Cress Creek Carp Fest

Look at the roiling carp trying to get through the fence to spawn in Crystal Lake.

I can’t remember when the fence was put up, but it was probably after the fish kill in, what, the late 1960’s or early 1970’s.

The Illinois Department of Conservation killed everything and a barge was brought in to harvest the dead fish.

Or, maybe, the barge used nets to catch all that could be caught and, then, the rest were poisoned.

Afterwards, Crystal Lake re-stocked, much to delight of area fishermen.

After I took my son to his last very short day of school, I decided to see what a couple of older kids were watching at the Main Beach outlet to Cress Creek.

Since there are no parking signs along Ringling Road between Lake Avenue and Broadway, I parked on the north side of Broadway near the culvert.

I walked down Ringling and crossed the very busy Lake Avenue.

That’s where I took these photographs.

The teens were gone.

At first I thought I was looking at some fabric waving in the rushing water.

It almost looked like it was shredded.

That didn’t make sense, so I looked more closely.

It was fish. Big fish.

There were several dozen of them.

They were in a frenzy.

Then I noticed some jumping onto the small concrete dam.

They were trying to get through the fence.

And they were carp.

I guess the strongest were leading the school, sometimes wildly splashing the rushing water with their tails.

But, they were unsuccessful.

I took some photos and walked back to the south end of the culvert under Lake Avenue.

There dozens of weaker fish were still trying to swim upstream through the culvert to Crystal Lake’s outlet.

Naturally, I took some more photographs.

Walking back to Broadway to my car, I saw more carp swimming near that culvert.

All were swimming upstream.

After spending some time at home, I picked my son and a friend up after South School was dismissed at 10:30 and we went on an errand to Fox Lake.

The hungry two got me to promise to take them to the Route 31 McHenry Burger King, which has a great indoor playground.

I told them afterward that I had something I wanted to show them at the Main Beach.

“What is it?” came the question repeatedly.

They pulled these clues out of me: it was animate.

“Is it a beaver?” Steven asked for obvious reasons if you are a regular reader of McHenry County Blog.

I told them it didn’t have fur.

More questions, but I wouldn’t give another hint.

There he and his friend played for, would you believe, at least three hours.

Fortunately, I had an early birthday present in the car—Ronald Reagan’s presidential diaries.

I picked 1987 and started reading.

These kids were hungry.

I could have eaten a meal at 1776 (without drinks) for what I spent on them.

Suddenly I realized it was 3:45 and I had promised the classmate’s mother he would be returned by 5 for his cousin’s birthday party.

And, they still hadn’t seen the roiling carp.

As we drove by the Main Beach, I saw a sign saying there was a battle of the bands costing $5 a person.

You know how cheap I am.

I was not about to pay fifteen bucks to see close-up carp at the opposite end of the park from the music.

So, I decided to park in Country Club Additions Property Owners Association parking spaces, but remembered that I hadn’t put the sticker on yet.

Since CCAPOA pays the Lakewood Police to check for illegal parkers, I decided to go home and put this year’s sticker on the back windshield, just to be safe. One parking ticket a year is enough, especially with the sticker’s giving me the right to park in our association’s private lot near a block from Cress Creek.

With the car parked, the three of us walked to the dam.

I saw nothing.

“What are we looking for?” my son kept asking.

I didn’t tell him, hoping he and his friend would discover for themselves in the stream.

After a while we got across the traffic-filled street, but saw nothing on the other side of the culvert.

So, I suggested we walk to the culvert under Broadway.

There we finally saw a fish, then two, maybe three.

Then, they wanted to take a look from the other side of Broadway.

Nothing there but water rushing downstream toward the Fox River.

But that was pretty much it.

Until we walked back to Lake Avenue.

Looking over the edge of the south side of the culvert, we saw two carp.

One was wiggling in place on the bottom, while another swam over it.

It looking like the bottom one was kicking up some mud.

Not knowing much about the spawning habits of carp, my guess is the stationary one was a female and the one above was a male fertilizing eggs that had just been laid.

But, maybe I just had too much imagination.

Then, it was back to the car, where I discovered it was already after five.

So, homeward bound we drove, arriving just a bit late for the family birthday party.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *