Okay, you just show up on time and I'll have everything ready for you. How do you like your coffee?

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over here on the Mississippi. I am a river rat with alot of walleye years under my belt. our bite has been in full effect for a month now but is about to be over for a few weeks as the river hits flood stage. We also fish the illinois river as its a ridiculous sauger fishery.

I may have to hit you up for some river tips. I spent my entire life fishing lakes. Everywhere from Kentucky up to Minnesota and Ontario. Walleye, Pike, Muskie you name it. Here I haven't spent a lot of time but all the fishing close for those spur of the moment days are rivers.

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it can be intimidating. flowing water is much different than standing. my 2 biggest tips are that essentially fish are looking to get out of the fast moving water so they are easily concentrated typically and follow the bait.

we target slack water areas that we think are holding bait. alot of time while fishing from shore, the fish are coming 10' in front of your feet. in the boat we use electronics to find bait balls. fish are there usually.

Yeah. I also used to fish a lake in Wisconsin that actually was a flowage I guess? Had a deep river running through the bottom/middle. Used to tie rigs with a three way. Going to try that as well here.

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we 3 way rig all the time from the boat. its harder from shore. from shore i 3 way rig with 2 twister tails.

from the boat i do 3 ways 2 ways.

1 - 3 way swivel - 18" dropper with a 2-4oz weight and then 2 floater stick bait in a row on a 36" leader

2 - 3 way swivel - 18" dropper with a 3/8 - 5/8 oz jig with some sort of plastic on it and a 36" leader with 1 floating rapala.

the 2nd way is perfect when the fish aren't really telling you want they want. the 1st is the best when the water is cold. both are not castable so from shore i just use 3 way swivels with 1/8 oz jig heads one 12 " leader and one 18" leader and 2-3" twisters.

Got skunked the past couple days after work. Just found some pretty shallow, random spots out in the country. The bass were feeding on top but didn't bite on anything I threw out.

Tried a brush hog, some Berkeley worms, a small spinner, and even went tiny Mister Twister last night but still nothing. Water's still cold.

Saw some bucket fishermen coming up as I left.

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Where on Mississippi? (Roughly - not trying to get creepy)

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pools 14,15,16,17. QC pools mainly.

First catch of the year. Average-sized LM on a 5" worm. Landed him at about 10:00 in some real shallow brush. Soooooo slow... probably let him dick with it for 30 seconds before setting the hook. The water's still cold as shit.

However, they were so active on top at sundown, I actually put on a hula popper (wasn't optimistic) just to see. But yeah, no luck there.

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Cmon.... nothing?

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

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Watch it to the end

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Fished Lake Galena all week. Slow early, but as the temps picked up, it actually got really good for April. Bank fished a few spots and took a boat out today. Overall, probably caught 12 LMs and a couple bluegill. None of the bass were very big. And, as is always the case, my wife inexplicably caught a decent-sized walleye on a nightcrawler. She is the Lovie Smith of fishing... but it's cool to see her get one, and she loves it when she outfishes me (which is most of the time).

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Been killin' them this month. Killed some crappie a couple weeks ago and been catchin' bass left and right this week on local ponds. PM me and I'll tell you what lure I'm using for 5 bucks. Make the check out to Webio.

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been clobbering bass on prerigged worms and squarebills.

took the kids out on the boat hoping to catch a few gills on a backwater harbor on the miss. one of the kids casted her rod over the end before i could put a bobber on it. as i'm dealing with the other kids rods, she reels in a small walleye. i told her to do that again, while i continue to get the other rods ready. she caught another one. i put jigs and twister tails and half a piece of crawler on everyones rod and taught them to vertical jig. we caught probably 40 small < 12" walleye/sauger and 5 keepers. the fish would only bite when the piece of crawler was on. about 15' from the launch dock. okie dokie. went back the next day myself and clobbered em. river came up and they moved out.

Great posts! I love reading this stuff.
I can't wait until The Chaunce's new outdoors section kicks off!

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Host of the weekly "We Fish ASA" podcast
Weekly columnist for the Northwest Herald
Bi-monthly columnist for Illinois Outdoor News magazine
Former host of The Outdoors Experience on WIND and The Great Outdoors on CLTV
http://www.wefishasa.com

Sarley, you got any advice for smallies on the Fox or Dupage?

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Dirty District!

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Nice!

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Just N. of Rt. 64 in downtown St. Charles there is a lot where you can park and wade right in above the dam and bridge. Go out about halfway and just float a nightcrawler down toward the dam. If you go early in the AM you're almost guaranteed to get one. I think.

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Soccer 1,2,3
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"Smiles with Nostrils"

"...no Hmong, go find some blacks"

tubes tubes tubes. lipless rock it as well.

lol. hell yeah.

Lipless, huh?

I've never been a big river guy. I use a lot of lipless cranks in deep waters but never a river.

Any recommendations on type?

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10-4

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we fish the rock river here. its super shallow on our stretch. i've caught more smallies off lipless than anything quite frankly. my preference are rat l traps. chrome. i also like the clacknraps but i swap out the goofy hooks. i also use the cotton cordels because they are like 3 bucks. those other 10 dollar ones aren't worth it when you can lose them too easy.

Gotcha. Love Rat L Traps. Will give that a try.

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If you've got a little current, try a minnow a foot under a slip bobber tight to the shore.
Just keeping The Chaunce's seat warm until he gets here.

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Host of the weekly "We Fish ASA" podcast
Weekly columnist for the Northwest Herald
Bi-monthly columnist for Illinois Outdoor News magazine
Former host of The Outdoors Experience on WIND and The Great Outdoors on CLTV
http://www.wefishasa.com

Any opinion on lakefront spots for shore fishing? I only caught stuff at Montrose. Burnham, Monroe, fullerton, diversey, all were are a giant waste of time.

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"It's not exactly a rocket surgery." D.J.

Great night tonight. I went down to a very shallow portion of the Dupage and was thinking this wasn't gonna work well... next thing I know, my texas-rigged worm is getting destroyed every time it hits the water. I caught a few rock bass and then finally after a couple hours... it hit... HARD. I was using light tackle, but I knew this was a huge smallie. It took me a good five minutes to land it... was probably a 4 or 5 pound smallie... wow, what a fight! I'm hooked on rivers, man. I will be buying some waders this weekend.

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