Paul Trybul

Don, That one looks like an edible mushroom. It is called the chicken of the woods or also referred to as a sulpher shelf. That color really makes them stand out in the woods. Its not my favorite of the wild mushrooms but at this time I rank it 4th. It has a mild woody flavor and a firm texture. It does take on other flavors easily. Some people sautee it with chicken bullion and use it as a substitute for chicken. Jim, I looked up your mushroom in my book and it looks like a pheasant back which is also called a Dryad's saddle. The book says its edible but it gets leathery fast.

I'm not sure about those mushrooms guys. I'd keep them out of your omletes unless you know for sure.

Jim, you sound impressed. Are you thinking about taking up flyfishing?

I heard it quoted on this site awhile back and I complete attend the school of "death before mono". I'll include a full spool of flourocarbon in that category too. I'm also talking about river smallmouth fishing. If you go with a 8 or 10# fireline or powerpro, you will be fine in most bass fishing situations in our region. They will not be line shy and you won't get seriously outfishing by your partner using mono or even a flouro leader. Well you actually might get outfished but if your using a 8-10# superline but it won't be because of the line. I also don't understand why some of you guys gear up with 20# superlines. In my opinion that is overkill for smallmouth fishing. I can see if you're fishing largemouth in heavy slop or bigger fish like carp, pike or catfish but not river smallmouth. That 20# stuff doesn't cast as well, is very hard on your rods and reels and won't break off very easy when you get the big snag. I can really only make a case for mono on super clear high pressured lakes and trout fishing and that would only be on certain days. I've caught smallmouth bass in the crystal clear lakes of Sylvania and brook trout in the clear mountain streams of Wyoming using 8# fireline no leader, no problem.

Mike, the cooking possibilities are endless and these fall mushrooms have a mild natural flavor and the ability to take on the flavor of whatever you cook them with. The giant puffballs I don't do anything with because I don't care for the taste and they can upset your stomach. I do let the kids punt them around like a soccer ball which they love to do. The shaggy manes and the hen of the woods are my 2nd & 3rd favorite wild mushrooms both behind the morel. Both have a mild but pleasant flavor and at least for me can be easily identified from poisonous mushrooms. The shaggy manes are fragile and turn black and ink out quickly so they have a very short shelf life. You pretty much have to eat them right away. I slice them in 1/2, sautee in butter and they are delicious. The shaggy mane typically grow in grassy areas where the soil has been disturbed at some point. I find them along bike paths and parks where the earth had been moved. The chicken of the woods & the hen of the woods are very hearty and firm in texture. There is some work involved in trimming and cleaning. On a typical hen about 1/3 of it I'll eat and the rest gets trimmed off. The tips or lobes are the most tender and flavorfull. The hen of the woods can be sauteed in chicken boulion and used as a substitute for any chicken dish like fajitas & tacos. You can also just sautee it in butter and enjoy it straight up. The hen of the woods grows at the base of large dead or alive oak trees and usually have full growth around the 1st frost. Wild mushroom eating does come with risks so do your homework before you go out in the woods and start consuming. Here was my latest hen of the wood haul:

That's pretty much what I've been doing. I've even found myself wandering off looking for fall mushrooms. The last few weeks have been good if your into that sort of things. Shaggy manes, giant puffballs, and some giant hen of the woods. They all seemed to pop at once.

I have fished it before. They used to do the spring stocked trout at Page Park every spring. This year they stopped doing it and moved it to 4 lakes. Not a bad idea because opening weekend was elbow to elbow guys at the handful of deeper pools that congregated the trout. There is a small dam on it about 1/2 mile upstream from where it dumps into the rock and that's not exactly in the safest part of town. I've done OK on it in the spring but it is very low and clear this time of year.

If you have had success with a yum crawbug then you have had success tube fishing. Isn't the crawbug a hollow tube with little extra detail?

Terry you know I fish the Kish a lot and I do see quite a few people out fishing but mostly on the weekends. I also see alot of footprints in the sand so I know most places see some type of pressure. Maybe all those footprints are yours Terry. I rarely see anyone keeping smallmouth bass. I can only recall once this year and it was like March 30th and this guy had about a 17" smallmouth on a stringer at Henchcliff. What can you do it was a legal fish? As far as stocking goes, I think that is only neccessary after a fish kill like what happened to the Rock River last year and Kishwaukee back in the late 80's. Otherwise I think habitat restoration would go alot farther than throwing more little smallmouth in that could alter the ntural genetic strains of that river.

Did the snake look like this? The Kish is a farther north than the natural range of the water mocassin. The snake pictured above is the northern watersnake. They are not aggressive and relatively harmless. If you stepped on one it would probably bite you but they are not poisonous.

Isn't twitterpated from the movie Bambi? The part when spring is there and they get distracted by the females. What's that have to do with smallmouth fishing rivers? There was one time I was fishing the kish and 3 young ladies floated by in a canoe. They decided to get out and stretch their legs on a sandbar just downstream. One was wearing a thong. That's the only combination of twiterpated and smallmouth fishing I can come up with. As far as changing baits, I try to bring 2 rods and my 3rd grip rod holder. If you have 2 good lures, 1 that can cover the surface/subsurface and 1 that can get to the bottom, you should be good to go. There is no magic bait to keep retying and trying for. Its more about being in the right place at the right time with the right kind of presentation.

Signs of fall are here. What do you think the sudden drop in temperature is going to do to the fishin this weekend? When I get up Saturday AM it will be in the 40's.

