A fishing trip down the Iroquois River was planned by Dr. Charles Elder in 1883. This was of course a trip planned for pleasure, not sustenance. Planning this fishing trip meant packing up two boats and fishing gear and taking the railroad to Watseka, IL. Dr. Elder was traveling with five of his best friends, so these boats must have been of a larger size. Summer fishing trips were extremely popular at this time and one of Dr. Elder's friends, Noah Pike, even had a fishing and hunting cabin in McHenry County where many of Pike's friends would gather for outdoor fun.
No advertisements in the Pantagraph featured fishing boats, but the boats may have been locally built or built near the Illinois River at Pekin or Peoria. One catalog from that decade featured drawings of a man in fishing attire. Another catalog had drawings of fishing lures and equipment. Dr. Elder was of course a man of means and may have searched out the best equipment available. I am imagining the work that was required to make this excursion happen. The boats would have to be hauled to the railroad station in a wagon, foodstuffs, cookware and water packed, tents and fishing equipment packed, camping gear such as hatchets for cutting firewood and of course, cigars and manly libations.
The men were traveling on the Iroquois from Watseka to Kankakee and then all the way to Wilmington. As the crow flies, this was a journey of 70 miles. On a winding river, it is considerably longer. They don't mention what sort of fish they were hoping to catch but channel catfish, pike, blue gill, largemouth bass and walleye are found there now. On another fishing expedition, which included wives, Dr. Elder and friend Noah Pike were again of the party. It was noted that if they didn't catch fish, they would have plenty of PIKE. Noah Pike was known for his speechifying and bonhomie according to other snippets in the Pantagraph. I find it amazing that women in 1880 would agree to go camping in a tent for any length of time in the pursuit of pleasure! Imagine wearing the multitude of skirts, foundation garments and blouses that were worn at a that time! These ladies must have been extremely close friends to enjoy the confines of a tent for several days.
At that time, the Iroquois was quite navigable and had even been a major means of commercial transportation in earlier years. It was part of a colonial water route from the Lake Erie to the Illinois River according to one colonial map. The first Europeans to travel the Iroquois were De La Salle and Father Hennepin in the 1600s. (http://www.daily-journal.com/news/local/when-the-iroquois-was-a-trade-route/article_7c1e7049-af2e-5455-954c-068d70333885.html)
The entire Iroquois River Basin area was rather swampy and wet, so of course when farmers came, they immediately wanted to make the land arable and began trying to drain the land. The river is no longer navigable due to silting, a problem boaters and the corp of engineers are combatting on the Illinois River now, in an attempt to keep that river viable for pleasure boating. As Water Rat said to Mole: "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing--absolutely nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."