Illinois River (16 Oct)

[flyfishermann1955]

      I went to the Illinois River on Thursday with my friend Scott.  We arrived at 0715 to an empty parking lot at the 1st area below the dam and fished the deep, slow water above the horseshoe-shaped row of rocks.  It never became crowded, even though many schools are on fall break.  We heard a lot of gun fire, so perhaps many people were hunting!

     The water was very, very green, with less than 6 inches of visibility.  It didn't seem to impact the fishing/catching.  I saw 4 other fly fishers and they all caught some fish as did the people with spinning rods. 

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     I caught about half my fish on an olive jig and another 9 - 10 on a peach egg (tied over a gold bead).  I also tried 2 new size #20 midge patterns, a triple red midge (red thread body, red wire rib, and a red bead) and an Ian's Brass Ass, and they both caught a couple of fish.  All Rainbows; no Browns. 

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Thanks- Ken

[jcw355]

They're some browns in there but not what you could catch at LMF. They put a bunch of fingerling browns in a couple summers ago with some of
those are around 9"-10" now. Im thinking they did stock some bigger browns, 11-12" , sometime earlier this year as I saw some pics on the TU facebook page. Stripers tore up the trout earlier this year as there were no shad like years before in the river. Water has been green for awhile now. Glad you got into some fish, I consider this my home waters as it's much closer than LMF

[flyfishermann1955]

JCW,

     I've caught some Browns below those horseshoe-shaped rocks; farther downstreams too--in the catch and release section; and upstream from Marval Campground, but that has been 5+ years ago.  I'm not sure if the green water is caused by the lake or if it is just in the stream.  I have seen it before too.

     I live in Midwest City, so the Illinois River is 2 hours and 15 minutes, which is half the time it takes to get the the LMF.  I also fish the Blue River (Nov - March).  You don't have to contend with water release, but the wading is much more difficult, especially when the water is off-color.  There are some nice fish in the catch and release (delayed harvest) section at the Blue and there are days up there when I don't see another person.  Probably a direct result of the 30-minute walk from the parking lot!

Thanks- Ken