Paul Trybul

Most of today's rods have good enough guides that will not groove with superlines. Many of the guides that grooved were early on in the superline era.

It took a few years but I wore some grooves into my Berkley Lightning rod with the metal guides using Bekley Fireline. Did I mention I fish alot?

I have started using Seaguar Florocarbon Line down here because of the super clear conditions on Table Rock Lake.

I'm mainly a fireline user but the above situation is the 1 area where a flourocarbon could and has outfished a superline or braided line. The super clear high pressured lake or quarry will have some line shy bass. In river conditions I've never seen it make a difference for anythng other than trout. In the crystal clear lakes of Sylvania I haven't seen it make a difference. This is with many hours of field testing with a mono user in the same canoe. I think the superlines ability to cast a long distance to fish that haven't seen you yet, outweigh the fishes ability to see the line. You can always go with a flourocarbon leader if you are getting out fished badly by a mono user.

The line twist thing also seems to be more of a factor in river fishing than lake fishing. As Gordon said there are just more dark forces at play. Fireline is a solid overall line that is very resistant to twisting and backlashing. The other superline that I have used and would recommend is powerpro. Both are expensive, loose their coating and will need to be reversed on the spool after extended use. I am still attending the school of "death before mono" with the rare exception of a flourocarbon leader. The benefits significantly outweigh the downsided in my book.

When making the transition from mono to superlines there are a few other things to consider.

#1 Learn the polymar knot because most other knots will slip.

#2 You will still need a mono backing on your spool or the whole spool will slip.

#3 You will want to use rods with premium guides or the superlines will wear grooves in the eyes of your rods. The ceramic fuji guides work well.

#4 I like to fish rods with a softer action tip because the line doesn't give and your rod will need to. This is more important when fishing presentations like spinnerbaits and cranks on a tight line. Something has to give a little for the lure to get sucked into the fishes mouth. The superline isn't giving an inch so the rod tip needs to.

this can be a huge disadvantage in dialing in on hook-ups.

The suggested high visibility lines should all serve the purpose. Go with a 2-3 foot flourocarbon leader if the high vis lines are turning off the fish.

I use scented or salted plastics but I don't add any scent.

While I did not catch anything last night due to the fact that my smallies have not come that far upstream yet, I am sure there will be smallies there in a few weeks or so.

The spawn must be right around the corner for your area Jonn. Do they keep pushing upstream after the spawn?

Very entertaining story, I hope you don't get rabies.

This has almost turned into a survey.

Put me down for "I'll never buy another Shimano" and " death before mono" other than a flourocarbon leader occasionally.

Fireline, powerpro, and diawa's have resulted in a lot less equipment malfunction for me.

Spawning is based mostly on water temp. Most of what I've read smallmouth spawn at around 60-65 degrees. They'll spawn in a little colder water up north and a little warmer down at their southern range. Some rivers just run warmer than others for whatever reason. It could be farther south and running south to north. It could be spring fed or run through open farmland or have warm discharges. I'm in Rockford IL and the Rock river flows north out of Wisconsin. Its in the upper 40's and some of the tribs have finally warmed into the low 50's. I would guess our bass are a good 3 weeks to a month to spawn. If someone is on a river with water temps in the upper 50's then the spawn is just around the corner. IL is a big state. The weather can be quite different from one end to the other.

The only regret you'll have is that you didn't start sooner.

 

I definately agree with that one!

Freddy,

If you've done any research, you will see 100's of options for kayaking. It can be hard to weed through all of the models options sizes prices, ect. I did a bunch or research over the winter before selecting one. There were a few things I learned that I'll share with you may help with your decision.

Short & Wide Kayaks:

Advantages: Stable, turn fast, lightweight, cheaper

Disadvantages: Slow, don't track well, don't hold a lot of gear

They are good for smaller shallow rivers and shorter day trips. I found the short and wide kayak to be perfect for my fishing style but I will hate how slow it is paddling across a big lake or trying to paddle upstream in heavy current. Bottom line is you can't have it all.

