Tough Fishing Today & Tough Loss for the Colts
Today was the first really good chill, historically, I've taken numerous crappies right after the first night time dip into the 30's so I decided to try the Kankakee instead of fighting the crowds along Salt Creek.
Upon arriving at the bayou, I stopped to talk to one of the "regulars" and was alarmed that he had been there for several hours without a single hit; but, I still gave it the "old college try". The water was gin clear and a stiff Northeast wind was blowing, sky was bright and dotted with clouds, sun felt quite warm in between the chilling gusts.
I worked some large tubes for awhile, and spinnerbaits, spoons, etc. but the bass and pike were not cooperating, so I switched over to my super ultralite gear - tied on a 1/124 oz. jig and placed a float 24 inches above it, I tipped the jig with a Crappie Niblet for sent and cast it to the left of a good snag and let the wind do its work and gently push the bait past the snag...I glanced up for a moment to watch a belted kingfisher cruising the length of the bayou and when I looked back down towards my float it was gone! Set the hook into a nice chunk of a bluegill - 9 incher!
Well, after the first fish I had quite a long dry spell, so I started working even heavier cover - it was difficult maintaining a good drift pattern today, but the heavier cover was the ticket today - after one hour I had 9 slab gills, and NO crappies. Looked at my watch and had to leave to watch the Colts game - exciting, but disappointing we lost to a 59 yard fg in the waining seconds of the game.
...all in all, it was still another great day down by the Kankakee.
Roaming the banks of the Kankakee River and anywhere else fish might lurk.