Paul Trybul

I'm in plus one. Weather & water conditions look good. They are calling for a low of 57 when you wake up the am and then up to low 80's in the afternoon. All day probably won't work for me either but there is nothing wrong with having options. We are all captains of our own ships. Take out at Kish FP for 1/2 dayers and all dayers can go for it to Atwood or even the airport area. I love river smallmouth fishing in the month of September and this nice little warming trend should be good for the fishing. I like using lures I can cast a long distance in the low clear water. Walk the dog topwaters have been working good for me with a plastic follow up bait for the ones that hit and miss on the topwater.

I wanted to post a reminder that we will be having a Northwest Region wade fishing outing this Saturday. Water conditions are good from a recent report. Unfortunately the USGS gage has not been working. So far I have had 8 people RSVP. I think we could do 3 groups of 4 anglers so there are still some spots available. There could be better places in Illinois to catch smallmouth but not many more scenic than the Apple. Call Paul Trybul at 815-703-2651 if you plan to attend.

There is something more satisfying with a meal of something you personally caught,shot or scrounged in the forest and eat fresh. Crayfish is all about the seasonings you boil them in. They can take on many different flavors. Sounds like Ron didn't have them prepared properly.

The name of the picture file says Kransic Trout. I would think most people would use better judgement than putting pictures of smallmouth fillets on our board. For me I would substitute those trout fillets with the fillets from a fresh 16" walleye caught out of a clear clean northwoods lake.

Top that off with some freshly picked little gray morels and wash it down with some spotted cow and it would be about perfect.

For a mid week outing expect very little company. Expect small skinny water with some deep holes, lots of rocks to trip over, and clear water unless it just rained. A big rain will flash flood this river. Scenery is nice. You can expect a deer fly to follow you for a mile or so or until you can swat it. Smallmouth, creek chubs and the occasional leftover rainbow trout are the main predator fish.

Walleyes can be very finicky. Sometimes it does take live bait to catch them consistently. If you are strictly a lure guy I have a few tips for you. Fish low light periods, cloudy days with a nice chop, sunrise, sunset, or at night. Work that outside weedline and the major points. If there is any kind of midlake hump or sunken island, that could be money. Lures: jigs with twisters, paddletails, or gulp. I've had very good luck with walleyes and gulp alive. Deep diving crankbaits. If you don't mind trolling, 3 way rigs with floating rapalas or spinner rigs work good when they go deep. Don't be afraid to use obnoxious colors like chartreuse, yellow or orange.

Maybe I can try Norm's crankbait in the parking lot pattern over at the Sprotscore?

I purchased a set of Yakama roof racks in August 2012 from the Loves Park location.

My son has a basketball game so I can't make it either.

I thought all of them, canoes, kayaks, pontoons were $15 each but that was for 3 years.

A video of him singing "never say never" or a clip from his movie never say never would have been better, but I think they get the point.

Was ronk quoting Justin Bieber?

There wasn't an original post, it was something Terry talked about at the meeting last Saturday. Terry could add some more details but it went something like: Terry is buddies with John Guth the director of Ken Rock, John approached Terry to do a few fishing seminars for an event they are having in the spring. Although I am not happy with John for business reasons, I am willing to put that aside to conduct a seminar about local smallmouth fishing to help the ISA and Ken Rock.

It's a well written article. It's certainly not a good thing to hold a bass by its bottom lip with the fish at any kind of horizontal angle without supporting the body with a wet 2nd hand. I am guilty of the straight one hand vertical hold 1,000's of times You'll find plenty of visual evidence if you look back at fishing reports on this and many other fishing sights. It does say the one hand vertical hold is OK on smaller fish less than 3 pounds. I would estimate 98% of the smallmouth I catch are less than 3 pounds. The ISA has always been good at educating other anglers about conservation issues like fish handling. It can seem militant at times but its just because some of the members are very passionate about the sport. There have been other discussions beyond fish handling like: the use of barbless hooks, not holding fish out of the water for long periods of time during warm temps, not fighting fish to complete exhaution with ultra-light gear, not pulling males out from guarding nests putting them in livewells and releasing them at the other end of a lake, and use of circle hooks with live bait. There is a lot more we can do in addition to properly holding a bass that can contribute to the conservation of our sport.

