New lifer hunting in Illinois

This is a post I never took the time to write, so I'll post something temporary as a placeholder.  I've been continuing my new lifer search in central Illinois.  A good spot I found is Sandy Creek, which is across the Illinois River from the town of Henry.  I've caught and seen dozens of species in this creek, and recently I caught my first smallmouth buffalo from one of the deeper pools.  It was quite a fight on my 12 foot crappie pole rigged with 4 lb line.  Expect to see a few more lifers from Sandy Creek in the future, because I know they're in there!

Smallmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus) - new hook & line species #112


My other adventures have taken me to the eastern side of the state.  My micro searches have been tough with the hot weather and stagnant murky water that often occurs as a result of it.  Periodic rain is crucial for keeping these streams clean and clear.  One of my trips took me close to Kickapoo State Park, where redear sunfish have been stocked in some of the strip mine ponds.  I found a nice quiet spot on a side channel of Sportsman Lake to fish for sunfish.  After a few expected bluegill, I caught my first redear!

Redear Sunfish (Lepomis microlophus) - new hook & line species #113

More exciting material coming in future posts!

Illinois River backwaters

And we're back!  I've moved to Peoria, IL to start a new job.  I'll miss Madison and the fishing around south central WI, but now it's time to look forward to what's next.  Peoria sits on the Illinois River, which is in rough shape but also offers some new opportunities.

Illinois River cons - Asian carp invasion (silver, bighead, common, grass), perpetually muddy water, and limited shore access, especially at its lock and dams.

Illinois River pros - Cool backwater spots, good populations of species that will be new for me (smallmouth buffalo, black buffalo, longnose gar, skipjack herring, gizzard shad, river carpsucker, highfin carpsucker, grass carp, goldeye, redear sunfish), and a DNR that has a positive view of native species and is currently reintroducing alligator gar and redspotted sunfish (among others) to the river.

Today I met up my friend Brad from work to check out some Illinois River backwaters south of Peoria.  I was hoping to encounter some of the species listed in the pros section above, especially the buffalo and gar.  We encountered muddy water, some amount of submerged wood, little to no vegetation, and lots of mosquitofish and minnows hanging around the shoreline.  Every so often we would see a gar surface for a breath of air.  They looked like shortnose and spotted, not longnose or alligator.  Fishing was slow.  Worms on the bottom produced one bluegill and one largemouth bass.  A small silver and orange Mepps spinner caught this small spotted gar.

Spotted Gar (Lepisosteus oculatus)

Unfortunately, despite a few hits and momentary hookups, Brad wasn't able to get a gar to shore.  Expect to see a picture of him holding one in the future though!  On the way home, we stopped at the Powerton Cooling Lake in Pekin.  I set up Brad with my micro gear and he quickly caught a big female mosquitofish.  He is now officially a microfisherman, haha.

Western Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)

July 4th Madison Species Competition

Two days before I moved to Illinois, Ruoxi and I decided to do some urban fishing in Madison for old times' sake (old for me anyway, relatively new for her). One of my favorite spots is the Yahara River between the Rutledge St bridge and Lake Monona. A lot of fish will come into the river from the lake and stop to hang out under that first bridge. There have been days in the past where I've caught 10+ species there.

Ruoxi, being the good sport that she is, agreed to a species competition with me. The water was cloudy green, which is not uncommon for summer and meant most of our fishing was blind. We baited up our hooks and right away I took the lead with the first species!

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) - species #1 for Ben

Right away Ruoxi tied things up with a surprisingly dark green sunfish.

Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) - species #1 for Ruoxi


I kept catching bluegill after bluegill, and meanwhile Ruoxi took the lead with a handsome rock bass.

Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris) - species #2 for Ruoxi


The contest was not looking good for me at this point! Ruoxi continued her sunfish slam with a small but colorful bluegill.

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) - species #3 for Ruoxi


We moved down to the mouth of the river where it empties into Lake Monona. By casting out to the spot where the river water slows down and mixes with the lake water, I was able to find a dinky yellow perch.

Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) - species #2 for Ben


As we moved back up the river my luck began to change. With a rock bass in hand, the contest was now tied up!

Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris) - species #3 for Ben


We crossed the bridge and fished among some larger rocks. I suspected that we'd find one of my favorite sunfish there, and sure enough we quickly each caught pumpkinseed.

Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) - species #4 for Ben


Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) - species #4 for Ruoxi

Ruoxi had a nice smallmouth bass on the line momentarily, but it shook its head and tossed the hook. We fished for just a while longer, and finally the tiebreaker ended up being this tiny green sunfish.

Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) - species #5 for Ben


Sometimes it's the simple trips that are the most enjoyable. Thanks Ruoxi!

Warmouth, blackside darter, other micros

Today I spent a few hours at the same spot featured at the end of my May 26th post, a tributary of the Fox River near the IL / WI border. The water was higher than usual, which turned out to be great for fishing. I'll keep the report short this time and focus on the pictures.

Blackside Darter (Percina maculata) - new hook & line species #110


Warmouth (Lepomis gulosus) - new hook & line species #111


Northern Sunfish (Lepomis peltastes)


Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) - juvenile, I almost thought redear sunfish for a second


Spotfin Shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera) - spawning male


Starhead Topminnow (Fundulus dispar) - male


Other fish I saw included lake chubsucker (future lifer), longnose gar (future lifer), northern pike, grass pickerel, largemouth bass, bluegill, green sunfish, black crappie, yellow perch, northern logperch, rainbow darter, and common shiner. Later I tried Lake Michigan for a few oddball species, but only came up with the ever present round goby.

Round Goby (Neogobius melanostomus)

Northern redbelly dace

With only a few more weeks left in Wisconsin, I'm going to try to track down a few of the northern species that won't be available in Illinois.  They include northern redbelly dace, pearl dace, finescale dace, longnose dace, redside dace, central mudminnow, alewife, and several others.  Of course I won't find all of them, but it would be nice to check a few off the list.  First up is northen redbelly dace, which I found in a tea-stained stream coming out of Goose Lake south of I-94 by Lake Mills.

Northern Redbelly Dace (Chrosomus eos) - new hook & line species #109

Shovelnose sturgeon

Last weekend I went on a canoe trip on the Wisconsin River with some non-fishing friends. We launched below Sauk City, camped one night on an island, and arrived in Lone Rock the next day. I had no particular ambitions for fishing, but I always try to take advantage of opportunities, so I brought two rods to set up in rod holders on the beach. Each was rigged with a three-way swivel, 4 oz pyramid sinker, and a small octopus circle hook. This is my favorite large river rig when I do not want the rig to bounce along the bottom. Half of a nightcrawler was my bait. The bite was slow and steady, and fortunately I had plenty of time to sit and wait. Bells on the ends of the rods would let me know if anything exciting happened. The first three fish were shorthead redhorse, the largest being 17 inches. The next fish on the line fought differently; when it was still 30 yards out it jumped in the air, shaking its head vigorously as it splashed back into the water. Definitely not a redhorse. I must have had a pretty big smile on my face as I got the fish close enough to shore to see what it was. Shovelnose sturgeon! I knew one of these ancient fish would be at the end of my line eventually, and fortunately that night was my lucky night.

Shovelnose Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) - new hook & line species #108




As the sun set, the bells rang a few more times. I caught two more shorthead redhorse and three channel catfish. The redhorse had brilliantly red tails and fins.  I think the group enjoyed seeing some new species of fish.

Johnny darter

Yesterday I made a quick visit to Otter Creek northwest of Prairie du Sac, WI. The creek has several species that I'd like to track down. Unfortunately, the downstream stretch of the creek was too muddy to fish. I continued upstream into the hills of the Baxter's Hollow State Natural Area. Here the creek was clear and cold, flowing over large rocks. The only fish I found here were creek chubs. I was hoping to encounter longnose dace, but if they were present the creek chubs didn't give them a chance to bite. I headed back to the bottom of the hills and found a bridge where the water was still clear but flowing over a sand bottom. I expected Johnny darters in this habitat, and sure enough I spotted a few small ones sitting out in the open sitting on the sand. These juveniles were too small for my micro hooks, so I continued looking around, finally finding a large adult hiding among submerged wood. He took the bait immediately, becoming my #107 lifer!

Johnny Darter (Etheostoma nigrum) - new hook & line species #107


I believe this individual was a male based on the dark pelvic fin, dark nose, and faint vertical bars. A few minutes later I caught an even darker individual, definitely a male.



On my drive home I noticed one of the reasons the downstream stretch of Otter Creek is muddy. The creek runs though several dairy farms after the bridge where I caught the darters. Dozens of cows were standing in the creek, one of which was doing her business in the water as I drove past. I'm sure the cows enjoy the creek, but it's unfortunate for the fish...