Winter Pike Float with Urban Assault Fly Fishing - Part 2

My buddy Dave (Urban Assault Fly Fishing) shot me a text message on Friday asking if I wanted to float the DPR on Saturday morning. I was in!

I was about 15 minutes late arriving to the launch, because, I had forgotten my waders at the house, so, I had to do a little back track. All this talk of "Geezers" is starting to get to me (Howard & Mel). It was sunny, and the temperature was in the mid 30's, the weather couldn't have been any better - Who am I kidding! It could have been 80 degrees outside, but with it being mid January, 30 is the new 80.

We floated a section that both of us haven't done before. It was a local part of the river, that I have shore fished extensively. It was really interesting and awesome fish places I couldn't reach from the shore. One of the highlights of the trip was floating under a major expressway in these parts, I-90. There were all kinds of things going on, because, this section was down the street from O'Hare Airport. Planes, trains, and automobiles surrounded us. 

Photo by: Dave

Here is the very same low head dam I posted about in my previous post about racing stick boats. The river seemed to be flowing at normal levels. The banks were icy and muddy. There was a lot of animal activity. We saw a group of 5 female deers, a huge red tailed hawk/owl (Debatable...we couldn't figure out what it was when it flew across river, but it was huge).

Dave was the only one to hook up. He was tossing an articulated double hook fly he tied the night before that had 2 tungsten beads, to help better work the deep pools. Sure enough this pike came from the bottom and took his fly. I had one strike on the day, and that pike was super lazy. It only went after my fly, because, it needed to play its predator role in the Eco system, but I did not hook up with that pike. It gave a half hearted tail flap/wave to me and drifted away.

Dave jamming on the pike guitar...and getting pooped on.      (Check out his knee. HA!)

Looking forward to the next outing!

Winter DPR Float

I have been itching to get out on the Des Plains River (DPR) 1 last time this year, and I finally got my opportunity. After my morning workout, I loaded up my kayak, and headed toward the river. When I arrived at the launch, the sun was out blazing, and it was a very warm 35 degree's outside.

Paddled up river quite a ways. Pretty much my 2nd workout for the day - I was exhausted. My gear was kept to a minimum. It was hard for me to only bring my 10 wt fly rod, and 3 flies. The first 2 minutes of my float back to the landing, I had a very nice chunky 25+ inch northern pike sort of lazily explode out of the water in a terribly failed attempt to strike my fly. It kind of seemed like it didn't want to go after it, but had to. Sort of how I most of us feel about work sometimes. Don't really want to be there, but need to be. I anchored and casted like a billion times into the same area, but no dice...or pike.

That was the most action I received fishing on my float. I did, however, see a female deer standing near the bank, and soon after that,  I saw a raccoon walking the bank. They were probably just enjoying the beautiful weather just like me. 

Not wanting to end this beautiful day with a skunk. I loaded up my kayak, and headed towards an area I can get a decent cast from shore with my fly rod, not to mention, the spot is always good for at least 1 pike. Upon arrival I was happy to find no one else was there. The last few times I stopped here, there were some characters I didn't get a good vibe from.

If you look close, you can see the fly, flying.

Nothing on Side A, so, I flipped over to Side B.

Graffiti under the bridge.

Side B had the soothing sounds of thrashing water I was looking for.

These pike have dirty mouths.