I’ve been lazy about getting out. My timing has always been off. It’s nice out and by the time I get to the river, the wind shifts out of the north at 15 mph, the temperature drops and I wind up getting beat up.
Did get out a couple of times for some short runs. My catch/self release ratio has flip flopped. For the two days I wound up with 7/14. I like to track what I’m missing so I can get a sense of the type of fishing day I could have had. It’s said that you learn by your failures, so I keep track of my failures. I think I’m a slow learner.
The first day was gray, cold, wind blown and without the sun, my interest in taking or looking for photos to take plummets. I need the sun/shadow contrast. So I took dull pictures of fish.
The next day found me much further north than I go any more. I had to stop by a creek that at one time, I practically lived in and have fished well over 100 times. I think it’s been almost 2 years since my last visit. I now have so many more creeks so much closer, why travel.
The floor of the woods on the way in are coming to life.
This limestone bluff is under a bridge, about 6 feet above water level and totally isolated. I wondered why someone threw their garbage on top of it, till the garbage moved. Unless a predator flies in, the goose couldn’t have picked a better spot.
My catch/self release ratio continued to suck and the bigger, heavier fish all were self released, so I skipped most of the photo opportunities. I do have to remember to put the camera in Auto mode for the flash.
This is why I come here.
It looks like this for as far up as you can walk and I’ve walked as far up as you can go many times in the past.
A new landowner now thinks he owns to the middle of the creek and shags people out. When he tried that with me the last time I was here, I told him to go get his deed and prove it, he balked.
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Like usual, I’m allowed to go any where I want as long as I’m in the water, but I told him to go ahead and shag others out. Most won’t know they have the right and it keeps the pin heads out. As I said, I don’t go here any more any way.
I headed for the mouth of the creek. A big oak had got washed down stream and pretty much filled what is a nice fishing pool.
This tree did not come off this point. Because of a foot bridge, I knew it had to come from a short 150 yard stretch of the creek. Goes to show how quickly shore lines heal themselves. I couldn’t find the spot where it became uprooted.
Sitting under the tree is a big plank of wood. I know where that came from. About a mile upstream is an old collapsed bridge that has been slowly falling apart even more since I first found it 12 or so years ago. I know every riffle, pool, twist and turn in this creek for that one mile. This old plank of wood had one hell of a journey in order to get to this spot.
Done for the day and back on the footbridge, I took a break and looked for shapes and patterns in the rusted trusses that might be interesting.
Interesting to me anyway.
Nick@BrookfieldAngler.com
2 Apr 2012The colors of decay are incredible – way to capture that!
Ken G
2 Apr 2012I’ve always been fascinated by it. Now I seem to go looking for it.
walt franklin
2 Apr 2012Ken,
Thanks for bringing out the character of this smallmouth stream for us. Nice job. Reminds me of what I went through today (I called in sick) looking for the rainbow run on a Finger Lake feeder stream. It wasn’t the fish so much (very few); the fun was in deciphering the patterns brought by a streamside ramble.
Ken G
2 Apr 2012Walt, calling in sick…that’s pretty funny right there.
I do miss this stream for the limestone walls. It’s the only one I know of that feeds the Fox that has them so extensively. The others, where they do occur, are very short runs.
I’m off exploring 3 or 4 new ones on a regular basis, each beautiful in their own way. For as much as I fish, I never feel like I have enough time to spend on any of them.
cofisher
2 Apr 2012Beautiful photos! Any attacks by wildlife?
Ken G
3 Apr 2012Only caddis flies this time. Other than getting lodged in my nostrils, they’re pretty harmless. I think they figured out that since they can’t bite, they’ll try to suffocate you.
Rebecca
2 Apr 2012Beautiful pictures and as always, I loved your commentary about the area. It is greening up in your area and I’m glad you reminded the landowner that you could indeed enjoy the water…
Landowner need that reminder every once in awhile.
Ken G
3 Apr 2012Rebecca, I’ve known the DNR head here in Illinois since he was just another conservationist river rat. We’ve talked about the two laws that muddy up the issue. I bug him about getting them eliminated.
The special interest groups involved would make it one hell of a battle. Instead, he goes for what he knows he can accomplish.
I should quit talking my way out of the situations and let them arrest me already. Push the issue a bit.