April

Here are the month of April fishing reports.

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FIRST OF THE YEAR

4/17/14

PRY12 - 7.50ft. @ 1650 kcfs

Finally snatched my first smallmouth of the year after 5 previous attempts this early Spring season with no luck. Hit a trib to the Kish and tossed a tube along some timber in a slow moving deep pool.

The fish hit hard and I set the hook. It usually takes me a few misses to land my first of the year but not this time. One hit and hook-set, FISH ON!

I bought a new camera earlier in the week, and I guess I have to get use to how the Timer works.

The camera took a picture of me after my pose as I stood to release the fish back to the water.

Picture botched. Sorry.

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4/18/14

PRY12 - 6.65ft.

 Stopped down to the crick for a little "fish from the bank"  shore fishing before work.

Once again things started of slow. I hit three slow moving pools along this stretch. 

I got a nice tug on my line in the first pool but failed to hookup. 

I moved down-stream to the second pool and still no action.

The water clarity is clear and I could see a tree stump on it's side in a 

fast running bottle-neck. I tossed my tube just up a bit from the stump

and let the fast moving water drift the tube right up against the stump. 

I did this a couple times with no luck. As I was pulling the tube from the 

water, I thought I saw a flash as the tube broke out of the water surface.

I tossed the tube back and twitched it a couple times when BAM!

FISH ON!!!

Don't get too excited, it was only one of those long (17"), slimy, stinky Northern Pikes.

I hate those toothy snakes. 

It was getting close to time to leave for work so I grabbed my gear and 

headed for the last pool. Again the action was non-exsitant. I kept looking at

my time device and telling myself "Last cast then I gotta go."

Over and over again I repeated this until finally.... BAM!

FISH ON!!!

It was not the biggest smallmouth (11") I have ever caught but it was a smallmouth and

it did put up a tremendous fight.

I went to work a happy and satisfied man.

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4/19/14
PRY12 - 6.85ft. @ 1,020kcfs

 Had a fun day while doing a solo float on a little Kishwaukee River tributary that I like to visit this time of year. The plan was to float down-stream of my put in and nail a bunch of smallies, and then paddle back up-stream and take out, all in about 3 hours. 

Well, things kind of started off a bit slow for me as I could not get any hits at all on the tube. 

Time was beginning to slip away from as I had no hook-ups in the first couple hours out.

I was thinking of calling it a day and start my paddle & wade back up-stream to the car.

Screw Dat!

I jumped back into the kayak and headed down-stream some more to an area that I believed had to produce.

My original plan was to hit this area, but the bite being as slow as it was, it just took me too long to get to the point where I was at.  I just wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to going that much further.

BOY AM I GLAD I DID!

As I got closer to the area I wanted to hit, the bite picked up in a big way.

I nailed 2 that were in the area of 13 inches, 4 slightly over 15 inches, and 2 @ 17inches.

All come on the tube. 

The day ended up be pretty fun and I sure did enjoy being back on 

the tail fins of those smallies.

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4/26/14
PRY12 - 6.35ft.

SMALL SMALLIES ON A FLY

My good pal Jim contacted me and wanted to team up and hit the south branch of the 

Kishwaukee River on a fly fishing wade. We met at Deer Run Forest Preserve around 10:30am.

After a few minutes of chat and gearing up, we stepped foot in water and began to 

wade down-stream. The fishing was tough on this day and it took us quite awhile

to hook into a fish. Jim got it all started by landing this feisty little guy....

Jim would land three smallies before I could hook into my first of the day.
This would also be my first Kishwaukee River smallmouth of the year....

We ended up spending the entire day (about 8 hours) wading up and down

the south branch of the Kish. It felt great to to be back in the water....

At the end of the day we ended up with something like 7 1/2  smallies.

Jim had his 3, I had 4, and there was another little guy that jumped off my hook in mid-air before

I could grasp it with my hand (GET IT IN THE BOAT!) so Jim says it doesn't count.

This is MY blog and I disagree, so I will count the fish as a half.

(I just don't want anybody to think that there's half a smallie swimming around in my Kish.)

It was a slow but enjoyable day. 

I expect the bite to pick up on the Kish in about 2 more weeks. 

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4/28/14
PRY12 - 6.40ft.

COLD & WINDY DAY

Well the heavy rains seem to be holding off for our area. I had to get out

and try to hook into a few more smallies before the rivers get blown out from a

storm that might move through the area and decide to dump some rain on us.

With the river level flowing at an inch above what I consider to be safe, I decided to

stick to walking the banks and nailing a few pools on the north branch of the Kish.

The first pool produced one (1) smallmouth that probably would have taped 

around 10 inches if I had gone to the trouble of measuring it.

The second pool awarded me with two (2) nice smallies with the largest 

going just a hair over the 15 inch mark, for a total of three (3) smallies for the day.....

All fish were caught using a Texas Rigged, GM Tube in a greenish/brown color and a 1/16 oz weight.

All smallies released.

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4/30/14

PRY12 - 6.73ft.

Stopped down at the crick before work again today.
Did a solo wade up-stream to hit a few good producing pools with
the tube I had tied onto the end of my line.
The first pool didn't produce.
The second pool coughed up a little 11" smallmouth and
the third pool showed me nothing either.
Tried tossing around some top water while at the third pool.
No luck.
It was getting close to time to head into work so I started
heading back down-stream to hit a couple bridge pylons before I leave.
Picked up this bad boy that taped @ 17' with a tube on about my 3rd. or 4th "last cast".

17 inches of HELL

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Year to date outings -  12
Year to date smallie catches - 19

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<*(((>{tjd