Can’t wait to GO.

Three weeks and counting till Spring Valley. Can anyone out there report on the river water level? How much snow did ya-al get?

J.

LOL.. a new forum and you were the first to post Jon!… ya beat me…. I jumped the gun a bit too quick and only saw the mississippi board!…..

Ive never fished the Illinois… suppose I never will… but it will be interesting to read about it….

Well that didn’t take long! I knew we had a bunch of guys that fished the area so when Bob Kidd and the Illinois Walleye Trail approached us about adding the Illinois River to FTR….. we all thought it an obvious fit.

My guess is sometime today Bob Kidd will visit and fill everyone in on the current conditions and the recent happenings on the river. In FTR tradition, please extend a warm welcome to the moderators of this new forum, the Illinois Walleye Trail and its director, Bob Kidd! Its great to have you sharing with us here at FTR.

A bit of background info on the Illinois Walleye Trial (IWT).

They run tourney on the Illinois River as well as the Mississippi River. Below is the list of their upcoming events:

March 17, 2002

Illinois River

Tiki Inn 815-224-1109

Spring Valley

April 7, 2002

Mississippi River

Linwood Lynks & Resort 815-259-8278

Albany

May 5, 2002

Mississippi River

East Dubuque

Their payout structure pays $4200 for the 1st place team – $130 team entry (pre-paid.)

Anyone having further questions or interest in an IWT tourney should hop on over to their website at http://www.prairielandeyes.com/ and get ahold of Bob Kidd either by phone or in the FTR Tournament Forum. He’ll be sure to answer any questions you might have.

We’re looking forward to hearing more about this killer sauger fishery, seeing a bunch of pics, and sharing a ton of info!

Growth = education and I need all I can get, whether I fish the same waters or not. Thanks for the additional forum and Bob, when you get here……………WELCOME TO FTR!!!!!

:O) Love this place!

Welcome to FTR. You will love this Forum like we love the Mississippi River Forums. Alot of great info and sharing goes on with these forums. Can’t wait to learn more about fishing rivers from you guys too. Nate and Bill FTR Tournament Forum [Mississippi River] Moderators

I’ve only met Mr. Kidd two or three times, all good experiences. The guys who used to fish Team Walleye with him in the ILLinois division the last couple of years have had nothing but good to say about him, including my Tourney partner last year Tony Crites(who used to fish that division.) I can tell you the other directors respect him , too. I expect his Illinois circuit to pull big numbers and have a legitimate $3000. plus purse. Brian and I are are hoping to catch the last two late next fall. Guide bookings and local tourneys have all the rest covered, unfortunately. Lawrence

First let us say thanks for being a part of Fish The River Forums. We love the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. My best Walleye came out of Red Wing in 1990 10# 3oz. Pre fishing for the MWC and caught her on Friday am. By the way she went back in the river. We took pictures and measured her and had a replica made for the wall. The Illinois was cooperating in Jan and most of feb. then we got rain and it came up 4 foot and got muddy. It was just starting to get back in shape until this week and now we have had about 6″ of snow with temps by the end of the week into the high 40’s. Water temp is in the mid-30’s. We have several tournaments coming up over the next few weeks and will keep you posted on what the results are. Predator2, you are correct all your spots can be great when the bite is hot. We have started expanding the playing field and are now finding fish all the way to Peoria. Some of the best fall fishing is below Henry. In the next few days I will post some background information on myself and the Illinois Walleye Trail. Good Luck with the spring bite. Bob

Yo Jon—-Some guys that are on pool 14 that I report on, tell me that the bite on the Ill. (Spring Valley) has been strong all Winter so far !!!!!

You can get river conditions from:

water.mur.usace.army.mil

crh.noaa.gov/dvn/ahps/

Gofish

Kensyl Reading—–EFN ProStaff

Ol’ Miss Guide Service

Jon.

The river is still high and running dirt. It was starting to get good again and then the rains. We got 4-6″ of snow over the past couple of days. Calling for temps to go into the mid 40’s by friday. If we get a quick snow melt it won’t be good. Before that the fishing was good all month of jan. and until the water came up. Bob

Hi…

I was there on the weekend during the storm. If you were at the MWC tournament last year, the water level was about the same as then. Of course that’s before all the new snow had a chance to melt and run down there and they say flood conditions for the upcoming weekend. Sold my boat down there this weekend and met a couple from Missouri (the buyers) there. He shoveled the launch so we could put the boat in and boy once we were on the water (Sunday) we were kicking ourselves for not having our rods with us!!!!! It was AWESOME out Sunday…..so sunny and we were dying to fish. Ya it was incredibly cold but heck it was awesome to be on the water again! We were the only boat at the launch (Barto’s) Sunday….hmmm… I wonder why… just kidding, the snow was pretty bad I guess.

Good luck down there. I can’t wait to go back!

Jenn

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