I Miss the Apple

It’s July and the weather is hot. Big surprise! 

Lake fishing in July is pretty slow. The fish move to cooler, deeper water. You have to catch them near shore in the very early morning before the sun warms the surface.

Our solution has been to try something different in July. For many years that has been the Apple River in the northwest corner of Illinois.

The Apple flows from Wisconsin through the Driftless Area of Illinois and eventually to the Mississippi. The area, untouched by glaciers, is hilly, scenic, and exposes many limestone bluffs. It isn’t a great place to farm, but it is fun to see.

We found the Apple because Paul had read about it in a fishing magazine. That was over 20 years ago. The cool stream is home to small mouth bass. Smallies are found in other streams in Illinois, but the Apple is remote and not heavily fished.

I wrote in an earlier blog about our first trip there, which was in October. However, the Apple became our go to place for adventure in July. The hot weather wasn’t a problem when you are standing in a cool stream.

The river was low in July, so even the deep holes are not above our knees. Dressed in shorts and big hats, we could easily wade the Apple and avoid getting too hot in the sun. Equipment was minimal and we carried needed tools in our pockets or around our necks.

The trick was finding a way into the river while wearing shorts without walking through nettles and poison ivy. Robert opted to wear waders. The rest of us followed Robert and pushed down the weeds with our feet and fishing poles. Luckily we didn’t get too many scratches.

We would wade about a mile before we got out at the next bridge up the road. The wade upstream in the heat was difficult, but the stunning scenery was in the shade where we would stop and fish the deep near the bluffs. The hardest part was walking the mile back in the heat.

The fishing was relatively good for us. We got bites on Rooster tail spinners and other small lures. This worked pretty well for the first July trip.

Subsequent trips were mainly just Don and me or Paul on occasion. It was on trip with Don that I discovered the crawdad soft bait was the smallies’ favorite. Don found a deep hole just downstream from where we walked into the river. In that deep hole were hungry smallies. We wore out the few crawdad baits I had.  At the end of the day we tried to locate more, but there were none to be found.

After that trip, Don and I stocked up before we left. We had a great time catching fish, and didn’t have to wade very far to do it.

The Apple River trip takes a long drive. Even with longer days, it really takes an overnight stay in a hotel to make the trip worthwhile. The overnight also involves eating at restaurants and or bars.  

All of us are in our 70’s.  Covid 19 has put a damper on all that for this year. Maybe it will be better next July. Maybe.