A shot of the Pike River at the Bridge at 13th Street.

The water is, as they say, gin or vodka clear. Not to mention the fact that it's the bottom of the bottle too!

Another shot of the Pike from above, Highway A is in the background.

Further in the afternoon, it shouldn't be called the Root River, but instead the Lincoln Park Duck Pond.

11-29-02 - No fish ANYWHERE!

Rivers Fished: Pike & Root Rivers
Fish Caught: 0
Outing Date: 11-29-02
Weather: mostly cloudy
Air Temp: 40's
Water Temp: I would assume very cold, much ice
Water Level: low
Water Color: pike clear, root stained
Fish Species: NONE
Pattern Fished: Various Nymph Patterns
Pattern Color: Naturals
Fishing Quality: NONEXISTENT

Yet another, and possible the last for the season? If you like reports of frustration and 0 fish, this one is for you!!!!!!! Of special note, this weekend I changed up from my traditional wolley / ESL offerings and started nymphing, back to a dual rig (large double-beaded stonefly above, smaller krystal-flash based caddis type below). As no fish were sighted, I went with drifting the deeper pools I could find.

Got out around 1:00 pm and hit the Pike at A. Focused most of my attention at the bend directly at A, as the weather is colder and the fish are "supposedly" holding in deeper, slower water now. Saw nothing, got nothing. Did take a jaunt below A and sighted two very crudded up Coho; found one more above between A & 13th. Very nasty, death's-door kinda fish.

Well, around 2:00 I headed south, keying in on my prior week's luck at the mouth of the Pike. To my surprise I found that the entire flood plain was frozen over, with just the very tip of the mouth open. Water was flowing IN from Lake Michigan, not the other way. 4-6 foot swells told me to skip this area altogether, so I headed north to the Root.

Looked like the weather had been just a touch warmer in Racine, as there wasn't any ice on the Root. Took a walk around Lincoln Park, looking but not sighting anything. I spent a while working the tailout of the first pool below the wier down though the riffles, but again sighted nothing and hooked nothing. Again, looking for deeper water here but honestly I don't think there's really any deep slower water in Lincoln Park. Several people were out, but I saw no fish taken.

Decided around 3:00 PM that I'd head upstream; a look at Horlick dam showed no one there, so I dropped in. Met up with one fellow angler who reported that a young kid had taken a "25 lb steelhead" from the dam, and that he felt there was nothing left there. He also reported sighting a couple "fresh coho" and "steelhead" by Quarry Park. Well, we both went downstream from the dam, I stopped probably only 1000-1500 feet downstream, turned back up, and went back to fish the pool immediately below the dam. Again, got another report of a "bright red fish" jumping, which would be a male coho, and yet again I saw nothing, and hooked nothing. I left, rather discouraged, around 4:00 PM

  MP