Friday 05/21

Fished the Illinois River this afternoon to check conditions. Water Temps were 68 degrees and water clarity improved as you worked North of Henry. Just north of Hennepin I had water clarity of 14 inches. Flow was around .8 to 1 mph. There is still some trash floating down stream as the water levels continue to fall and suck trash out of the back waters. Be careful navigating as some of the debris is large logs the same color as the water. White bass were schooled up and running shad near mouths of back waters boiling on the surface. We caught them on Bob's Distributors blade baits and Strike King Red Eye shads. Also caught sauger and walleye pulling #5 Berkley Flicker shads with leadcore. We seemed to catch more fish trolling downstream around 3.6mph in 10 fow.