An Angler's
Paradise

STORY AND PHOTOS BY GARY THOMAS

Darrell "Buster" Culjan knows the Illinois River. He has been fishing it for more than 50 years, guiding on it for 22 years and selling bait and tackle to its anglers from his sporting goods store in Utica for the past 13 years.

Illinois' signature stream has a Danger field complex—it doesn 't get any respect.

"This was a catfish and carp river in the 1960s," he said. "But when they cleaned up the river in the 1970s, we started catching sauger. That was just the beginning. It's been a fishing paradise ever since. Fishing here is good from the time the ice breaks up in late winter until it returns."

Culjan's stretch of the river is the 25 miles from the Starved Rock dam west to near Hennepin, where the river turns south. He knows practically every sandbar, every hole and every drop-off in the river.

'This can be a tough place to fish for first timers unless they learn to read the physical features," he said. "Barges create deeper water and ledges and shelves where they turn in the river—some as deep as 30 feet. Once you locate the holes and drop-offs, you'll catch fish. Two things I recommend are a good river map and depth finder."

The keys to successful fishing, according to Culjan, are having the correct water temperatures, the right water level and stable weather.

"A lot of people think high water is bad, but that's not necessarily true," Culjan said. "High, dirty

Thirty years ago, fishermen mostly caught catfish and carp in the Illinois River. Today, anglers from throughout the Midwest flock there to catch walleye, sauger, crappie and largemouth, smallmouth and white bass.

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Fishing guide Buster Culjan holds an average-sized sauger that he took near Spring Valley. Culjan has been fishing the Illinois River for more than 50 years.

water is bad. If the river stays somewhat clear while rising, it's very fishable."

Here's how Culjan spends his year on the river:

Fishing begins the day the ice goes out. This can be in January or February, depending on the winter. Sauger usually are in 20 to 30 feet of water in holes or near the holes, and if the water isn't dirty, Culjan will be catching fish.

When the water temperature gets to 36 or 38 degrees, usually in early March, the fish start migrating upstream from near Peoria to spawn in the sand and pea gravel bars found in this part of the river. They move into shallower water, from 15 to 20 feet deep.

"We know where they'll move by the river level," Culjan said. "If the river is high in March, Starved Rock to Spring Valley will be loaded with big fish. If we have lower water, we'll find fish from Spring Valley to Hennepin. This is one of the best sauger fisheries in the United States—especially in March. There's probably no other place where you can make consistent catches of 2 1/2- to 3 1/2-pound saugers for an entire month—all the way from the Starved Rock dam to Hennepin."

Jigging is the preferred method, using fuzzy grubs and hair jigs with twister tails. Culjan recommends using a short shank hook with lots of scent. Prime colors are orange for dirty water, chartreuse for medium and a pink/white combination when the water is clear. If the water is real clear, he uses blue, black or purple colors. Lure weight is dependent on depth and river current—heavier lures for deeper fishing or faster current.

April also is when white bass fishing begins. The big females can weigh up to 2 1/2 pounds, and fishing usually is good for two to three weeks. As a rule, the best fishing is from mid-April to mid-May, depending on how quickly the water warms. Culjan recommends fishing in shallower water using

CPOs Chad Compton (left) and Scott Travi (below) check the fishing licenses of Brian Bjorkman, North Dakota (middle), and Ken Bjorkman, Wisconsin (right). on-residents are frequent visitors on this world-class fishery.

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jigs, small spinners and blade baits. Fishing is best in early morning or early evening.

June begins the catfish action. Culjan recommends using night-crawlers and liver early in the year and switching to stinkbait and cut-bait from mid-July through September. You can catch nice numbers of channel cats or really big blue cats.

August through October is crappie time. You'll find these fish clustered around bridge piers, barge tie-offs, along rocky shorelines and near fallen trees. Culjan looks for them in a minimum of 16 feet of water and uses small jigs.

White bass fishing picks up again in late August and goes through November. The best action comes during mornings in August and September, but you can catch white bass throughout the day in October and November. These fish will run from a half-pound to 1 1/4 pounds, with a few 2 pounders being taken. This also is when hybrid stripers start hitting. These fish average 5 to 6 pounds, but larger fish up to 13 pounds are not uncommon. Match blade baits to the size of the year's hatch of shad for best results.

In November and December, Culjan turns his attention to sauger again, trolling crankbaits on the bottom in 10 to 12 feet of water. If he has to go deeper, he uses gumdrop jigs on a three-way rig behind a heavy jig. As a bonus, anglers often will catch nice stripers using these same rigs. The thing to remember is that the colder the water, the deeper you'll find the fish. And you can find the fish until the river freezes over.

During mid-summer, Culjan says the walleye and sauger are found in deeper and faster water. He uses larger and heavier lures to reach the fish.

"We have had good fishing since the 1970s and that's good for the area's economy," Culjan said. "We can see that right here. Anglers come to fish for a day or two, staying in motels, buying gas and food. Some of them will bring their families, and they'll visit stores, buy gifts and go antiquing. This can have a big impact on the dollars coming into the area."

Safety is an important consideration any time you're boating, but especially so when you're in a major river. Keep an eye out for barges and stay a healthy distance away from them. Never cross the river in front of a moving barge, and be observant of the boat's wake once it passes. You also need to keep a watch for logs, broken buoys or other items floating down the river.

