishing will turn on with a significant warmup or two.
Video by Dan Cahill – First Pike of 2010 season / Saturday March 06, 2010
An example of one of the iced-in backwaters we were longing to access into with the boat.
Shot of the river where shallow bay meets the main river channel.
A typical area where you can find Walleye and Sauger during this time of season – current and hard bottom pools.
Have any photos or river reports to share? Feel free to submit your contributions to andrew@fishing-headquarters.com and we will showcase them here, and at my blog at Prairie State Outdoors.com.