The News Outside
Life jackets a must for boaters, Steve Sarley, May 21
DNR needs sustainable funding, Dale Bowman, May 21
Bowfrogging for trophy croakers, Don Gasaway, May 21
Parts of Johnson-Sauk park closed, Star Courier, May 21
Pros, cons of Hackmatack refuge, Northwest Herald, May 20
MORE NEWS
SUBSCRIBE!
Heartland Outdoors magazine is published every month.Or call (309) 741-9790 or e-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Archive
| May 2012 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 1 | 2 |
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
Recent entries
- Hybrid Striper run on the Kaskaskia River Aug 01
- Lake Monster! Jun 29
- What a Weekend! Jun 27
- Hot Weather,Hot Catfishing Jun 13
- Kaskaskia River Sauger Jun 06
- Its Prime Flathead Time Jun 03
- White bass time on the Kaskaskia River May 23
- Oklahoma Adventures May 02
- The Morel Motherload Apr 20
- Turkeys, morels and catfish Apr 13
- Crappie action heating up Mar 15
- Let the 2011 fishing season begin Feb 22
- A reminder that whitetails are tough Dec 18
- Bagging a coyote makes the hunt Dec 08
- Meat hunter or Trophy hunter? Nov 29
- Duck hunting Illinois’ Horseshoe Lake Nov 05
- Get in your stands! Oct 27
- Is the rut here yet? Oct 19
JOSH
ADKINS
Southwest Outdoorsman
White bass time on the Kaskaskia River
Mon, May 23, 2011
With clear skies this weekend I got out and fished the Kaskaskia River and Governor Bond Lake and the fish decided to cooperate as well. With the high water levels on Carlyle Lake the dam has been releasing wide open for the last few weeks and should continue for awhile. The constant release rate has made for some decent white bass fishing as the bite has picked up throughout this week and the spawn is on as many of the big whites were full of eggs. The White bass fishing should continue to improve and should explode any day with some warm temps.
I seined some crawdads as they are my go to White bass bait on a #4 eagle claw hook with a ¼ oz split shot and headed down to the river to fish from shore. The bite was good and between 2 guys we kept and cleaned 40 good sized whites and released many smaller ones in 2 hours. Anglers were also catching some good sized Sauger as I witnessed 4 caught over 18” and the biggest topping 21”.
2 biggest whites of the day 3.4 and a 2.6
the best part about using crawdads is that the leftovers taste pretty good boiled up southern style!
The cat fishing is beginning to pick up at Gov. Bond Lake as the water has lowered a bit and has warmed up to the mid 70’s. I headed down to the docks and put out a pole with cut shad while I crappie fished the docks and hooked into a couple small channel cats before getting a decent sized 9.6 pounder. I plan on getting out this weekend with some whole Bluegill or shad and going after some flatheads and maybe even putting out some jugs out one night if weather permits. The crappies were up as shallow as possible and hitting a 1/64 oz blue and chartreuse Mizmo jig.
9.6 channel cat
12” crappie
a bonus carp!
If the rains hold off this weekend and water levels stabilize it should be a great weekend to get out and target white bass, catfish or crappie. You really can’t go wrong with either choice but the big cats are calling my name.
Comments
HeartlandOutdoors.com is owned by Lampe Publications LLC. Heartland Outdoors is a registered trademark.
Heartland Outdoors, P.O. Box 745, Elmwood, IL 61529
Copyright © 2012 Heartland Outdoors. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Looks like an awesome weekend of fishing Josh! I got out over the weekend too for my first float trip of the year. It was slow due to still muddy water but we picked up 2 smallies, 2 cats and 3 pike (should’ve had 4). Then it all got ruined Sunday night. Looks like it will be awhile again before I can do any floating.
Posted by esox_lucius on May 24
the rains have ruined all my Misssissippi river trips this year too so i know how you feel ESOX! seems like this year just as the fish start picking up a big rain comes and raises water levels by a few feet and then its back to the drawing board.
what were the sizes of those pike? sounds like you had a good trip. hopefully the water goes down quick for ya and you can get back at it.
Posted by JoshAdkins on May 24
Yeah that is exactly how it has been this year so far. The 3 pike caught this year brought my grand total for the year to a whopping 6 fish…NOT good! The 3 that made it to the boat were almost like someone took out a cookie cutter because they were almost identical right around 30” and 2 had relatively fresh scars on top of their heads. I never even got a look at the one that got away but from the way he pulled in comparison to the other 3 I would guess 35+”. It was frustrating too because I had him on wha seemed close to 5 minutes and just before he came to the boat you could feel him caugh up the bait (live chub) which made me question whether he was even hooked in the first place.
