Midwest Fishing Report: Rivers around Chicago fishing

Dale, A Cook County Report: Water levels are up and clarity is down. River rised three feet in my neighborhood overnight Saturday into Sunday. It recedes fairly quickly as well, much of that water will be receded by the weekend. Before the rains I had been finding most of the Pike in deeper laydowns in the afternoons. Found a few in near shore and in shallow creeks. Throwing only big minnow lures and bucktails, and when put in the strike zone, deep into the laydown, you could basically call out your hits before they happen. The panfish bite has slowed down some, however seems to be only the bigger pannies feeding. Theyre mostly hanging around drop offs and sunny laydowns. I like using small hair jigs and tiny tubes, seems gold and brown colored baits are the favorable colors. I sent an example of a blue Gill. Fun little fish to catch around some current. Marcus Benesch River Grove, Illinois

Fall run sends a variety of fish up the river and it’s creeks supposedly. In the past week between Oswego and Yorkville there’s been smallies, largemouth, walleye, white bass, crappie and gills in either the river or it’s creeks. Sounds like a run. Ken G

River is up with the recent rains but not much higher than the normal flow for this time of year. visibility couple/three inches with stain to the water. Emergent vegetation is breaking free and flowing in larger quantities and leaves are falling and flowing as well. Smallmouth bass have been fairly active and for the most part taking aggressive retrieves. On the most recent outing the bigger sized fish had followed large quantities of minnows into the shallows and were feeding actively. You had to stay back and make a longer cast to avoid spooking them otherwise all you will see is a puff of sediment and a wake leaving the scene. I also found it was necessary to cast a bit farther out into the river and work the lure into the shallows in most cases. There were some that would hit a lure cast directly into the very shallow water the fish were in but generally it was better to work the lure in to avoid possibly spooking the fish. Norm

First day of the cold front and no word yet if anything has changed, rivers up north are starting to see some fall/winter Steelhead moving in* signaling the end of the fall salmon season. Lake trout and Browns will be entering the rivers in short order, some lake run Browns have already begun entering the rivers. Walleye fishing should be decent once the temperature and conditions stabilize, night time being the most productive.