During the Covid lockdown of 2020 many of us, including myself, picked up a new hobby. Mine was being the next best blues guitarist and after that failed miserably, I decided to get back into fly tying. My wife bought me a tying kit a few years prior but never fully utilized it until lockdown. Had nothing better to do so I ordered various materials online and had a lot of duck feathers and buck tails laying around and spent my evenings making hodge podge flies and steamers and since all the state owned lakes were closed until further notice, I decided to take the 5 minute drive to the Kickapoo to test them out and see how they looked in the water. What color looked best? Weighted or unweighted? Synthetic or natural materials? These were the questions going through my head as I was standing along the bank stripping in my fly line. I was like a mad scientist tweaking and improving these Franken-flies. I would observe and study the baitfish I’d see at the creek and how the sport fish would react to them. There are various shiners, carp suckers, minnows, darters, shad that are abundant in the shallow waters I was fishing, and they would almost dance in the sun light. Flashy, quick, almost glowing, like a bolt of lightning across a late July Midwest sky. I finally came up with the perfect recipe for a fly design that I called the muddy minnow. It was made of a very lightweight synthetic material that mimics wool, it was small, hollow bodied, and unweighted. Had a silvery rainbow color that looked identical to the baitfish I’d see. I glued some eyes on it, and it was ready for the water!
I took it down to my usual spot and did a long cast into a deep pool. I let it slowly sink a few seconds and then striped the fly line in quick bursts and then boom! What I thought was a snag quickly turned into a fish peeling drag on my fly reel! He took me for a good fight and after a couple of minutes I landed him in my net. Couldn’t believe it, my biggest small mouth to date on a streamer fly that I tied not even 30 minutes ago! This is what sparked my obsession of chasing fish all over the Kickapoo.
All my childhood I always thought that the creek was full of nothing but carp and gar (which I eventually learned are a blast to fly fish for) but after I started to explore it I realized how healthy a fishery and ecosystem it is. The creek in some places reminds me of the driftless region of Iowa and Wisconsin where I trout fish. The more upstream you go the clearer and colder the water gets. Good solid gravel bottoms with excellent flow, perfect for spawning fish.
All along the Kickapoo you can find fast moving rapids with white bass , back Eddie’s with small mouth bass, slow moving water with channel cat, and deep pools with sauger. I love using my 4wt fly rod that can handle most of the fish but if I’m specifically chasing carp or catfish I’ll use a beefier 8wt rod. From march till about November you can catch fish all throughout the creek. I’ve caught almost 15 species of fish on the fly over the years while spending countless hours perfecting my casts and learning how to read the water. Not only do i love chasing sport fish but I love chasing the “rough” fish like carp suckers, gar, shiners, etc. which will gladly eat a conehead leach similar to how a bass will.
I haven’t found a fly that won’t catch a fish here, From crustaceans to invertebrates and baitfish to mulberries. the wide variety of food available shows how healthy and thriving the creek can be and why its import to keep it clean of trash, debris, and toxins. Being an outdoorsman I feel it’s very important to be a bigger conservationist. Educating and showing people how beautiful our creek is and how it’s important for Peoria county. Living 5 minutes from the creek is something I used to take for granted, now I cherish being so close to such a beautiful area! To end this blog, I’ll share a quote from Aldo leopold
“What was big was not the trout, but the chance. What was full was not my creel, but my memory”
Hope to see you on the water!
-Alex Reed