Paul Trybul

The leak was located north of Marengo, on Garden Prairie road. It involved two 1,000 pound tanks forcing first responders to close off the area until the incident was mitigated. Lifeline Ambulance and the Boone County Sheriff's Department joined in assisting. Officials say there was luckily no injuries.

I hope none of this made it into the river as ammonia can be devastating to a fishery. This is something worth monitoring.

On 10/28/2022 at 8:31 PM, Jesse pniewski said:

20" smallmouth on the kish? Do you guys have a certified scale for objective evidence of said 20"? Do you guys use hotdogs?

I use an ISA tape measure that is annually officially calibrated to the NIST standards by the office of weights and measures. For the hot dog dog rig I have been experimenting with a more durable rig. We all know the cheap ones are only good for one fish as they break apart. Unless of coarse you pop for the good Vienna beef ones.  You take the cheap Bar-S ones and slice them the long skinny way. Then you take black electrical tape and form a ring around the center of the dog. Rig that wacky style and you've got something going Jesse. 70% of the time it works every time.

That was certainly a memorable adventure with Ben, Terry and the last day with Gordon.  Fishing was tough at times. Some sections had low numbers of active fish but the ones I caught were giants. The day with Gordon had ridiculous numbers of solid fish buy we didn't catch any bass significantly over 18".  My fishing highlights were a 20"+ smallmouth on a whopper plopper and a 40"+ musky on a senko of all things.  Ben K gets the assist on both as he played a role in my encounters with both of these.

This trip was much more to me than just a fishing trip trying to catch fish. It was an adventure in truly wild sections of river with a great group of guys. I think Ben did an outstanding job of capturing the essence of our adventures. I like the focus on the natural beauty and the intimate connection with nature you get when you're out there floating in a remote river. Thanks for helping me relive the moments as my local rivers are all flooded.

We haven't seen any kind of report from the 2022 ISA Roadtrip.  I saw there was rising river conditions with some higher water than average. How did the group do? 

While I certainly have proved I can catch fish out there on my own, there is still value to what Rich and Eugene have offered.  Rich has a nice boat and has been fishing Shabbona since they flooded it.  The knowledge and the gas I save not hassling with my boat is worth was I paid.  With Eugene I get the chance to fish a bigger river like the Rock out of a boat and just fish. I don't have to worry about the hassle of my boat and struggling with boat position all day.  Kind of like what you have been doing for Joz and and your friend that needed a pick me up.  For me there is value for that service. I'd pay you $50 to take me out on the Fox for a day while you hold the kayak in position and recommend high percentage places to cast. Could I catch nice smallmouth on my own on the Fox,,,....you bet. I would most likely catch more, learn more, and enjoy the experience better if I paid you the $50.

I know it looked like I was helping cook the hot dogs but I was huddled up there for the warmth. It was great to catch up with long time members and meet some new members. I feel like I was stealing winning the guided trips with Rich and Eugene. 

I would hope people catching fish off the "effluent pipe" would release them. I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a sign up to let them know its the law to let the smallmouth bass go between April 1st & June 15th.

Don't forget to get your fishing licenses for 2022 as your old one expired yesterday. Also don't forget the trout stamp if you are going to fish for those too. Saw this meme, thought it was funny.

Hey Kevin, welcome aboard. You and I seem to travel the same circles and have had similar experiences. I grew up in Sycamore, live in Rockford now and have been fishing the Kish for 40+ years.  Good luck topping 20.75" on a Kishwaukee River smallmouth. I've never done it as 20.25" has been my biggest Kish smallmouth in 40+ years.  I can tell you its possible as over the years I've seen pictures of 2 Kish smallies topping 21" or better. I've seen the pictures and discussions with the anglers are credible. Kind of funny that I don't target pike either but have quite a few accidental catches and 36" has been my biggest. You probable know the north branch better than me and I probable know the south branch better growing up in Sycamore and going to college at NIU in DeKalb. I'm sure we'll run into each other out there on the river if we haven't done so already,

I'm not sure who knew this but Gregg published a book. It was called Guests At The Buck Falls Club which he gave me a signed copy of.  It's an entertaining read that made me laugh a few times. I laughed with him not at him per his instructions. It gives you some insight into his life, outdoor adventures and misadventures.  There is even a chapter on the Sylvania Crew which gives mention of several ISA members, me included.  I know we have had some members pass over the years. Gregg would be the first I know of that died while out smallmouth fishing. Gregg was a good man that did a lot to help troubled youth. I enjoyed the time I spent fishing with him and he will be missed.

