Lifelist fishing double date

It's not very often that a lifelist fishing double date occurs!  Our friends Josh and Joy Leisen were passing through Illinois on their way to Wisconsin for a wedding, so I took them to Sandy Creek, one of my favorite Illinois fishing spots.  The day after their friends' wedding, Ruoxi and I took Josh and Joy to a couple more fishing spots in Wisconsin and near the IL / WI border.  We had a great time!

Sandy Creek has large numbers of colorful red shiners and spotfin shiners.  The red shiners were new lifers for Josh and Joy, and they were very happy to each catch colorful specimens.

Red Shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis )

Spotfin Shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera)

We caught a handful of other species, including this bluntnose minnow and golden shiner.  The golden shiner is a new species from Sandy Creek for me, so that was cool.  I think I'm getting close to 40 different species from that one short stretch of the creek.

Bluntnose Minnow (Pimephales notatus)

Golden Shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas)

Two days later, Ruoxi and I took the Leisens to a spot for bigmouth buffalo.  Josh and I each hooked one, but we didn't have a landing net and unfortunately lost them at shore.  While Josh and Joy diligently tried for more buffalo, Ruoxi and I moved upstream to catch a few catfish and carp.  Ruoxi racked up quite a few new lifers at this spot!

Black Bullhead (Ameiurus melas)

Brown Bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus)

Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)

Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio)

Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus)

Bowfin (Amia calva)

Next we stopped at a microfishing spot and had a picnic lunch.  We saw a bunch of minnows in the water, but they refused to bite.  Lunch was good though, so we were in good spirits.  We continued on to a small river near the IL / WI border.  This spot is great for sunfish and micros.  Ruoxi accidentally caught this colorful northern sunfish, which was quickly released unharmed.

Northern Sunfish (Lepomis peltastes)

Other sunfish were in good numbers too, and we got to see a good variety of them.

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)

Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)

Josh and Joy took their own photos, and I'm sure they'll post up a report sometime.  We had a great time fishing with them, and can't wait to do it again!

Sunfish of Sandy Creek, IL

Yesterday I took a break from trying to catch alligator gar and made the short drive up to Sandy Creek to fish for whatever was biting.  Sandy Creek has a couple lifers that I'm hoping to catch eventually (suckermouth minnow, mud darter, and banded darter), but I just wanted to catch whatever was biting rather than spend the day hunched over trying to catch those elusive ones.  I set up at my favorite pool where this baby swallow was hanging out.  I showed him the fish I caught, but none of them impressed him.



I caught nice examples of the different sunfish in Sandy Creek.  It will be nice to have these pictures for future reference.  Bluegill were particularly aggressive in the center of the pool, and green sunfish would slam my worm whenever I cast near the rocks and fallen wood near shore.  The big surprise of the day was longear sunfish!  I've fished Sandy about a dozen times and never caught a longear until yesterday.  I caught around half a dozen of them, with the most colorful one shown below.  Super cool!

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)




Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)


Longear Sunfish (Lepomis megalotis)


Juvenile bass were all over the place.  Every now and then I'll see an adult, but rarely any lunkers.  I hope the people who fish the Illinois River realize how important Sandy Creek is as a spawning grounds for the bass they like to catch.

Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu)


Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides)


There were a few juvenile carp mixed in as well.  Of course I'd rather they not be in here, but I released all the fish I caught because killing a few individuals wouldn't put a dent in their population.

Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio)


Towards the end of the day I put on a Tanago hook and did some microfishing.  There were plenty of shiners eager to bite.  I caught some brilliantly colored spotfin and red shiners but didn't take photos of them because they were coming home for my aquarium, and I didn't want to stress them.

Sand Shiner (Notropis stramineus)


Emerald Shiner (Notropis atherinoides)


Blackstripe Topminnow (Fundulus notatus)

In addition to the longear sunfish, I also saw gizzard shad in the creek for the first time (which is no surprise, given how close I was to the Illinois River).  Adding those two species to the list of fish I've seen in Sandy Creek puts the new total up to 37.  Sandy Creek is one of the most diverse bodies of water I've come across in Illinois!  As you may remember from one of my earlier posts, there is an industrial hog factory proposed to be built adjacent to Sandy Creek.  Please join the fight to stop it before it's built!  The link below is for the Save Our Sandy facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Our-Sandy/461381980658934