I am looking for any info on fishing spots around 55 and the Kankakee river for smallmouth fishing. I am new to fishing the river and looking for any help. Thanks.
Desplaines river access http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/hu ... dspmap.pdf I have used the hunting maps for reference as they show a little more detail. Kankakee River – DesPlaines Conservation Area Reference map on attached link • Areas 30, 27, boat launch up to railroad bridge have very limited wading opportunities – mostly bank and boat fishing. • Area from above Railroad bridge up stream to Miliken Lake offer wading opportunities with water getting shallower as you proceed upstream from the railroad bridge until you reach Prairie Creek. Public access is all on the north side of the river. • Access below I-55 o Follow road to boat launch, park in Picnic area parking lot by restrooms and follow path upstream. River becomes wadeable as you proceed upstream from RR bridge. The farther upstream you go from the bridge, the farther out you can wade. o First trap range – nearest Interstate 55. Park in parking lot, cross over river road, look for paths and follow to river • Access above I-55 o First turn-in on River Road east Of I-55. Park by gate, follow path to river o Prairie creek / Miliken Lake. Turn into Miliken Lake off River Road. Park along Prairie Creek or park in parking areas at Miliken Lake – follow paths to River. Water gets deeper as you proceed upstream or out from Prairie Creek Kankakee River – Wilmington area • Wilmington North & South Island Parks. All access is in parks on east side of river. Park in Parks in parking areas along river. No wading only in millrace – shore fishing. Wading opportunities on the river from dam downstream to Mud Turtle Island ( large Island downstream from RR Bridge). Use extreme caution around dam! DO NOT WADE TO DAM! Down stream of the North Island Park, Forked Creek enters on the east side of river downstream from the RR Bridge. Deep areas begin on west side of river across from Forked creek. You can wade down past the Island on the east side of the river
Kankakee River State Park http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/hu ... bearer.pdf Reference map on attached link Parts of the entire Kankakee State Park are wadeable with stretches of deeper, non wadeable water on both sides of the river. There are access points on both sides of the river throughout the State Park. In General, the deeper stretches are downstream near the boat launch , but there is deeper , unwadeable stretches through the park. Access below the County Line RD ( Warner Bridge) • Rt 102 – north / east side of river. o Park in designated parking areas along rt 102. Follow blacktop bike trail and look for paths leading down to river o Park in campground visitor parking lot. Walk through campgrounds to river and look for paths to river o Access to canoe launch at Warner bridge on east side of river • Rt 113 – south / west side of river o Boat launch near area 9. Mostly deeper non wadeing water here. Need to walk up stream till water becomes wadeable o Hunting area parking lots – although there are access points from these parking areas, they become quickly hidden as the vegetation grows in, but there are numerous paths off the horse trails leading down to the river. The exception is hunting area # 7 which has fairly close access to the river – follow trail out of parking lot to river. There are also several paths along the horse trail leading to the river in this area. Thes ares are indicated by a dotted red line on the attached map. Access above the County Line RD ( Warner Bridge) • Rt 113 – south / west side of river. o Fisherman’s parking lot, on west side of river right near bridge. Wade upstream along river. o Hunting area parking lots, one access along horse trail, brings you to the west side of the river across from Rock creek. From here you can follow the horse trail upstream and downstream for many access point to the river o Hunting area 2. Follow road down to river to trap range. Access to river from trap range parking lot and downstream access along horse trail. • Rt 102 – north / east side of river. o Access to canoe launch at Warner bridge on east side of river. Follow blacktop bike path upstream and follow paths to river access points or wade upstream along river o State Park – Rock creek concession building. Access paths to rock creek, follow / wade creek to river. Caution! Swift water area in river. o Follow bike path downstream. Follow paths off bike path to river. o Main Park area up to Island View parking lot. Park in designated parking areas. Walk to river – many access points from parking lots and bike path. Many more public access points upstream for you to discover on your own, but this should get you starte. Remember to always respect the river and the water. Not many do it, but it is always a good idea to wear a Personal Floatation Device when wading until you become knowledgeable of the area you are fishing. As grindstone also pointed out, it is always a good idea to check with one of the river gage sites to find out what the river elevation and flow is. This will help you to learn when it is safe to wade and where you can safely wade for the current river conditions. Good luck and be sure to post your experiences and share with others.
