Casting and soaking beauty: Early catch-and-release fly fishing trout season

BOURBONNAIS — As Ed Buric and I waded downstream on opposite sides of Rock Creek, he said, ‘‘If God ever designed a trout pool, this is it.’’

He’s right — down to the pools, riffles, rapids and eddies.

Rock Creek begins in eastern Will County and 25 miles later joins the Kankakee River in a gorgeous gorge in Kankakee River State Park. I rank that as a scenic destination with the Fox River bluffs near Wedron and the Dells at Matthiessen State Park.

While Buric and I appreciated the beauty, we were there to fish the early catch-and-release fly-fishing season. The regular inland-trout season opens Saturday at the usual spots (see the Midwest Fishing Report).

In the fall of 2014, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources tried an early catch-and-release trout season for fly-fishing at six sites in north and central areas. It was successful enough that the early fly-fishing season, opening two weeks before the regular season, is held at nine sites statewide in spring and fall.

Nearby sites for early fly-fishing are Rock Creek, Apple River (Apple River SP) and Pine Creek (White Pines Forest SP). All three are beautiful settings where you feel like you’re fishing a wild trout stream. I have mixed feelings about stocking non-native fish into streams, but it truly feels like fishing a trout stream.

Buric and I met at the Deselm Road parking lot, which was surprisingly full on a gray day in which snow/rain had been forecast.

Vultures floated overhead. My guess was a deer was hit and dead in a field. Deer tracks were imprinted in the mud of the banks.

Buric fished streamers, starting large and downsizing as the afternoon went on. I used a homemade imitation of a food pellet.

To say I was rusty would be too polite. But Rock Creek is big enough to be forgiving of my casting.

At one point a young guy rushed past toward the parking lot, saying he had caught ‘‘a couple of smallies and some small trout.’’

That encouraged me. At the next pool, I finally hooked a trout by a current cut swirling into the bank. It came unhinged before I could wave Buric up to witness it. That was it on fish.

Ed Buric

The chilling wind finally cut us short. It was time. Even so, we fished every spot on our way back.

In the parking lot, Buric said, ‘‘I learned another piece of water.’’

A beautiful stretch, too.

All inland-trout fishermen 16 and older, including those fly-fishing, need a fishing license and an inland-trout stamp. During the regular season, the daily bag is five.

Turkeys

Harvest during the first statewide youth turkey hunt over the weekend was down 14 percent (664 vs. 776) from the first season in 2017. But birds were gobbling. The second youth hunt is this weekend.

Navy Pier

The annual Henry’s Coho Derby on Navy Pier drew 43 participants despite northeast winds and 27-degree temperatures. Thomas Kocher won the rod-and-reel division and big-fish honors with a brown trout of 3 pounds, 12 ounces. Chris Kim won the powerline division with three coho weighing 6-6.

Wild things

Cold or not, more confirmed morel reports come from southern counties on the Illinois Morel Mushrooms Facebook page (facebook.com/IllinoisMorelMushrooms).

Stray cast

Five games into a baseball season is like a 13¾-inch largemouth in a bass tournament: Small differences matter.