The river's current can play havoc with your boat. Make sure you understand the river's flow and how to boat safely while in a current. Avoid riffles on the water's

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surface. They often times are an indication of underwater obstruction. Boaters should also avoid areas immediately below or above navigation dams. Stay at least 100 yards downstream and a minimum of 200 yards upstream of any dam.

A good set of maps can be invaluable for anyone spending time on the Illinois River. Fishing Hotspots markets a contour map showing structures and holes for the river from Starved Rock to Hennepin. The map is available from DNR's Merchandise Section by calling (217) 782-1687. Navigation maps for the river are available from the Corps of Engineers. There also is a rough map of the river in a free DNR booklet titled Fishing the Illinois River. That booklet is available by writing: DNR Clearinghouse, 524 S. Second St., Springfield, IL 62701; calling (217) 782-7498; or emailing: Clearing@ dnrmail.state.il.us.

Culjan offers guided trips for sauger/walleye, white bass and crappie. He currently employs three guides and offers four, six and eight hour trips. Anglers can get rates and more information by visiting Cajun Sporting Goods at the junction of Illinois routes 178 and 6 in Utica, or calling him at (815)667-4222.

A River Returns The Des Plaines River joins the Kankakee River just a few miles east of Morris, forming the headwaters of our state's signature stream, the Illinois River. The river starts its run near the Dresden Island dam in Grundy County, continues almost due west to Hennepin, then turns to the south and enters the Mississippi River at Grafton in Jersey and Calhoun counties about 14 miles west of Alton. It's a total of 273 miles, with nearly 87,000 surface acres of river and backwater along the way. In the 1970s, the Illinois was just another dirty old stream. The river was an environmental nightmare— a recepticle for trash and industrial waste, choked with silt and a haven for polluting barge traffic. But work was underway to clean the river, and as the water cleared up, the fish returned. In fact, the river developed into a major league fishery, but one that remains largely overlooked and surely underutilized. "When I started working on the Illinois River in the early 1970s. sport fish populations were almost nonexistent," said Mike Cochran, Havana the Illinois River Project Manager for DNR's Division ol Fisheries. "The most common species we found in the river back then were carp and shiners, and they weren't healthy fish." Flash forward. "Things are totally different today," Cochran continued. "In a walleye tournament at Spring Valley last year, 225 boats brought in 1,386 fish weighing close to 3,450 pounds in two days of fishing. We had anglers from Minnesota and Wisconsin telling us they didn't have anything comparable to the Illinois River back home. They called it a 'world class' fishery." The significance of this fishery became apparent in the 1990s, when the Bass Anglers Sportsmans Society staged three SuperStars tournaments on the river at Peoria. Professional anglers like Hank Parker, Denny Brauer and Rick Clunn brought in big stringers of bass and described the fishery in glowing terms on national television. "A lot of Illinois anglers were surprised to see the quality and quantity of the bass fishery that was right outside their door," Cochran says. "Those tournaments were real eye openers." And the Illinois River is a lot more than just walleye and bass. The river provides a total package, including good populations of crappie, sunfish, catfish and white bass, and the fishery is good from one end of the river to the other. The Illinois River actually is a very diverse stream with numerous types of habitats. The river includes five locks and dams, beginning at Dresden, and including Marseilles, Starved Rock, Peoria and LaGrange. Dam tailwaters provide turbulent waters, attracting black bass and white bass. These same conditions exist where streams enter the river. There are numerous backwater lakes and sloughs with little current that are perfect for bass, sunfish and bullhead fishing, while side channels off the main river attract bass, crappie, bluegill and catfish. "The Starved Rock area gets all the notoriety, but there are nice populations of sauger below Peoria and below the LaGrange dam— areas that don't get much fishing pressure," Cochran said. Other under-utilized species of fish that are in good numbers, according to Cochran, are white bass, especially below the dam where the Mackinaw River enters the Illinois near Pekin, and the smallmouth bass fishery in the upper part of the river, from Dresden to Marseilles. "There is an excellent population of smallmouth in the upper part of the river," Cochran said. "Once you get down to Peoria, it switches to more of a largemouth fishery. The last couple of years have been excellent for largemouth bass in the lower part of the river. We had numerous 3- and 4-pound fish, which are big for river fish." Another river species that doesn't get much respect is the flathead catfish. These fish are large and are in good numbers. Channel cats are even more abundant than flatheads, especially in rocky areas below Dresden Island and below Marseilles dam. "The 1995 flood triggered a rebirth of crappie, and we're seeing nice populations of these fish," Cochran said. "The black crappie average 12 to 13 inches long, and good places include Snicarte Slough, Vermilion River and below the dams." The last 80 miles of the Illinois River present an interesting fishery influenced by the Mississippi River. What you find in the Mississippi will be in this section, and there are some excellent fishing areas, especially where streams like Otter, Little Blue Creek and Big Blue Creek enter the river. "The Illinois River is a modern day success story," Cochran concluded. "It's undergone a major transformation since the 1970s. If you haven't fished the river or haven't been on the river in the last 10 to 15 years, you're in for a real pleasant surprise." —Gary Thomas

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