Paul Trybul

When: Saturday, Feb. 25 @ 12pm. (noon) Where: Rockford, IL. Gander Mountain. What: Charles (Chuck) Corley from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Come to this Northwest Region meeting and listen to Mr. Charles (Chuck) Corley, of the IEPA, as he discusses what we should watch for and things we should be concerned with when it comes to our waterways. Chuck will also be taking questions so jot down any questions or concerns that come to mind and bring them to this meeting. Let's have a good turn-out for this one. Be prepared to protect in 2012 Meeting starts at 12pm. with Chuck taking the floor about 12:30pm. Gander Mnt. Rockford, IL. 3068 McFarland Rd Rockford, IL 61114 (815) 637-9600 The roads should be all clear for this meeting on Saturday. I know I'll be there. Who else is going to join our meeting?

I like it too. Basically we're talking carolina rigging with a more snag proof weight. As far as "fishing bottom in fast current", I would rank the Carolina rig #3 for smallmouth. I'd rank it #1 of we were talking catfish or walleye in fast current. For smallmouth I would go with the previously mention weighted keeper hook #2 and I still think the charlie brewer slider is the #1 fit for the topic. The slider has a more nose down tail up effect on plastics which is great for craw immitators. The weighted keeper offers a more horizontal presentation for minnow immitating plastics. I have some trouble with the weighted keeper if I'm using a soft or beat up plastic. The prong holding the front will fall out and then the presentation snags easily like a weighted wacky rig. The downside to the carolina rig in heavy current is some plastic baits will corkscrew causing a unatural presentation plus line twist if you don't use a swivel. I can see the advantage of the carolina rig when casting downstream. The charlie brewer slider head would be best fished in heavy current casting straight upstream to 3/4 casting upstream. You will want to keep your rod tip up high to keep the line out of the current as much as you can. If you have the correct weight your lure will gently tumble downstream maintaining bottom contact. Gently reel in the slack so you can feel every bump on the bottom or the tell tale thump of a big smallmouth inhaling your offering. It really pays to have a quality rod and a no-stretch superline for this type of fishing. Without it, it can be tough to tell the difference between bumping a rock and getting a hit. Be sure to check your line often because constant contact with the bottom wears down the knot and line quickly. This fast current smallmouth fishing can really pay big dividends during those hot dog days of summer into early fall.

I would start with the United States Patents and Trademark Office. I have never patented anything so I'm not how the process goes. I'm sure it is a lot of paperwork and it may take some time. If your idea is good then you will have a time window to profit from it before everyone else can copy your idea. If this thing gets big and you need a sales professional to help you sell and market the product, keep me in mind.

Depends on the 2 used ones. In a perfect world I would have a fiberglass bass boat with all the toys for lake fishing and a metal hulled boat with a jet prop motor for shallow river fishing.

I think it is always good to try to support people that support the ISA. Jeff Bohdan has donated a replica mount for the ISA blowout for the past several years. His phone numbers are 708-259-6312 or 815-476-5131. Jeff may be able to help you.

I think this rig is designed for grabbing the attention of open water schooling fish like stripers, white bass or crappie. I wouldn't try to make pin point casts or fish it tight to structure.

I'm going with a 3" gulp alive minnow. Pike, white bass, crappie, walleye, sauger, trout, LM & SM bass, my list of species on this versitile plastic is pretty long.

The only local gems I find on YouTube help more with my dance moves not finding fishing spots.....right Terry. Actually this is a pretty good tip. I have watched some paddling videos that show put in and take out spots. They don't fish but along the way there is some video of areas that look like it could be good for fishing.

We are starting to get into the time of year when I stop fishing and start planning for the next season. I like daydreaming of new river fishing adventures while I gaze out my snow covered window. Something that helps facilitate this is looking at arial maps and photos. Looking for access, tracking distance of possible canoe trips, scouting out reefs and sunken islands on clear lakes are all posible with the right view. In the past I liked using the Google Earth software. The free version has high quality in some areas but poor quality in other rual areas. I was wondering what software/websites most of you use. There is probably new stuff coming out all the time and I was hoping to find some better options.

On Saturday December 17th at noon the Northwest Region is having its pizza party. We are having this in the meeting room at Gander Mountain in Rockford. Call Paul Trybul at 815-703-2651 if you have any questions or need directions.

