This morning I headed over to a favorite spot on the north branch of the Kishwaukee River to try my luck (or skill depending who you ask) on some smallmouth and northern pike after we got that nice cold front with a little rain to see if it had stirred up some fish activity. After fishing only two hours I would say that things had improved both for the river and the fishing. Up until that last rain the Kish was starting to look and smell like an algae infested farm pond, which I hadn’t seen in the 6 years I’ve been fishing there. Low flows and HOT weather was really starting to effect the water and fish’s behavior. This morning however was a different story. I struck out at one spot, but after changing location I found some active fish, and I mean active! The 30 inch pike I caught came flying out of the water twice trying to inhale my streamer.
After that I watched two smallmouth bass come out of a cut-bank and chase down my fly two or three times. These fish were ready to eat! I changed up my retrieve a few times until finally one ate it!
I released that fish and threw it right back in there to see if I could get his buddy to eat too. After a few tries I got ’em! The second fish was a bit smaller than the first so I released him without a photo. I was happy to see the Kish looking clean and the fish eating and fighting hard again. I’m already trying to plan my next day back there.
