Short trip to the Kankakee

Fishaholic · July 22, 2006, 04:09:51 PM

Drove down to the Kankakee this morning with the intent to fish one of my old haunts, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to my waders in the garage (something I'll have to attend to today)...I really could have used them today!

After this last storm we had I anticipated the river would be up, but I wasn't prepared for the problems I'd be faced with as far as shore access to the backwater areas...without my boots, shore access was extremely limited.

There was a mild wind from the North and the air temps were rather cool, but there was plenty of slop and timber begging to be fished. Basically, I fished 2 separate backwater areas, and 2 ditches, and worked fairly hard for the one dink I managed on a Snagless Sally, using a rip-n-drop retrieve - the fish grabbed the bait on the fall.

The mosquitoes weren't as bad as I anticipated, and it was a pretty enjoyable time for me, walking around my old haunts, even though I couldn't get to the are I wanted to fish without the luxory of my waders...but with limited access to prime water I decided to head for home and regroup; perhaps, I'll head out in a different direction later on this afternoon - the day is young.

Nature Notes: Watched several herons gliding effortlessly across the bayou, overhead a flock of ducks was staging up to come in for a landing, the swamp mallows are just now beginning to bloom and the cardinal flowers won't be far behind...shaping up to be a spectacular floral display in the marshes.

...all in all, still another great time down by the Kankakee

crappiehunter · July 22, 2006, 04:12:25 PM

Glad you got one at least and enjoyed getting out. We had a tough time on the river.

Fishaholic · July 22, 2006, 04:25:03 PM

...and I anticipated that you might, gotta fish backwater areas when the river's up.

kickinbass · July 22, 2006, 06:20:01 PM

marks right crappiehunter. area 3 and state line bayou would probal had produced. The area mark was in I would have fished also if i could get my boat in there.I need to check what the river height was today and what the flow was . Anyways always good to be on the water and what a beauty of a day it was

Creel Limit Zero · July 22, 2006, 08:12:05 PM

At least you got one Fish.

crappiehunter · July 23, 2006, 06:03:39 AM

Kick, the river is up so much that you can get to White Oak from the river. I've never seen it that high but I'm sure you have. I thought about pulling our boat into it but it is covered with weeds. Not sure if it was duck weed on the top or more. We fished the bayou that is just east of the railroad and the other one on the left. We were able to go way back into it. Here's a question I have about the bayous. Does it take a while for them to repopulate with fish? It seems like they were dead. No jumping, very little minnow action. We were marking some fish with our finder but not many.

kickinbass · July 23, 2006, 06:51:04 AM

crapppiehunter to answer your question Yes it does take time. Some bayous in the summer become dried up where you cant access them from the river. I dint bother fishing these bayous at all in the summer.Even when they fill back up. The spring is a different story. The fish will go into them bayous because of the warmer water. The key as you had stated was bait fish. If you dint see bait fish I doubt it holds much fish. I fish bayous that constantly has water running into it no matter what the water levels are. The one exception to this rule would be whiteoak Bayou because of its depth. Spending time on the river and knowing which bayous dry up and which ones dint really helps. Please keep in mind I might hit the first laydown in a bayou that dries up during the summer thats close to the river. Otherwise i wouldn't bother. Hope this helps.

Fishaholic · July 23, 2006, 08:10:59 AM

White Oak Bayou has water running into it even when the opening to the river at the boat launch is dried up...on the Northeast side of the bayou is a tube that connects to the river, I've never seen it dry at that point.

kickinbass · July 23, 2006, 12:25:26 PM

Yep Fishaholic that tube is what kept area 1 from drying up completely last year

crappiehunter · July 23, 2006, 12:43:14 PM

Thanks, another step in the education of crappiehunter to make him a Kankakee Bass fisherman!!!!

Fishaholic · July 23, 2006, 12:45:54 PM

sometimes there's an advantage to walking the shoreline...when White Oak gets tough to navigate by boat, it doesn't mean that fishing is done there, it just means that you have to be willing to walk through brambles and muck, and avoid one patch of quicksand to make it happen.

topcat · July 24, 2006, 02:53:47 AM

way to go Fishaholic....even with all of the water you still manage to catch one...thanks for sharing........

Topcat