Longer and/or skinnier kayaks:

Advantages: Faster, better tracking, more gear capacity

Disadvantages: turn slow, heavier to carry, more expensive, not as stable

Then there is the whole sit in versus sit on top kayaks. Sit on tops (SOT) were designed with the fisherman in mind.

Sit on Top Kayak

Advantages: Easy to get in and out of, safer, easier to move around for comfort or casting angle, easier to get at gear. Self bailing when you take on water. Sit up higher for sight fishing

Disadvantages: Difficult to stay dry, average a few pounds heavier than their sit in counterparts of similar dimentions. Scupper holes with bad placement can be a source of weak spots if you go over shallow gravel and rocks a lot.

Sit in Kayak

Advantages: Can stay dry. A few pounds lighter, more gear capacity at a lower center of gravity for stability. Bigger selection at most stores.

Disadvantages: Difficult to move around. Hard to get in and out of. Have to bail if you take on water. Difficult to get at gear.

Not as safe.

I went with a short, wide, stable sit on top because that most met my needs for the style of fishing I wanted to use it for.

Dan,

I struggled with the same feelings. Small stream smallmouth fishing for me is an escape where I try to get away from people and technology. I have paid my dues and have 20 years of scouting on some rivers and was hesitant to share information. I don't own the river, we all share it. As long as people care for the resource & are passionate about protecting it , it can be enjoyed like I have enjoyed it for generations. I thought that was a good article too.

Joseph,

I'm glad you enjoyed our meeting. Thank you for attending and taking the time to check out our website. This is a good place to excellerate the learning curve with catching river smallmouth.

Eric,

He put his real name at the bottom, doesn't that count?

Eric,

That is a very good idea. I also think it would be valueable to discuss with a conservation police officer the laws regarding river navigation, what's legal, what's enforced, and what could be done to make our laws more like Wisconsin's. Another one of the big ? in our wonderful state.

I fished a lot of the gulp alive minnow last fall and I made a few observations. I did not see an increase in smallmouth catches over other products. Smallmouth are sight feeders mainly so this makes sense. I did catch some decent smallmouth on them so I didn't think they repel smallmouth. I did see an increase in catches of other species mainly walleye and catfish. I was able to fish this plastic tight to wood where jig and minnow would have been difficult. The results were some nice walleye and catfish on plastics.

The other field test was in Canada. Our outfitter delivered our live bait to a different camp. The guy with the gulp alive did significantly better on walleye than regular gulp or regular plastics.

Smallies will definately be deep in Sylvania in August. They should still be catchable but don't expect a hot topwater bite or anything unless you go to some of the largemouth lakes.

I'm doing a father/son canoe & camping trip on the black river in Wisconsin in July. I can let you know how it goes.

As already pointed out August would be better on rivers that lakes for smallies. The rivers should be low and stable and the smallmouth should be in predictable summer haunts in areas with current & rock. So many rivers so little time. The farther north you go the better your opportunities but there are decent places in IL as mentioned.

Its good someone around here stocks slider heads. I went to the new Cabelas store for the 2nd time and they still don't have slider heads. I told them I'm sure I'm not the 1st to ask & I guarantee I won't be the last to ask. They don't listen. They make more money selling stuff designed to catch fisherman instead of fish.

I like the spider sliders with the 3/0 hooks. That wide gap slider has a very very thick hook. You really have to hammer home the hookset to bury that through the plastic & a fish.

Ron,

I thought those rainbow looked bigger than those scrawny ones the DNR stocks.

Don,

Sorry about my past posts of my big fat mug taking up more than your whole screen. I'm wondering now if more poeple have it resize like me & Ron or if more people are like Don with it staying bigger than the screen? It could be just an internet browser setting. Don have you upgraded from that commadore 64 yet?

I'm just lazy & don't want to resize my pictures and have doubles choking out all of memory on my PC. I'm willing to conform if it is more than Don. Can we get a survey here?

That's a nice stringer of rainbows. Are those from the DNR spring or fall stocking programs here in IL?

