Anyone out there fish the Dupage River in Illinois?

[Otter17]

I live in the Plainfield area and fish it, just wondering if anyone else on Bass Resource fishes it.

 

Thanks

[Scott F]

I don’t fish it as much as I used to. I live just a few minutes from it. The amount of filamentous algae in the river most of the time takes a lot of the fun out of fishing. 

It can still be great at times, but when that algae is loose and floating down stream, it’s just about unfishable especially at the southern end. 

[Otter17]

I totally agree Scott. It does get to the point of being unfishable. When it’s like that, I won’t even go out. We were a little lucky this June in that it had rained so much and the river was so high and dark, that it didn’t have a chance to grow early on. When normally it would have been bad. I was able to get in some good days.  But I didn’t see what it was like in July.

[Otter17]

Scott, when I wade the river, in the Plainfield area where I fish. There is a small forage fish by nearly every single good sized rock or boulder. They are all the same kind of fish. About

3-4” with a mottled brown/green color to them. There is just a boat load of them. But just one each behind their rock. 

 

I was thinking they were goby’s. But I’m not sure if the Dupage has goby’s.

 

Would you have any idea what they are? I want to make sure I Fish Baits that look like them.

 

Thanks man!

[I/MBasser]

Live a minute away in Naperville and just started this year.  But can't seem to find any good spots.  The West Branch is pretty shallow and it's tough to find any deep pockets from the bank.  I've caught a few tiny large and smallies and that's it.

[Scott F]

9 hours ago, Otter17 said:

Scott, when I wade the river, in the Plainfield area where I fish. There is a small forage fish by nearly every single good sized rock or boulder. They are all the same kind of fish. About

3-4” with a mottled brown/green color to them. There is just a boat load of them. But just one each behind their rock. 

 

I was thinking they were goby’s. But I’m not sure if the Dupage has goby’s.

 

Would you have any idea what they are? I want to make sure I Fish Baits that look like them.

 

Thanks man!

There are sculpins in the river that look like gobies.  One of the nice things about river fishing for bass is that “matching the hatch” is seldom important. Current means that a bass doesn’t have a lot of time to analyze the food that is drifting by. They have to make a quick decision to eat or let it go by.  If they are hungry, they won’t let food pass by just because it doesn’t look like other food they’ve been eating. 

[Otter17]

Excellent point Scott! Thankyou

[Scott F]

Here is a snake carrying a sculpin from the DuPage River.

 

 

[Otter17]

Awesome pic man!!! There is the evidence right there!

?? Those water snakes love their fish. Whenever I see one along the fox river, they’re usually munching on a Bullhead.

[I/MBasser]

Been out a few times this week.  Much better luck.  Caught about 6 the other day and another handful today.  Biggest was a 1.5# smallie.  Quickly becoming my favorite place to fish.  

[Otter17]

That’s Awesome man! ?? I want to get out this weekend, but I’m afraid the rain will have the river too high. I’m going to check it out anyway.

[I/MBasser]

6 hours ago, Otter17 said:

That’s Awesome man! ?? I want to get out this weekend, but I’m afraid the rain will have the river too high. I’m going to check it out anyway.

Earlier this week the river was pretty high and moving quickly due to the rain.  Water was pretty dirty.  I concentrated on the banks where there was less movement and had a lot of success.  Threw Black/Blue worms and craws.  Good luck!

[Otter17]

Thankyou I/Basser for that tip! ?