John Gillio

I enjoyed that. Thanks for sharing.

Exactly my sentiments, Jonn. I will be surprised if the river opens by spring or any time soon.

Very nice flies Tom.

Nice Eric. I always like the special effects.

I agree with Jude and Norm. He will not drop it on the fishes head, so I hope the fish is looking the right direction.

I heard through the grapevine that contaminants were found during the testing back in August. What they were I was not told. The source of the contaminants was unknown. An article in the Ottawa Daily Times recently suggested that a slag pile and some ponds that were contaminated with various acids, and once owned by a defunct fertilizer plant, could leach or spill into the river if the water were to rise that high. It was suggested that if this were to happen, it could cause a fish kill as far as ten miles down stream. I don't know if there is any connection. As far as I know , the last reported fish kill on the lower stretch of river was back in 1988. It was during a low water period and affected the the river from the mouth to about a mile upstream. I witnessed that mess as it was happening. Heavy metals were the killers, dumped by a company not from the area. It killed thousands of fish. Most were rough fish, but I saw some huge catfish, smallies, walleye, and a 17 pound muskie that were killed. Very sad and in a few days very smelly.

Thanks for the input guys.

Just wondering what members go to spinning rod would be for hunting our midwest smallies (length, power, action,etc.). Also, do you prefer fishing from a boat, canoe, kayak, shoreline or wading?

It would be a twister tail for me, as that is what I throw most often.A 1 1/2 inch pearl tube jig has been the most productive by far for multiple species, but I rarely focus on smallies with one.

Thanks Scott, that answers that.

It was a good article. Nice to see mention, in such a large publication, of the work done by many of the ISA members to improve and protect our state's smallmouth streams. Did IN-FISHERMAN talk to one of our Officers, or did they take notice of the ISA in one of the fine publications put out by the organization?

Just baked some Asian Carp. Almost as good as the fried batch. Had it with some winter squash (from the garden) and the last of the garden lettuce.

I hate to see Albert go,but it's not the end of the world for the redbirds. As you say, more money to shore up an already good, fairly young, team. Berkman and first base have always gotten along. The outfield should be solid with Craig out there. That extra cash could help solidify the pitching staff. I can still see the birds being a contender even with the two big changes.

Nice site Terry. If I ever get up your way I would be honored to join you in a riverdance. I get that same feeling every time I'm on the water.

Speaking of bear spray, a bear was spotted in putnam county a number of times two years back. It was later found wintering in a culvert. It was captured and I believe was moved to somewhere in Wisconsin. Last year a number of people along with the county Sheriff spotted a mother bear and two older cubs. As far as I know they are still at large. I work in Deer Park Township. Early in the year ,a fellow I work with, and a farmer in the area stopped two guys in a truck that were acting suspicious. It turns out that they had some sort of tracking device. They said they were trying to locate one of three wolves that were missing from a pack they were tracking. I believe they called it the Mid Illini Pack or something of thet nature. I have spotted what appeared to be wolves at least three times over the past few years. They were much larger animals than the many coyotes I have seen. I almost always carry pepper spray when I am out alone just because of a few eppisodes with dogs.

At about this time last year I posted "animal tracks " in the "Off the Hook" forum, after taking pictures of what seemed to be cougar tracks along the Vermilion river near the Big Bend conservation area. Since then I have shown the pictures to a couple of fellows that do alot of hunting out west. Both of them immediatly asked where I got the picture of the mountain lion tracks. In my post , the photo on the left is a cougar print taken from the internet. The print on the right was taken by me. I have lines drawn from one to the other comparing the toe placement. Both fellows told me I was comparing a right foot to a left foot. They both seemed quite sure of themselves. I wish I would have cleared some of the debris off of the print I took the photo of. It would have been easier to see. There have been many reports of big cats in the area over the past ten years or so mostly from along Covel Creek west of Ottawa, the Starved Rock and Matthiessen Park area, and in and near Catlin Park. I have spoken to a number of people in the area who have seen them a number of times including a park ranger who actually saw two of them together at the edge of the park. I also talked to an officer who has seen them late in the evening along the roadside. He says he expects he will have video of one someday as his car is now equiped with a mounted camera. I did not state this in my last post, but the reason I became interested in the big cats is because I saw one in 2004 about a month before the one was found shot by an arrow. It was just before daybreak and was crossing the road in front of me not more than half a block away. It went down the trail I was going to take, to get to a fishing hole. I decided to fish elsewhere that morning and have been a bit edgy about fishing alone in the early or later hours of the day ever since. I have seen two bobcats in the area in the past. This was no bobcat. I would put it close to 125 to 150 pounds. I have little to no doubt that they are alive and well in our state.

Awesome rod colt. You do some fine work.

A look into the mouth of a silver carp.

Manny, it sounds like a good idea. I wish you luck.

Brac, I wish I could help ,but I have only fished that area a couple of times.

Ryan, I have a 7 wt. Ion that I picked up this year. I messed up my casting arm in March and that put a dent in the amount of use the rod got, but I was very pleased with it the times I was able to fish it. It casts a good sized fly quite well, gives a solid hook set, and has alot of backbone. I hope to get a good amount of use out of it next year targeting smallies, hybrid stripers, and carp.If you can try one out first like Rob says.I did get to fish a Hydros one afternoon. It is a great rod.

Rob, I think I'll stick with that all to common stuffed turkey. If ever the day comes that I have to eat fish on Thanksgiving Day I suppose I would consider a stuffed Asian Carp. They are easy enough to put on the table. I wonder how they would be with an oyster stuffing ?

Went out this morning to Starved Rock fully expecting nothing but Asian Carp. The plan was to land two or three ten pounders and clean them up for some winter meals. I wasn't disapointed as I mouth hooked 5 of them In a short period of time. What did surprise me was the huge sauger that hit on my first cast. He dropped off before I could land him. One day the last four weekends I don't expect a sauger, and I hook what would have been my best one of the year on the first cast. No others seen the remainder of the hour or so I was there, just carp. The carp didn't have as much fight in them today. Maybe partly because they were all snagged in the mouth and the water is getting colder. I blackened the last batch of Asians on the grill, and pan fried a few also. They weren't bad though I liked them pan fried and deep fried much more. I suppose I'll bake a few of the fresh ones and save the rest for the fryer.

That was entertaining Rob. What a mess! That's what we are dealing with here too. Thanks for sharing that one.

Scott, you were very lucky not to run into any. I know of a number of instances when they have ended up in boats or bouncing off of passengers in the main channel which is 12 feet deep at least. They do seem to freak out easier in shallow water. I had them go ballistic when I was yaking uppstream on the Vermilion one afternoon. I was afraid I'd have one in my lap. They all seemed to jump almost straight up out of the water. Many jumped out higher than my head all around me. I'm not sure what spooked them. Schools of them were under me a good part of the afternoon, and that's the only incident I had.