Posted by esox_lucius on May 24
hopefully the high waters will flush some fresh ones in for ya. i bet they put up a good battle! rain rain rain here the next 3 days so i will be singing the same tune it sounds like!
Posted by JoshAdkins on May 24
How do you fish the spillway with the crayfish with that much water coming through? I have used 1 oz. jigs for water up to 17’, but I have never tried fishing with that much water flowing. Do you still try to fish on bottom?
Posted by James S on May 24
Josh, as our southern IL. representative here on HO, would you be willing to keep us central IL guys up to date on the 2011 cicada outbreak that is to hit your area any day now? If they pop like they did when I was out east, watch out. Fishing will be insane! I primarily flyfish and back in I think 2003-2004 MD and VA had their cicada outbreak. Streams with trout, smallmouth, carp, catfish, you name the species, exploded for the following 3 weeks. Anyways if you start seeing them pop up in any numbers post a quick blog for us and then hit the water, you won’t regret it. I’ll be jumping in the truck headed for the closest smallmouth stream, you can bet on that.
Posted by Colt on May 24
Colt, I was in Southeast MO last weekend and the cicadas were out in force. The kids were having a great time finding the husks on the trees and the cicadas.
Posted by James S on May 24
JamesS- i use a small hook and 1 single 1/4 split shot even with this high water as long as you are down from the Dam 100 yards or so its enough to get to the bottom,i never have to throw out the line more than 20 yards right on the 1st current break, throw upstream 10 yards or so and drift it down bouncing bottom, then let it settle down stream of you on the 1st rock shelf where with low water you are usually standing. let it sit untill something picks it up, if no action after a couple minutes recast. hope this explains some of the techniques. the snags arent bad at all in a good hole,even with the high water you shouldnt have to retie more than than once, if you find a good hole stick to it. the key is finding the holes they stack up in. theyre are 5 or 6 good ones on the westside from the dam to the swinging bridge.
Posted by JoshAdkins on May 24
COLT- Funny that you mentioned the Cicadas, i just got in from mowing the yard and noticed a few (20-30 each tree) on the bottoms of the trees in the front yard and can hear them this morning for the first time from the deep woods behind the house. today is the first day i have seen them. Today must have been the 1st day they popped up. I will get some pics today and try to put a post up tomorrow. Like u said the fish absolutly destroy them, i remember the last time they came and the bass/cats and gills couldnt resist and it makes for fun top water fishing. Its an amazing event that you might as well take advantage of as an angler. i know one thing i wouldnt want to be doing and thats camping with all the noise they make! lol
Posted by JoshAdkins on May 24
Not trying to pry or invade your waters but do you know of any smallmouth streams close to the area you are witnessing the cicadas? I know the bite can be very centralized on the location of the hatch, no cicadas, no bite. I was pounding the trout in a stream just 30 miles from the PA border and guys up there did not get the hatch and were clueless what was happening just to the south of them. The PA stream was known for it’s huge browns but when I got there there were no bugs and no fish being caught, quick u-turn and I was back on fish again. Would the spillway at Shelbyville (downstream) fall into the area you are seeing the cicadas? Still want to get down that way with the flyrod and kayak.
Posted by Colt on May 26
Colt -
If there’s a smallmouth stream in our part of IL - then I’m not aware of it - but there are starting to be more and more smallies in the Miss down here by Alton _ not a lot - but I’m told that more are showing up. Is it a ‘fishable population’? Hard to say - but I guess a call to the Fisheries Biologist could confirm that.
We have lots of creeks and streams but not many of them are big enough to bother with fishing (except for crawdads and minnows)
Everytime I seine one nearby creek I always get a bunch of baby gills and crappies - from farm ponds I guess… I mean little 1 in. ones..
Good Luck and tight lines
-rat
Posted by RiverRat on May 26
Colt, i have never caught a smallmouth bass around here. None below carlyle or any of the lakes in this area, Below Shelbyville i have heard of people catching a few as they have stocked some in the past but i have never caught any. The rivers around here are too muddy and dont have enough rock bottoms to support them i guess, fishable populations are pretty much nonexistant unless i am totally missing something. the only places i know that has a few of them, and i mean a FEW, is Baldwin powerplant lake, Below shelbyville, Kincaid and i think main lake shelbyville, but as far as good smallmouth streams, none.
Posted by JoshAdkins on May 26