Paul Trybul

I've never fished the Sugar. I hear it has smallmouth but I've also heard the part that flows through Wisconsin is better that the deeper sandier IL section. The Kishwaukee river has been disappointing for me for about 3 years in a row now. Its hard for me to recommend a productive section. Taking the time to float it is definately more productive than wading. I would also avoid "tuber alley" on the weekends during the summer. That is primarily bewteen Baumann Park & Kishwaukee Porest Preserve. Too much craziness to try and catch fish.

I don't recommend kayaking the Apple. During normal summer flow it gets extremely low and rocky. Also they don't allow boating/floating in the State Park section. That pretty much leaves you with knocking on doors to gain private access.

Dave, Rich filled me in on you plans for the weekend. I'm glad you had fun fishing with the family. I guess I was doing the same thing when you had your outing a few weeks earlier. I thought you might recognize the last picture. It looked alot better than it produced. Plastics both large and small had the best results on our outing. Low and slow was the way they wanted it except for a few. We still need to get together and fish sometime this summer. Gregg, I was planning on giving you a call. Were you thinking up north or local?

4 ISA members, Paul T, Paul T Sr, Rich V & Deb C gathered for the NW regional fishing outing on the Apple. We had a little light rain and some heat in the afternoon but other than that conditions were pretty good. Rich arrived first and said he observed 2 other anglers fishing wacky style senkos. He said they caught about 1/2 dozen each. You hate to fish right behind other anglers that look like they know what they're doing, but that's the way it goes when you fish public land sometimes. We actually did OK. I caught a nice one on topwater on my 2nd cast. Deb caught close to a dozen on senko style baits Rich stuck with the fly rod and he caught a few. I tried a lot of different lures. The only thing I caught more than 1 fish on was hulagrubs. As a group I estimate we caught & released around 30 smallmouth which is pretty slow for the average Apple outing. We did get some quality fish up to 18" and enjoyed some nice scenery.

Turning down the fillets on fish that were suspected of contamination. Good call.

These reports are very cool. Thank you for participating and keeping us updated.

The life of a river fish is pretty tough. They have to deal with alot of adversity with disease being just one of them. I read up on that furunculosis and it sounds like it is most common to salmon and trout species but has been found in other species. The north branch of the kish has been known to be a very clean river in comparison to other area rivers making you wonder how furunculosis gets in there. This may be a stretch but distillery is not to far from Belvidere mill race where the spring trout are stocked. Is it possible that the hatchery trout were the carriers since this disease is more common with trout and salmon? I haven't seen those sores on smallmouth that I'm catching in other areas of the Kish. It seems like when non-native species get introduced to waterways that is when the problems start to happen. Purely speculation on my part but I'll be interested to see if they find this furuncuosis farther away from Belvidere.

If you have an injury, the Apple isn't the best place to go stumbling around. Give me a call if you feel better.

Saturday the 16th we are having our NW regional Apple river outing. The meeting time will be at 8AM. This is a small scenic river so we ask that you RSVP to make sure we have enough guides. Please contact Paul T at 815-703-2651 if you plan to attend. Current conditions show the river is flowing at a low level which should be perfect for wading. I'll bring some chicken feathers for any flyfisherman that are interested.

She actually has a variety of breeds. She has mostly polish and bantam breeds like silkes. Some are mixed and those are the ones I end up butchering because they are not show quality. The colors range but mostly blacks, browns and reds.

My daughter raises chickens. When she hatches them they typically end up being 50/50 roosters to hens. You only need one rooster for every 10 hens or so which makes the extra roosters expendable. Since I'm not a fly fisherman, I just throw the feathers away after I butcher and pluck. My daughter was telling me that sometimes there are requests from fisherman for chicken feathers on her chicken forum. Yes, just like our forum chicken breeders have a forum too. Should I be savings these feathers? If I brought some to outings or meetings would any of you guys want any?

Thanks for the tips, I'll have to check them out. You won't want to soak them in gulp for your Sylvania trip since they have pretty strict rules on not using scented baits up there. You shouldn't need to. I have found the Sylvania bass to be not as picky as Geneva bass.

I hate to bring back such an old post but something happened to me today that jogged a memory. I was walking in downtown Rockford on my way to an appointment when I was approached by a man. He extended out his hand and said please take one of these as he handed me a card. I looked at the card and this is what I saw: ROCKFORDECOPY_LDAPMAIL_06212011-124422.pdf Jim Kast your quaestion has been answered. Man Cards are now in full production. Now we just need to get our man laws printed on the back. Four punches and your man card is revoked.

Dave, I wont' be able to help out with this outing due to a family camping trip I have planned that weekend. If you get rained out and need to reschedule, my region is having an outing there on July 16th.

Pike do seem to be taking over in the upper, skinnier reaches of the Kish. They are just flat out dominating the smallouth for the best habitat. I've fished the Kish for over 30 years and I have yet to unlock the high water mystery. Unlike some other rivers, the Kish is just not a good river to fish in high water. I've fished with a lot of guys and I have yet to see anyone else solve the high water mystery.

I 2nd that idea. I will be dropping the $50 for a Wiconsin License this Saturday. Everything should still be pre-spawn and I hope I get my money's worth.

Karen emailed me back and they do not have a schedule made up at this time. They are looking at shocking the Ksihwaukee River basin around the middle/late July. They are looking at shocking some central IL streams the first few weeks in August. I'll keep you posted as I gather more information.

I sent an email to Karen and we'll see what comes back. They usually start the smaller streams in June/July time frame.It is really a fun and rewarding experience of you have never done it before. Karen can teach you most of the little baitfish that are native to the area streams. Its very good information for those who like to match the hatch.

Where do you find lucky craft jerkbaits for twelve dollars?

I'm looking forward to the morel season. I figure I'm still 2 weeks away here in the northern most part of our state. Depends on the weather.

Thank you for finding that Eric. I tried to google it. The DNR webpage still has the old one for the main download. The only change I saw was the DNR's option to allow exemption permits for bass tournaments during the C&R season.

I was trying to get my hands on the 2011 IL fishing regs at the fishing shows and all they had was the old one. I went to the IL DNR website and the download is still 2010 to March 31st 2011. The new fishing season with any new regs will start in less that 2 weeks. Anyone know where I can view a copy? At this point I don't even know if they are continuing the spring C&R season or changing any size regulations.

I think I know that guy. He's the same one that fishes the push button Zebco reel with several snap swivels clipped together and a big fat nightcrawler. He keeps telling me about all the five pound smallmouth he catches as he spaces his hands 15" apart to demonstrate the sizes.