I tried one of the silver carp earlier this year. It came from the IL river below starved rock. I was left very unimpressed with the taste. I don't eat very much of the fish I catch. When I do it is usually walleye, crappie or stocked trout so maybe I'm spoiled.

If we are talking hula grubs, I don't think we should leave out the magic of the chompers hula grub. The green pumpkin and the watermellon seed are my favorite colors. They also make it in a 4" which is a smaller profile than the 5" yammys. For smallmouth I like the 4" for largemouth I like the 5". The chompers are also made of a more durable plastic. I like to fish that on a 1/4oz pro slider head. My advice comes with a warning. The chompers stink something fierce.

You have a picture of Norm holding a fish? I heard that's very rare like catching 2 bass on the same lure at the same time.

You can hike in from the Gorge Forest Preserve on the north side of the river. It's a 10 minute hike from the parking lot to the water. Getting there isn't bad it's hiking back up the staircase after wade fishing will have you feeling the burn. It wadeable at USGS levels under 6ft. The current is strong through this section making it not the best late fall spot. The hike is very scenic especially during the peak of fall colors. Canoeing from Kish FP to Atwood FP would be the other way to fish under the I-39 bridge.

I was simply repeating what I heard from a person that works for the company that manages the property in question. I was not stating it as fact or my opinion on the subject. I'm in sales after all. This won't be the 1st or last time a customer feed me a line of bull. I do like the after photo in your other Kilbuck post. Thats the way it should be.

Nice job Terry. The company I work for does business with the company that manages the landfill. I was there the other day and I got a little of the inside scoup. If you look at the map on the article you can see 2 quarries, the landfill quarry on the right of the Kilbuck and there is a clay pit on the left with a bridgless road crossing the Kilbuck. Over the past year or so they have been excavating the clay out of the clay pit to make a future landfill. To get closer access to the highway they have been trucking the clay via the river crossing. Basically everytime a truck crosses the Kilbuck the clay gets washed off of the tread of the tires and the river bottom is stirred up. I know farmers do these river crossings to access fields as well. This was going on with dozens of trucks per day for awhile. They claim there was no dumping or draining into the river. Since the recent public outcry (that's where you and your article comes in Terry) they have redirected the truck traffic to edson road by the hunt club. It's a little more distance to haul but they want to do what's right for the environment. So Terry your words have been heard and rerouting the trucks may be the solution to the problem. Hopefull the clay residue will wash out with the early spring rains and we can look forward to a sucessful smallmouth spawn in the spring of 2012.

Since the prospects of fishing a high muddy river don't appeal to me, I've decided to get my outdoor fix by hiking into the woods. The 3+ inches of rain the Rockford area received earlier in the week really has the fall mushrooms going. I've been finding a lot of shaggy manes, oysters, and today I found a mother load of hen of the woods under 1 oak tree. I picked the 2 clumps to the right and left of the tree. They weighed about 5 pounds each. The clump in the center was massive. I think I would need to come back with a wheel barrel and pick up truck to get that one. I left it since how much fungus can one family eat?

It said I only used 15% of my allowance. I still think there is an overall allowance for our site that trumps individual allowances.

I had the same problem too but I was able to post after this post with pics. The problem is out website has a maximum that we can host. What I did was go into my history of uploaded files and I delete some old pictures that I sent in PM's. This freed up memory and allowed me to post a few pics. Our site administrator should be able to fix this. Until then go like you are going to make a post. Under Attach this File there is a section called "help with attaching files". I clicked the blue link and then went into the manage attachment section the left. This allowed me to view every picture I have ever posted on this site. If you delete pictures you have sent in private messages it won't effect past posts and it will free up memory for future pic posts. Maybe we should all go in there and clean up our old pictures starting with PM'ed pictures to help keep our hosting memory down.

I have something coming up family wise that will prevent me from hosting the Rock River wade outing in Rockton, IL this Saturday. If there is interest, we can reschedule this for October 1st or 2nd.

I'll be there. I might even bring some hackle feathers if you fly fisherman are interested.

Do they ever take a break or are they discharging murky water 24/7?

What.... there are other species besides smallmouth bass?