I've fished 3 way rigs before especially on the IL river for sauger. We would bait them, drop them straight down and pull or drift them. The question I have is how do you cast that rig? Any time I've tried to cast a 3 way rig it gets tangled. I can see doing a tandem dropshot rig. At least you can cast it without becoming a ball of wax. It was nice to meet up with the gang for breakfast. Sarah had some business to attend to so I had the kids. My daughter wanted to sleep in but my boy wanted to go. After I got him on the water all he wanted to do was swim. He wanted to go home and get his mask and snorkle. So we did and then my daughter was up so we went to a more swim freindly spot. I ended up catching a few little smallmouths out of a hole. I then took a break and helped the kids catch crawfish. One bit me so I decided to get payback so I hooked it up on a plain unweighted hook and free swam it into the hole. 1st cast produced a very skinny 17" smallmouth. I bet this fish didn't even weigh 2 pounds.

I'll be there at least for breakfast. I'm not sure how much time I'll have but I know I can't fish in the afternoon.

I must not be getting out enough because mine don't look anything like that after 2 years.

Jude, You crack me up, I just about fell out of my chair. Yes, I still have a stash of berkley orginal ribbon style powerleeches. They are real and they are spectacular......to quote a Seinfeld episode. No, they are not for sale. I'm dreading that fatefull day when I run out. I wish I had a lifetime supply that I could hand out to all my fishing buddies and they could experience the magic. Many years ago a former ISA officer Pete Plauk showed me the magical power of the ribbon style powerleech. When I found out they were discontinuing them I found an outlet store that was selling some closeout factory defect ones. I purchased 500 at that time and I am down to about 100 with 1/2 of them being defected ones. Any tips on how to melt them flat and straight again? I've tried pressing them between 2 sheets of plexiglass in the hot sun but that only helps a little. I actually don't use them all the time because they are not the be all end all of lures. They don't cast very far, they don't last very long, and they don't cover water very quickly. They have become my #1 pitching lure when the water has a little stain and you want to fish low and slow tight to some good structure. They partner up with a 1/8oz spider sliderhead perfectly. It's been a few years now but I do have 2 reliable ISA members Pete & Kevin who each caught 20.5" kishwaukee river smallmouths on these leeches. Anyway now everyone knows the story behind the leeches. I wonder what Berkley did with the original molds? The conditions should be perfect this weekend for many of the area rivers and I'm sure some smallmouth will cooperate with a variety of different lures.

I spent about 8 hours on the river this weekend too. I ran into Jude but I didn't see you out Terry. I floated probably 9 miles and it all looked pretty good. Water is up probably 6 inches I would say but the clairity is good. Not too clear where ther are spooky but clear enough that they can chase lures. We put somewhere around 40 smallmouth in the canoe along with a pike biteoff right along the the boat. Also had a domestic goose follow us for 5 miles sometimes riding in the canoe sometimes just swimming along side. Animals just seem to be attracted to my daughter. Also saw a wild turkey and a red fox attack and just miss a squirrel. Most of the fish were 10-15" but I did get 2 brute 17.5"er Saturday AM. The hot lure was the berkley powerleech but senkos and poppers worked too. I could not catch any fish on crawfish imitators which was strange. I gave the yum craw bug and the hula grub some time but they didn't produce at all.

I've got this canoe I fish out of. With the stabalizers you can actually stand up and fish out of it. It's perfect for a small carry-in lake like Olsen. I haven't been out there in a while and I usually go in the spring before all the weeds grow up. I've got some slop techniques so I can make it work now. Do you guys know if you can put a canoe in 4 lakes? I know you can pretty much cast to anywhere in the lakes from shore, I just want to escape the mosquitoes.

I hate to interrupt your private conversation but I was going to try that Olsen Lake last Sunday but I got turned away. It turns out they had some kind of triathalon going on and the access was completely cut off. We ended up going to Spenser park in Belvideer. The river was way high so we tried the deep clear pond and got skunked. Saw a few big bass and some trout jumping but we couldn't get them to hit.

We sure got a ton of rain in Northern IL over the past 24 hours. Its too bad becuase all of the smaller rivers in the area were starting to run at normal levels and clear. I just looked at the USGS for the Apple and it rose 22 feet in less than a day. I can't image what that looks like. The Kish is rising like I wish my 401K would. Anybody know any good farm ponds to fish for the next week or 2?

That is a really cool thing that you are doing. Getting people together, having fun and making a difference. Hopefully the example you are setting will rub off on others and your float trips can be more about relaxing instead of cleaning up after others. I did get your invite on facebook but we had some other things going on.

There were 2 more that showed up late so we had 16 participants. My group had the tough hike to good water. We had some kids swimming in the 1st good spot and 2 other fisherman leapfroged us to fish waters ahead of us. It don't think we did as well as the other groups but we did C&R about 25 smallmouth and 5 creek chubs. I tried a bunch of different lures and techniques but nothing seemed to work better than anything else. I felt pretty worn out around 1pm and headed home. Thank you to everyone that participated to make this a successful outing.

I cleaned that up so send me a PM if you wish.

Unless we get an untimely downpour we will have our NW/QC Regional fishing outing this Sunday the 18th on the Apple river. There are still a few openings so RSVP me or Dave if you think you can make it.

I've been out there once this year around the end of April and it was the same deal for me. The river was up and there was zero visibility. I ended up leaving the fishing gear in the car and hiking the woods for morel mushrooms. I found a few so it wasn't a wasted trip.