Ben Cantrell's fish species blog: Northeast Illinois in a day

Last Sunday Ruoxi and I had another fishing double date, this time with our friends Miciah and Carly. We microfished the Des Plaines River at a couple spots below the Brandon Rd Lock & Dam, hoping to catch the invasive oriental weatherfish, but all we could find were bluntnose minnows, mosquitofish, round gobies, one Johnny darter, and one tadpole madtom. Cutting our losses, we threw out some worms and caught a few bass (and more gobies) before moving on.

Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu)

Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides)

Next we fished the Kankakee River below the Wilmington Dam. The public park here was really nice with plenty of shore access. After losing several rigs to the rocks, Ruoxi and I gave up trying to fish for bigger fish and switched to microfishing. Ruoxi picked up a couple easy lifers this way.

Logperch (Percina caprodes) - new lifer for Ruoxi

Spotfin Shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera) - new lifer for Ruoxi

Blackstripe Topminnow (Fundulus notatus) - new lifer for Ruoxi

Miciah and Carly had to get back to Michigan, and Ruoxi had to get back to Wisconsin, so we parted ways after having dinner at a little diner in town. On my drive back to Peoria, I stopped at the Mazon River to take advantage of the evening bite. I set up under a bridge with two rods rigged with small circle hooks and redworms and waited. The bite was fairly steady, and I was pleased to see so many different species without switching spots or techniques. I wish the Mazon was a little closer to home!

Northern Sunfish (Lepomis peltastes)