Brandon dam

[Fuma]

I plan on hitting the dam tomorrow with a friend at 7am.. I've fished the DPR from Wisconsin to the Hoffman Dam but I have never fished it that far south. I will post some pictures of what we catch.

[TheWoz]

Water is stupid high there right now. At 290. Normally it's 40-50. It could be different tomorrow but I highly doubt it it normally take 5-7 days after major rainfall to make it decent.

[TheWoz]

[Dan Sims]

Yeah man... I sure hope you don't get in the water.

[pikekid96]

it normally take 5-7 days after major rainfall to make it decent.

thats what i hate about rivers!

[TheWoz]

it normally take 5-7 days after major rainfall to make it decent.

thats what i hate about rivers!

It'll be weeks before its good. It's hit or miss. You canto down there on a drought and it'll be raging b/c certain sections of the dan are on. Or they turn them on w/o warning. Luckily for me the guys see me out there enough they'll step out and give me a 2 min warning.
In the beginning they didn't. Emcho can vouch. Water will rise in about 90 seconds and it's life scary fast Emcho n I got caught once in jan. we were holding onto each other to get out.
Fortunately when It goes up I only live 10 min away. It's a nasty spot to get caught in. Which stinks b/c it has nothing to do with weather and only the guys 2 blocks away co trolling g the buttons.

[Fuma]

So we had a nice time fishing the Brandon Dam. We got there around 7am. We started fishing on the North side of Brandon Rd on the West side of the River. First cast out in the current my friend nails a nice smallie on a small spinner. I fished the slack water from North of the bridge south to the shallow bay. No luck. I made my way back to where my friend was fishing just North of Brandon Rd. I switched to a #3 mepps trout colored with a white bucktail that i attached to the trebel hook. I was casting that for a few minutes when I started feeling hits.. as the lure got closer I could see the gar hitting the spinner but I couldn't hook him.. After 10-15 followers I was finally able to land one. After fishing there for a while longer we decided to go to the East side of the river. We could see a creek a ways North on the East side. We walked as close to the river as we could about a quarter of a mile and finally hit the creek. We seen a bunch of water snakes on the way both in the river and on land. First cast in the creek with the same trout spinner I hooked up with something big.. it was a nice catfish. Couple more casts and I was nailing gars left and right. My friend was using a small rapala and was catching them as well. We caught about a dozen gar, 4 catfish and 6 smallies. Along with a watersnake and the smallest snapper I've ever seen. All in all it was good fishing.. After fishing there for a couple hours we went somewhere in Minooka where we seen a bunch of 5' gar but couldn't get any to bite..

[Fuma]

i couldn't post most of the pix.. the upload limit is 3mb and most of them were bigger..

[Aux Pleins]

very nice work and pix

[WeEdLeSs]

I'm the friend that got the Smallie on the first cast, on a rattle trap actually. Thought we were gonna get into a lot more Smallmouth, but didn't. Was also surprised we didn't get any Pike. Has anybody got Walleye at Brandon?

[TheWoz]

I haven't heard of anyone hookin up with them there. That would be a hard area to bait it right. You guys looked like you were fishing Brandon road, which would probably be an easier area to bait them properly.

[Fuma]

Ya Woz, we fished from Brandon Rd north to the creek on the east side of the river. I've read that you fish there a lot..any advice would be appreciated. I'm thinking about fishing that area again this weekend. I had a blast catching gar. I had some monster followers in the 4' range. I'd like to hook up with one of them fuckers!

[TheWoz]

It's not too far form home...so i've hit it a couple times.
Those slack waters over by the duck blinds hold some real nice fish.wading under the bridge is good I've had a lot of nice hook ups there...(however not recommended until the water is back down)

If you want big gar hit the K3. I've been down there a few times in the last week chasing gar and there a lot bigger than the ones on the DPR. Im talking huge schools and meaty suckers! Would cost you about another 20 south minutes in the car past the brandon dam.Apparently thats where the state record is from. I went out for a couple hours last friday and just had a average 36 incher. Good fights.

[Fuma]

Woz, what is the K3? After we fished Brandon we went to a spot in minooka, I followed my friend and I don't remember where exactly but the river ran under the I&M canal.. We are planning on getting down there tomorrow at 9am.

[Afalconsvick]

KanKaKee, Fuma

[TheWoz]

Woz, what is the K3? After we fished Brandon we went to a spot in minooka, I followed my friend and I don't remember where exactly but the river ran under the I&M canal.. We are planning on getting down there tomorrow at 9am.

Down where?

[Fuma]

Down to the Brandon dam area. We haven't decided where we are going to fish tomorrow yet.