Thank you for the interest guys but due to many factors me & Kip O were the only ISA members to make it. It was pretty rough out there. My car read 43 degrees when we started and that was accompanied with a stiff and gusty NW wind. Two guys with 2 cars and 2 kayaks is enough to get it done for a free shuttle. Despite the rough conditions the fishing was epic. I am so happy to see this area bounce back after the largest fish kill in IL history back in June 2009. I used to fish this area all the time but I kind of gave up on it the past few years. It is back and better than ever from a smallmouth perspective with a very strong year classes of 6-10" fish along with a few bruisers to keep things interesting. With the low water there was zero boat traffic and only one other group of canoeists that used the local outfitters and they weren't even fishing. Once we got past the crowds at the dam, we had 5 miles of prime river all to ourselves. I'm not really sure if I'm comfortable posting in detail about all of the numbers, size and variety of species that we caught. I'll just say that from a fish catching perspective, this was the best day I've ever had floating an IL river. Casting and boat position was very challenging in the high winds and I even missed a lot of fish due to poor hooksets. I caught fish on live minnows, gulp alive minnows, senkos, hula grubs, and a rebel popper. Live minnows outfished everything around the dam. Once we got past the crowds and into pods of unpressured fish, live bait was not necessary and did not produce any of the top end fish. It did help contribute to the multi-species totals. At the current levels this stretch can not be fished with a boat unless you have a jet prop. I didn't take a lot of pictures due to the conditions and my location during the best action. Here is one I caught while out of the kayak that went 17.5". Most of the fish were very thick like the fall feedbag has started.

Even though I don't fly fish, watching someone flyfish that knows what they are doing is poetry in motion.

That's a bummer that you guys can't make it. I might have to pay for a shuttle or take a 2nd car if no one else is going to make it. Weather might be a little tough on Saturday too.

Is the Sunrise Cafe on Rt64 about a 1/2 mile east of the bridge crossing the Rock river?

It is between 5 to 5.5 miles depending on how much zig zagging you do around islands. You could do this trip 6 times and take a little different way each time. Since its smallmouth we are after, I can help eliminate alot of that water and help you zero in on some of the more high percentage areas. The flow is pretty good for making time unless you get a stiff south/south west wind blowing you upcurrent.

If you would like to rent a canoe or line up a shuttle, the local outfitter is TJ's Canoe rental 815-732-4516. I'll have some maps and some recommended spots to try. I've never fished this section when the water was this low. Many times I have run my boat from Castle Rock up to the dam. I wouldn't even consider it now. That should be great for floating since we shouldn't have to worry about motor boat traffic. The best launch with parking is just below the dam on the west side of the river. We will meet there at 9am. Anyone up for meeting at a local diner for breakfast at 8am?

Based on current conditions this will be a float trip. We can float the Oregon Dam down to the boat launch at Castle Rock State Park. With the morning being a little colder I propose a 9am start. There is a canoe outfitter in Oregon that can rent canoes and provide shuttles. We should be able to work out shuttles if we get enough people. Over the years I've caught some nice smallmouth through this section along with several other species of fish.

I can tell you I just camped in the Porkies last weekend. I did alot of hiking and some fishing. I'm not an expert trout fisherman but fishing was very poor over Labor Day weekend for trout in the UP. Part of it was timing. The rivers were very low and clear. I could see the to the bottom just about everywhere except for a few deep hole in the Presque Isle river. I caught no trout in any of the rivers and I only saw 1 little brookie in the carp river. I think the low water has pushed alot of the local fish out and the lake run fish haven't pushed up yet. I hiked along quite a bit of the carp, little carp and Presque Isle rivers including the mouth where these streams run into Superior. There are no lake run fish yet but that could change with some cooler weather. People were still swimming along the beaches of Lake Superior. The scenery is top notch but the fishing was poor. Leaves are actually starting to change colors already up in the Porkies.

Terry, I have noticed more of this on the Kish this year too. I think it has a lot to do with the drought and the fact that it has had all year to root and grow without a flood to wash it out. I have not been catching fish around them so far. The areas I see them grow are slower, sandier, silty, and shallow. My pattern for smallmouth this summer have been areas with current and rocks and access to deeper water. I don't find that stuff growing in current and rocks. I do think this stuff is good for the system providing much needed O2 during this hot summer. It also provides structure for forage and young of the year smallmouth to hide and grow. Maybe this fall when things finally cool down the bigger smallmouth could start using this stuff

I caught it on the nunya river somewhere between here and where I camped in the porucpine mountains in the wester UP of Michigan. The river fish up der eh grow a little wider than most of our local river fish. Terry, Gary moved to the Ozarks where rabbit ears won't catch the Bears games. He could always get NFL sunday ticket or go to a sports bar.