I agree Paul. That is an easier system. The only thing I would recommend is saving your original size and reducing the size you plan on putting on the site. The photo you posted is about 2.5 times the size of my monitor.

If you give it time it will shrink down to an appropriate size once it is loaded. I suppose for people with dial up that could take a while. Don't you want the fine detail enough to see an old decayed sassy shad sitting a foot under the water?

Ron,

Although Don's instructions are good for all message boards, the 9 step program there doesn't scream out I'm easy.

The ISA and its advanced message board technology with image hosting built in provides an easier solution. The problem with tinypic.com and other image hosting sites is they have time limits on accounts if they remain inactive. Then people go back through old posts and you see the box with an x in it where a picture used to be. Anyone seen that before?

Consider the ISA boards easier option. Of coarse like bterril said, you must have your pictures downloaded off of your camera and on your computor saved in a location you can find.

1) Just under the message box I am typing in now there is a section called Attachments. In the right hand part of that section is a button called Browse... Click that button.

2)A box will appear that is a window to your computor. Go find where you saved those pictures (My Pictures for example) and click the Open button in the bottom right of the window once you have found & clicked on the picture you want.

3)The window to your computor files will disappear and a path to your pictures will appear to the left of the browse... button. Your next step is to click the UPLOAD button just to the right of the Browse... button. A message of Uploading File will appear with a circular spinning graphic.

4)The last step is to put your cursor in the spot of you message that you want the picture to go. Basically wherever you stoped typing last. Then go back to the Attachment section and click the down arrow to the right of Manage Current Attachements. Click on the picture you uploaded and it will be placed in the spot where you were last typing in your message.

Here:

That's a total of about 5-6 clicks and your there.

I hope this helps.

The advertisement on TV says the boat show is free. I think this is misleading. Last year the boat show was free but the other 1/2 with the fishing related booths cost $5.00. I will be there every day and we have some extra vendor passes. I will have my cell phone on me and you can call me and set up a meeting so I can get you a vendor pass. That way you can walk in like you own the place. My cell number is 815-703-2651 and if you're a telemarketer, take me off your list.

hey guys, take it from a fly tyer. why not add lead wire to the hooks of the size you want. they can be wrapped with thread to allow the plastic to slide over the weight. wire tabs can be left on to add extra hold of the plastic put the weight where you want it on the hook will give you other options. rich

Good tip Rich. I went to Cabelas this weekend and they had these thin lead strips that come in a conveinent match book. I want to say it was only 99 cents for a pack of 20. They look great for weighting down plastic jerkbaits like a fluke.

This dude actually makes Ryan look good.

Not that I'm a Blago supporter but Ryan left him a big $H!? sandwich to take a bite out of. I don't agree with some of the areas he's chose to cut but when you inheret a huge deficit its raise the taxes or make some cuts. It's not just the DNR, its public schools, IDOT, ect. We are going to be paying for years from the corruption of the Ryan administration.

Paul, the picture was great. You can see who the real angler is.

Yeah, the guy holding the fish.

I purchased a canoe stabalizer about 6 years ago from Cabelas. At that time it was about $119.00. I see the price has gone up. For me & my canoe the stabalizer is invalueable. My canoe is very tipsy and is almost a guaranteed dump on most canoe trips. That limited me to warm weather and forced me to use my canoe for more recreational trips instead of fishing trips. Now my canoe is stable enough to stand up and sight fish out of. I have the confidence to take my children in it and anchor and fish out of it in heavy current. As long as it is installed properly, I can't dump it if I try.

It can be a liability in tight quarters around wood. Please heed this one warning and use in the right spots. It does slow down your speed but in rivers the current is doing the work for you anyway.

For me its all about confidence and my stabalizer gives me that.

3 generations safely navagating the Kishwaukee river in late September.

I live 5 minutes away from the Rock river and would like to see this added to the list. I would be happy to collect samples below many of the discharge sights to make sure they are in compliance. I've seen some that look & smell questionable.