Kayaking the Kaskaskia River, Randoph County, Illinois August 21st, 2011

Kayaking the Kaskaskia River Illinois

This put in spot for the Kaskaskia River is right next to Baldwin Lake in Randoph County.  I had set out on this trip not only to get some miles in, but also to get some fishing in as well.  The river has been channelized (I believe they did that in 1969) so there is the main channel, and a ton of old river channel going in all directions.  My friend Ray and I had made an attempt in the winter to access the river at this point, but this area was frozen over at the time, so I was grateful to finally have a chance to paddle this spot.
The main channel has a ton of ski boat/ pleasure boat traffic on the weekends.  I was able to navigate through this with the kayak.  It was fortunate that the put in area of the river is a no wake area.  I paddled across the main channel and followed the original channel until the end of it.  The place is TEEMING with asian carp.  If you watch the Youtube video below, watch very carefully when the jon boat goes by.....you can see a couple of them jumping out of the water on the back end of the boat.  I had one jump out right by the kayak (I was throwing a rat-l-trap lure real fast in hopes of snagging one of them- I scared one right by the yak)
This is an interesting river....I would say that the attributes are more like the Mississippi River than a small stream (same kind of river fare in regards to the fishing).


This would be a river I would like to continue to explore.  I think we could do some major miles on this going into the fall and winter.

Paddle ON!

Mike

Lake Baldwin, Randolph County, Illinois February 13th, 2011: Nice 5.75 mile paddle on the ever-warm Lake Baldwin

Here is a video of our Sunday paddle trip to Lake Baldwin, Illinois.  The power plant does a nice job keeping the lake non-frozen all year, so it was a great trip for this year.  This lake gets INCREDIBLY windy....I felt like I was paddling on the sound in the Outer Banks.  The lake is topographically higher than the surrounding land, so when it gets even a little wind, it really wips up.  I always enjoy spending time with my good friend, Ray Schroeder.  He has some great tips about Kayaking, and I learn something new every time I get a chance to paddle with him
I got a chance to use the GoPro Hero camera with the mount, so if you like to kayak, I think you will enjoy this video....probably a little lengthy for a paddle video, but I think it turned out good- hope you enjoy it!
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Paddle ON


MLT

Just

Baldwin Lake, Kaskaskia River Wildlife Area, Randolph County, IL: First Kayak trip of year- lake not frozen due to power plant

Baldwin Lake, Kaskaskia River Wildlife area, Illinois

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Great first kayak trip of the new year. Really, really enjoyed getting out and re-acquainting myself with the sea kayak.  Ray Schroeder came by with his kayak trailer and we hit it.  Originally, we were trying to find a ramp to get on the main channel of the Kaskaskia River, but all the access points were in sloughs, and thus the water was frozen.

Life is better in a kayak!

Mike