[mike son]

~15.9' and 200cf/s and falling measured out of Bolingbrook. Hit the East Branch from about 10am to 3pm. Vis only a few inches. Water temp taken at 11am was 40.2 degrees. Sunny and topping at 45 degree air temp. Fish pushed up on the flooded flats with the extra foot of water compared to the average. Blanked on the first hole where they'll typically tuck up on the bank of the hole in slack in higher water. Got a few around flooded brush in slack right of current. Got several up and down a long flat that fills in nicely with the higher water. Some rock and wood right on the seam and in toward shore with some soft current, they seemed to be hanging around right there or just outside the soft current in the slack near shore. Bite probably got better later in the day with higher sun, could have just been the spot though. Same scenario with the long, flooded flat played out last year on a sunny day. A few on a 1/8oz keitech tungsten guard jig and 2.8" swimbait. Blanked with a 3/32oz football jig and fluke. Hot bait was dragging a 1/8oz owner football head with 3.25in shad pattern rage swimmer until I destroyed it and had no more, RI little dipper (3.5"?) worked just as good. Didn't have to pause the bait. I really did just a constant slow drag, only pausing to pull up slack. Roll over rock or wood and it would often get thumped hard. Talked to a guy walking his dog who often fishes the river, claims to catch pike every so often. As we were talking a hawk took a dive at a coot floating down river right in front of us. Coot continued to float down river with the hawk perched up not far behind. Going to head out in a min for a round two.

 

[tonydim7]

Nice work! I’m jealous of your winter smallmouth. Still can’t seem to find them. How’d round 2 go?

 

[FishinMatt]

Incredible! I imagine this could be a fun week out there with several days of stable warm weather.

 

[mike son]

Round two was more or less the same. River continuing to fall, clarity improved to nearly a foot I'd say. Water temp was 43.x degrees around 10-11am. Full sun is really helping there. Fished a different section of the East Branch. Same lures. Had a few eat as I swam the lure back near shore which surprised me the first time. Four or five ended up doing the same thing in a rocky eddy. I'd slow swim after a dragging retrieve and watch them suck it in right on shore as if the bait was fleeing to the shallows. One smallie tailing the bait popped the surface after I pulled the lure out of the water. Never saw them until it rocketed up.

 

[Grain]

I walked down my section of DPR yesterday and I am not sure if I want to fish it just yet. The river is high, fast, and looks like wheatgrass smoothie. It's also not that easy to get down to the water level in places I know to typically hold fish and the prospect of dragging a pike up the 6' bank does not warm my heart.

 

[Skifish1]

Nice I hit the EB Dupage for the first time ever last week and was blanked. I may have been too far upriver it was very narrow overly channelized and stained. Flow was too fast also for winter fish. Very unimpressed next time I will try and wider section with some turns.

 

[tonydim7]

Round two was more or less the same. River continuing to fall, clarity improved to nearly a foot I'd say. Water temp was 43.x degrees around 10-11am. Full sun is really helping there. Fished a different section of the East Branch. Same lures. Had a few eat as I swam the lure back near shore which surprised me the first time. Four or five ended up doing the same thing in a rocky eddy. I'd slow swim after a dragging retrieve and watch them suck it in right on shore as if the bait was fleeing to the shallows. One smallie tailing the bait popped the surface after I pulled the lure out of the water. Never saw them until it rocketed up.

Interesting. What do you think brought them closer to shore. The warmer water in the shallower parts from the sun? Great to know that they are at least a little active right now.

 

[mike son]

Interesting. What do you think brought them closer to shore. The warmer water in the shallower parts from the sun? Great to know that they are at least a little active right now.

Higher water and the stain will bring them toward the shore of slack water areas. Bet it was warmer too as the shore was lined with rock on the north side of the river and had been getting baked in the sun all day. I think the stain helps with "cover" in the sense that they feel protected from predators from above and they don't need to seek out the deep water. All sections of the Dupe seem to dirty up during the winter too. Probably because there is no grass to filter all the sediment out. Most on day two were hanging on the first break near shore of that eddy, but some were right on the soft seam, and some somewhere in between. I believe I was fishing that rocky eddy at the warmest part of the day with the high sun too, I could just tell they were firing up at the moment and fished it thoroughly for some time.