[Jay Teste]

Went out on Dupe WB in Winfield and West Chicago biking on the recently opened Prairie Path trail that now connects Winfield Mounds to the preserve at Gary Mills. Of course I brought my telescopic light fishing rod and a few flies. The path runs pretty close to all DP West Branch in that area and now access is way easier than before. The Dupe is very shallow in that area, with scarce 3' to 4' pools every mile. Even though, I could see an amazing amount of tiny smallies (most 7-10"), carps and panfish in the clear and shallow stream.

I was surprised the smallies were very territorial with panfish trying to get at them...it seemed like they were watching their eggs, fries or fingerlings...but in mid July? I thought this would happen by mid May or early June. Anyway, I let the smallies alone since they seemed easy prey and went for the gills this time. There were large schools of them, and they make a fun fishing day. The gills were beautiful, large and colorful. A good sign for the river besides all the construction along its shore. Gills were biting my flies even before they sunk 2". River is pretty low here and they're hungry.

[wsj_outdoorsman]

Boy that had to be a fun addition to a bike trip. Nice gill

[jmdog]

Pretty sunnie! Sounds like a fun trip

[Any Luc]

Quote:

I was surprised the smallies were very territorial with panfish trying to get at them...it seemed like they were watching their eggs, fries or fingerlings...

Hybrid bluegill such as that one are very aggressive fish and much more prone to eating small fish than a pure bluegill might be.

[chuckt]

Really nice bluegill in the photo. Yeah, I like to use my 3 wt fly rod and a small popper on bluegill. They hit like they are 4X their size. Hybrid bluegill? What? Now, I gotta learn about them. I only knew of 2 types; the big ones and the small ones.