The Cost of Progress

A favorite fishing spot of mine was on a small stream not far from my house. There was a natural pool of deeper water backed-up below a bridge/culvert. It was a fun little place where you could cast some worms out and within minutes be catching everything from bass, bluegills, bullheads, carp, crappie, creek chubs, to green sunfish. It was also home to turtles, herons, and a host of other wild critters. 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year, a road construction project involved significant “landscaping” of the existing streambed. I was fishing there and one of the construction guys told me they were going to totally alter the creek. What was once a deep pool became a rocky riffle. And the fish that used to reside there disappeared. The cost of progress. I created a little before and after picture just to show the vast difference.

 

 

 

 

 

During construction, I had found a secondary spot that was great for catching bluegill and sunfish.

Seems like a lot of fish had moved upstream to that spot, which also became decimated due to more “re-engineering” in the course of the construction project. The thing is during summertime, the main creek is less than a foot deep in most places. There are very few deep pools around and even fewer that hold a target-able population of fish. So, while there are still plenty of fish in the stream, it was a shame to lose two great spots where you could easily catch a dozen or more sunfish within a half hour.

I love a good road trip, so when I'm planning fishing excursions I'm frequently tempted to go to places that are one, two, three hours away. The Mississippi river, the Rock river, Kankakee river, etc. You forget how convenient it is to have a nice stream close to home you can just grab a rod and head over to. That's a main reason that I do most of my catfish trips to the river that's 30 minutes away. You learn a lot by fishing the same streams at different water levels...seeing how fish related to the current and hang out in different places depending on the flow. There a lot of lessons to be learned over time fishing local rivers and streams.  

Funny how some spots seem the same year after year while other spots can undergo radical change within a relatively short time-span. That's one thing with streams, they are always changing. It's just this time the changes were sudden and man made. Guess the moral of this story is to enjoy those honey holes while you can and always be on the lookout for new spots. You never know what’s the future may hold.