The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything;
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there is also the Rivals Park ..... more or less in Richie ....... nice little park ...... has a small boat launch and offers shore fishing and actually has very few people that use it. It is more or less straight accross the river from Custer Park.
It's always open. Just no dock in the water yet. No problem though as there is some soft ground to nose into a few feet off.
It is not always open. It is closed from the start of the pheasant season till they re-open it in the spring. Access to the ramp is blocked until they re-open it in the spring. They are usually quite late getting the ramp re-opened as they usually wait until the threat of spring flooding is over. With things the way they are this year they may have it open. If I get a chance, I will drive over , check, and report later would hate to see someone drive down for nothing because someone reported it was always open.
The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything;
they just make the best of everything they have.
I have launched there about 5 times since mid February so it has been open a while. Are you sure they close it for pheasant season, as I know I was there in late November as well and remembered to observe distance from blinds.
Danpat, If they didn't close it this year it would be the first time. In the past, they closed the ramp right before they opened the area for pheasant hunting. They would drag the dock up and block the access to the ramp with it, put up a cable and post it as closed. They usually never opened it up until very late in the spring. No big deal. Just didn't want someone to make a trip for nothing.
The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything;
they just make the best of everything they have.
For as close as I live to the K3, I have never fished it before. Aside from trying to wade it this year, I just picked up a 14ft flat bottom jon boat, with a trolling motor and 6HP gas motor I'd like to take out. My question for you, is with the current etc. on the kank, do you think this rig is under sized, or as long as I use discretion (don't fish high water, high winds, etc) that I would be ok? Also, if pushing around wouldn't be a problem, how are the rock hazards? Any hull-wreckers waiting just under the surface to keep away from certain stretches?
Most likely fish from Wilmington / Channahon down through Custer Park or K3 State Park off of 102 / 113.
The K3 has about a 4 MPH flow. After a rain it is anybody's guess. If you have any doubt about power launch your boat and have someone hold onto a long length of line. If you do not have enough power your friend can pull you back instead of you drifting down stream looking for another launch area which could be miles and a long walk back.
If you have enough power to overcome the current great. Drift back to the starting point and pick up your friend. Now slowly move up stream learning that section of the river, where the shallow spots,logs,rocks channels all are located.
It is a great river with many places to stop and observe nature (and fish of course) and let the worries just drift away for a while.
I have a big 16ft jon boat...... I use a 9.9 and have no trouble at all in normal river conditions. so I would think a 14 ft jon with a 6hp pushing should not be an issue for you providing you do as you say about avoiding high water/winds.
That being said the K-3 is a semi tricky river so until you are very sure of depth GO SLOW and dont lock down the motor. I fish primarily around the Custer Park area.... I live on the river and where I live the shallowist part is dead middle of the river. Ask questions if you see someone at the launch..... most all fishermen are happy to help a fellow boater about river conditions (although they probably are not gonna give out info about their personal honey holes
Yak Man. I run a go-devil shallow drive and can run through 10” of water. I have also waded all of the River in the State Park for over 40 years so I know where the channels are and where I can run safely and where not to even try. With that being said I lot of what / where I fish wouldn’t apply to anyone fishing with a conventional motor, even a small hp. I’ll offer what I know and make some suggestions about fishing with a motor in the State Park.
There is no practical water you can motor around at the canoe launch just below Warner’s bridge.
Even with a small hp motor, it really won’t make a big difference how far up or down stream you can motor from the launch at rt 113 launch at the north end of the park. The draft of a small boat will let you go a little farther but once it starts to shallow up for a conventional motor, your basically done. If you know the area, you may be able to get out and with your motor up, walk your boat / pull your boat to deeper water where you can run your motor again, but I would caution you against doing this unless you know the area, and while it may not be too bad walking it down river, it can be a bitch pulling it back up against the current.
