Fox River Fishing Guides and Conditions, Illinois

About the Fox River

The Fox is the most fished river most people outside northern Illinois have never heard of. It runs down out of Wisconsin through the western suburbs of Chicago, past Algonquin, Elgin, St. Charles, Aurora, Yorkville and Ottawa to the Illinois River, and along the way it collects a chain of low-head dams, limestone riffles and rock gardens that make excellent smallmouth habitat. Millions of people live within twenty minutes of it.

Smallmouth are the reason to fish it. The stretches below the dams and the long rock runs between them hold good numbers and a real shot at a genuinely big river smallmouth, particularly in the reaches below Yorkville where the river opens up and drops through a series of ledges. Walleye have rebounded strongly and are targeted hard in the tailwaters in early spring and again in fall. Northern pike sit in the backwaters and slower margins, channel and flathead catfish work the deep holes, and white bass push up in schools in early summer.

The Montgomery gauge is the reference for the middle river. Low to moderate readings give clear water, defined riffles and comfortable wading below the dams; after a spring melt or a heavy Chicago-area thunderstorm the river browns out and rises fast, which is a good streamer and current-seam window for a couple of days and then becomes unfishable. It clears from the top down.

A safety point that matters here more than on most rivers: several of the low-head dams on the Fox are dangerous drowning machines and a number have been modified or removed for exactly that reason. Portage well around any of them and never fish from the face. Wade, kayak or run a small jet or jon boat; this is not big-boat water above Ottawa.

Access

Algonquin and Carpentersville: upper river dam pools and park access.
Elgin and South Elgin: riverwalk access and the Kimball Street area.
St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia: a chain of downtown parks and dam tailwaters.
Montgomery and Aurora: access at and around the gauge reach.
Yorkville: the Marge Cline Whitewater Course and the best-known smallmouth water.
Millbrook, Sheridan and Wedron: quieter lower-river ramps and canoe launches.
Ottawa: the confluence with the Illinois River.

Seasons

March and April: walleye in the tailwaters, high and cold water, then the first smallmouth movement.
May and June: prime smallmouth, white bass runs and comfortable flows.
July and August: low clear water, topwater at dawn, wade fishing at its easiest.
September and October: the best big-smallmouth month of the year, plus a second walleye push.