I didn't see anyone mention this, but Gregg Stockey passed away last fall. For several years he was an active member, a regional coordinator, and part of the Sylvania crew. Here is an article about his passing from a boat accident on Lake Geneva.. https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/former-bridge-director-dies-in-boating-accident/

For the Mazon it may only matter to the few who have some legal access but are interested in accessing more.  I feel the bigger picture issue is river access in IL in general. The IL laws are old and antiquated. I personally would like to see them be more in line with what Wisconsin offers for river access.

Hi Brandon, welcome to the ISA. I'm pretty familiar with the Rock and some of the tributaries in your area.  I didn't fish that area much in 2021 but have had some memorable experiences in past years.  Tell us more about your home made lures.

Hey Jesse, welcome to the ISA. I remember running into you last year fishing the Kish. Feel free to ask, share and participate as there is a good group of experienced anglers you can learn from here. Also bring to our attention any conservation projects that can improve the quality of our local waterways. 

Terry's push to go digital has saved the club a bunch of money. This really helped since we couldn't do our annual Bronzeback fundraiser for 2 years. It also allowed us to lower the membership dues. Content is still good and we can link digitally to advertisers and other resources.

Part of me still misses those printed bulletins but this change was necessary for long term viability of our club. I'm glad most of the membership feedback is positive. 

Kar Korner in Loves Park has a bunch of used cargo vans in stocks. They have 2 seaters with a big open back and you can stand up without hitting your head in some of them.

I've been wet wading the Kish for years and its never been a problem for me. It is nice to have the nylon pants as the banks have poison ivy, saw grass and spinney nettles in spots

I was out this morning. The water is still low which is good for wading. There is a little stain to the water but not bad.  I caught about 10 and finally got a nice one. The month of August had been a dink fest up until this morning. I will not be able to make it as I have a wedding to go to.  

The river conditions look good. It will be hot tomorrow so make sure you bring water. Still spots available if anyone is interested in wade fishing the Apple.

On Saturday July 24th, we will be hosting a wade fishing outing on the Apple River in the Northwest corner of our State.  We meet at the Apple River State Park near Stockton, IL at 9AM. This is a beautiful stream that winds through the driftless area with high limestone bluffs and riffle, pool, run habitat.  Since this stream is small, this will be RSVP. Please contact Paul Trybul 815-540-7775 to reserve your spot. 

Smallmouthnado near the Dupage

There are a lot of water treatment plants along the Fox river. With the lack of rain, I wonder how high the percentage of river flow comes from treatment plants. It's probably not a good idea to wet wade under these conditions. I also heard there is a warning this summer for blue green algae which can cause health problems.

I did a half day trip with Gordon last week.  Other that a slight road construction detour for our shuttle, the trip went great. I found a couple morel mushrooms at the put in spot. Caught a decent smallmouth on a whopper plopper on my first cast.  It was a beautiful section of northwoods river and at the perfect levels for floating and getting out to wade a few spots. I could have not caught a fish and still enjoyed the aesthetic beauty of the river. Still ended up with around 14 hard fighting river smallmouth and a rock bass, mostly on topwater and the rest on ned rigs. Gordon caught some nice smallmouth too and a 40" class musky.  You might want to consider a bigger net Gordon, if you are going to have more of those big musky encounters. 

Did anyone get a report from Eric & Bart?

It was a nice day to be out on the river. Mild temps, a little cloud cover and the water levels and clarity were about as good as it gets for spring conditions. By the time I got done helping everyone with shuttles it was just me and Kevin and the 4 in Terry's group heading down river. I decided to head to the south branch instead of having 6 guys pound the same section of river.  I picked a section that required a little portage to get to the water. I figured the remoteness of this section would put us on some unpressured fish. This section has a particular spot that has been good to me in the spring as some quality fish will stack up there.  Things started out pretty good as I caught one at the put in spot before we even launched. Shortly after that Kevin got a solid fish on a spinnerbait. Then I had some quality bites but was having some trouble making the hooksetting adjustments of fishing out of a kayak so unfortunately those were missed opportunities.  Then we come around the bend to my money spot on this stretch and there are 2 guys with kayaks camped out there. Literally camped out there with a fire and cooking lunch.  I had a chat with them and they said the fishing was so good through this section the day before that they had to try it again. Said they had already caught about a dozen each and one that must have went 4 or 5 pounds. We ended up leap frogging each other the rest of the way to the take out bridge. So much for my theory of finding a remote section with difficult access to find some unpressured fish. It is a beautiful section of river with almost no houses or development. We ended up catching around 10 smallmouth with the one Kevin got being the biggest.  If we combine our numbers with the 2 new anglers we met, I would say it was a very productive day with some quality mixed in.