Hopefully this link works, if not, go to Yahoo Maps and put Smith Islands, Will County, IL In the search, Put it on satellite view and you will see the area I am referring to. The islands are about 1.3 miles upstream from the boat launch. During higher water periods, if you run the east side of the river, Smith Islands are about as far as you can practically go with a conventional motor and it can take some doing, and you cannot run just anywhere. You can also get yourself in spots that can take some effort to get back to water where you can run your motor. If you look at the satellite view of the area and look down steam of the island, the light colored bar downstream of smith islands is a huge sand bar. If the water is up just a little, you can sometimes get to just upstream of that sand island on the east side of the island. During normal/ summertime water conditions, you will not get anywhere close. Normal summer time levels you will only be able to get several hundred, maybe 500 yards up stream of the launch. Downstream, if you scroll on the map, you can get to and around the first big island downstream. If you know / learn where to run, you can run down to Custer Park. I have never boated downstream of there so I can’t help you beyond that. In any case when running the Kank with a motor, trolling or gas, make sure you have spare props and spare parts ( nuts, shear pins,keeper keys/pins, cotter keys, whatever works with your gear) and tools to change them. Drop a prop nut or a needed part in the river while changing a prop and your spare prop won’t do you any good. While during normal levels / flows you can move your boat upstream against the current with an electric trolling motor, you usually have to run it on higher speeds and will quickly run your battery down. Plan on using your trolling motor only for maneuvering, never COUNT on it to get you back to the ramp. It is usually easier to fish an area by anchoring up or beaching the boat and wade or bank fishing then fight the current with the trolling motor. If you have a fishing partner, one of the best ways to fish the State Park is to float the river. You can put in upstream at Langhams Island ( Island View parking lot) at the upper end of the State Park or at the canoe launch just downstream of Warmers Bridge. You can float from Island view to the canoe launch, or from the canoe launch to the boat launch along rt 113, or from Island view all the way to the launch along rt 113. Lots of good / great areas to fish. Areas where you can drift and cast, anchor up, or beach on islands and fish around them. I just usea bow mount electric trolling motor when drifting down stream. A foot controlled bow mount works best for manuvering You need to drop off a shuttle vehicle at you downstream pick up point. If you are by yourself, what I have done is had my wife or son follow me. We drive to the pick-up point where we leave their car and they ride with me to the launch point. After I launch, they drive my trailer back to the pick-up point and leave the vehicle with the trailer and take their car home. We live close so this is practical for me. Make sure you / everyone has their own set of keys for the shuttle vehicles. One of the biggest problems with floating the river or fishing the river with a bow mount trolling motor is running into obstacles while the current is pushing you downstream. The force of the current can easily bend / damage your trolling motor when you run into shallow water. This can easily be resolved by placing a block of wood under the positioning arm to keep your prop just under the surface. This way your motor is not locked down, you can usually set it much shallower then with the depth control knob, it is much easier to fine tune the depth so your prop is just in the water and you don’t have to keep changing the depth you usually have your motor set at. The prop may cavitate a little but it will let you maneuver the boat without worry of bottoming out as the boat will usually start bumping bottom before the prop hits anything. When you want to move upstream against the current, you can just lift up the motor, pull out the block of wood and drop it back down where it is set to your normal depth and it will not cavitate.
Doing a float trip is also doable with a set of oars. I would suggest if you do the oar thing, pick a day when its not to windy, and only do a half float, Island view to canoe launch, or canoe launch to rt 113 launch Some pics of trolling block set up for bow mount
Some distances between access points and river locations when planning a float, boat or wade trip in the State Park.
For some reason I couldn't get the spacing to work so the first distance is from the launch at route 113 to the location. The second distance is between spots. • Smith Island / Mary Byron 1.3 mi 1.3 mi • Area 7 islands 1.9 mi 0.6 mi • Warner Bridge 2.8 mi 0.9 mi • Willow Bar / Rock hole 3.8 mi 1.0 mi • Bluffs 4.0 mi 0.2 mi • Rock Creek 4.3 mi 0.3 mi • Devil’s Hole 4.7 mi 0.4 mi • Area 2 Island 5.0 mi 0.3 mi • Willow Island 5.2 mi 0.2 mi • Langham Island 5.6 mi 0.4 mi • Power lines 6.5 mi 0.9 mi • Davis Creek 9.4 mi 2.9 mi • Bourbonnaise park 10.5 mi 1.1 mi
Good luck on the river. I look forward to hearing your reports and adventures. Please share what you learn.
The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything;
they just make the best of everything they have.
