Flooding scrambles Illinois River sauger schedule

So much for sauger season on the Illinois River. Flooding has caused the rescheduling of numerous tournaments scheduled for next weekend and has kept anglers from hooking into what had been a promising group of spawning sauger.

Next Saturday’s FLW Walleye League tournament out of the Spring Valley Boat Club has been moved to Aug. 1. The FLW cites flooding and unsafe conditions on the Illinois River as cause for moving the event. Entries will automatically transfer to the new tournament date unless anglers notify FLW Outdoors and request a refund or transfer to another tournament

Also switching dates is the Carpenter’s tournament out of Barto Landing that has been bumped back to April 18.

And Bob Kidd’s Illinois Walleye Trail event set for March 22 will be held April 19 out of Barto Landing. The parking lot is currently underwater at Barto and Illinois Route 89 is closed.
“I think you could catch fish in the parking lot,” Kidd said. “It’s a shame, because I think we would have seen some awfully good weights this spring. Now we probably aren’t going to see those big females until next year.”

At present the MWC tournament is still set for March 28-29 out of Spring Valley.