We've finally reached that magical time of year we think about all summer. While we are burning up in the boat and wishing for a cloud to come, give us some relief. We’re thinking about those chilly mornings of fall with the leaves falling and the lakes and rivers begin that progression to the winter weather. Nature triggers the fish that it’s time to go eat and start bulking up for that long cold winter. Normally it means great fishing and memorable days on the water.
Of course in Illinois this year as of the beginning of the second full week of October the weather hasn’t started to cooperate yet! I went to jump out on the water last weekend thinking man the daylight hours are starting to disappear the fish have to be starting to at least think about winter. I launched on the Illinois River in Marseilles,IL on October 5th. The water temperature was surprisingly still 72*. Of course I had smallmouth on my mind. With electronics up and running I began my methodical scan of an area close to the ramp to see if I could find any clues as to what the river might be up to right now.
I was pleasantly surprised to find shad. Lots and lots of shad. All schooled up. There was some breaking the surface and many more down in 10’ of water. So I was ready to have a good day. I ran upriver about 200 yards and set up to make a trolling pass pulling light lead head jigs with a small Keitech body. My plan was to run down river at .3 - .5 mph and run through that area to see if I could quickly establish what predators were with the baitfish and how aggressive they were.
My first and second pass yielded zero results. So I quickly moved to shore to make a casting pass up river throwing a Devil Eye Shad to shore. I thought maybe the smallmouth might be staging shallow near the shad but not actively feeding. After a thorough pass with a short strike and no other bites, I made one more trolling pass back down river pulling crankbaits. If the light option didn’t get any attention I figured for sure my sledge hammer might. Unfortunately no that wasn’t the case.
Quickly pulling up and heading up river to check another spot I quickly found another bank with more shad grouped up again in 10 feet of water. This time I went up river and began a crankbait trolling pass back down. This time a large sheephead decided that my crankbait was good enough to eat. After a long disappointing fight with the farm animal I had it boat side and quickly back in the water.
Starting to get the hint I went ahead and made another move to a shallow area to see if I could find a shallow bite. That spot also didn’t yield favorable results. With my limited time beginning to run out I spent some more time looking at different areas with my electronics before heading for the trailer.
I could definitely see that even though the calendar says it should be, the river is not yet into that full fall fishing frenzy just yet. The shad have made their moves to get grouped up but it doesn’t appear that the smallmouth have made their move to chase them just yet. With cooler temperatures finally forecasted I expect in the next couple weeks everything should be coming alive and we should be in for a heck of a transition bite before the full force of winter settles in again.
Until next time Tight Lines and we will see you on the water!