Paul Trybul

You're not the only one. So far this year I've only caught 3 smallmouth. None over 12" and not more than 1 per trip.

Jeff Blevins also helped working the booth at the Rockford Show on Saturday.

For those helping with the booth just give me a call at 815-703-2651 and I can meet you down in the lobby with a vendor pass and you can get in for free. I also put together a free lure pack with a $10 gander savings card for anyone that signs up at the shows. For all those procrastinators out there that haven't paid the dues yet, you can come to the show sign up and get a $20 valued gift pack for $25.00, 6 wonderful newsletters and membership into a great orginization that helps protect our valuable resources.

I think I can get my father to watch the booth for us Friday while we do the presentation. Jeff B said he could work Saturday from 10-2. I could still use someone for after 2PM on Saturday or anytime on Sunday.

He does custom work too, so you may talk him into making you a plastic rodent for fishing in the heavy cover.

Brian O said he would help out Saturday. I'll work the phone tonite and see who else can help. I know Jude said he could help but I don't remember which day.

A Shimano Sahara was the last Shimano reel I ever bought. It lasted about 3 months and the bail spring broke so I had to manually flip it over after every cast. The bail then didn't always sit properly and when I would set the hook sometimes the bail would flip back to open and I would miss a fish. That was very frustrating for me. Combine that with binding up while wet and after 4 months I retired it. At $59.00 it was the most expensive reel I had ever purchased and now was the last Shimano I'll ever buy. Don't let my bad experience sway you, maybe I just got a bad one.

A point that hasn't been brought up yet is: I think it's important to match the rod to the kind of line you are using. If you are going to try a superline (fireline, powerpro, etc.) you will want to go with a lighter action rod and make sure they have premium tips and guides. The superlines have no stretch so the rod tip must give a little or you will miss fish when spinner or crank fishing. A heavy action rod could just rip the treble right out of their mouth too. Also if you don't have premium tips and guides, the superlines will wear grooves in them. Superlines will perform much better than mono against twisting but is not invincible to it. If you go the monofiliment route, then you will want a medium to heavy action rod. You will need more power in your hooksets because the line will stretch some especially fishing textposed rigged plastics. You can also get by with a much cheaper rod and reel combo because mono won't destroy your rod tips and reel bails. Everything else has been covered pretty well. Also I would not buy a rod or reel online anymore. Its one of those things you have to pick up, feel, test, and get comfortable with before commiting to using it.

For the bird watchers out there I wanted to let you know I saw over 10 of them today. They were all easily viewed while driving over the Rock River on Rt64 in the town of Oregon, IL. I don't know how long they stay in the same area but they sure are beautiful majestic birds. Most of them where easy to identify but a few did not have the distinct white heads. They may have been immature eagles or other birds like hawks. I don't think I've ever seen so many in one area before.

Tim, Applying your theory of natural expansion north of smallmouth bass due to global warming, could the reverse be true of the northern pike? From what I remember IL is at the lower range of the northern pike's natural range. Could continued global warming cause our local pike populations to disappear?

I've been doing a lot of research into Quetico while planning my 1st trip in 2008. By then some of these proposad management plans like no live bait, barbless, and possibly no lead will be in effect. I think its great that there are still protected places out there that are relatively untouched or altered by man. Much of what I've read puts the introduction of smallmouth to the BWCA/quetico sometime in the early 1900's. Some speculate that the stocked fish came via the trains which were popoular in those days. With many of the lakes connected by river systems it didn't take long for them to spread. Quetico and the smallmouth bass seem like a perfect mirrage even if they were an introduced species. The deep clear lakes with plenty of rocky habitat is perfect for them. For most of the year the smallmouth use a much different habitat area than the lake trout and even the walleye. The smallmouth will no doubt compete with the native species but there may be bigger factors like global warming or selective harvest choices. I think pike taste pretty good if you learn how to do the boneless 5 fillet method. From what I've read nightcrawlers are not native either. I'm not sure what negative impacts worms could have but you hate to mess with a place so prestine. I'm fine with the live bait ban since it should only protect what is already an outstanding fishery. I plan on going in the summer when most species will readily take artificial offerings. Live bait sounds like a hassle anyway when you are portaging and primitive camping. Who's up for a Quetico 2008 trip to help with some fish population studies? It sound like with the new border crossing laws you can't be a convicted felon or even have a DUI on your record to qualify for a RABC (remote area border crossing).

I've had stickbacks mixed in with my minnows before. I tried fishing with them and they repel fish like the Bill Dance eel lure.

For whatever its worth, I'll never buy another shimano reel. I base this off of my personal experiences not what other people say. I did use a shimano stella one time and boy was it smooth during that warm dry day. At over $500 it better be.

I want to give the new powerbait beast a try. I've always liked powerbaits and this is their replica of the beaver style lures. It looks like a good flippin' lure to work with a slider close to shore in high muddy spring water. I don't know if it will be as good as the original powerleech but it has a similar big fish profile. If the water is clearer this spring I want to give my rapala x-raps a try. I had them in the tackle box last year but I never committed myself to using them. Once summer patterns settle in I'm stickin with the old faithfulls. Too many proven lures out there to waste time with ones that could be productive. Speaking of expensive crankbaits, can anyone tell me why luckycraft cranks are so expensive? Too many pike in some of my waters to throw those around at $15-$20 a pop.

Kinami cut tail worm. I've used it and it works. I fished with Debbie and she did very well with it too. Not a very durable bait because it is that heavy salt plastic and its much thinner than a senko.

I was wondering if anyone has checked out or used this line yet? I know its pretty new. If I had to design a perfect line, it would be invisible like flourocarbon yet tough, thin, and sensitive like fireline. Could this new Fireline Crystal be it? I haven't used it yet but I did look at it at a bait shop. I was disappointed. It didn't look clear at all. It looked white like using the smoke for a long time until it turns white. Sounds like a good concept but I think they missed on this one.

$3.99 + shipping? How do they sleep at night?

The bass pro stick-o has been a favorite of mine. 4.25" size is good for larger fish and the 3" size is good for numbers. I rig them on a slider head or an unweighted wide gap hook. Colors I like are pumpkinseed, black, or purple. I like this lure in the either the 2.5" or 3.25" size. Colors I like are green pumpkin or carolina pumpkin rigged on a slider head. If you can handle the smell, the chompers 4" hulagrub is a big fish magnet. I rig on a 1/4oz sliderhead to get it down on the bottom and fish it slowly through rocky structure. Any nautural color will work. I have one other top plastic but this is the top 3 still in mass production.

With this cold weather your window of opportunity is closing. I agree with most of the other statements: Fish more, bigger lures, possibly live minnows or chubs, and deeper water. The deeper water gets more important as the water gets cooler. I catch plenty of bigger smallmouth in shallow water in the summer. I think its more important to fish in the proximity to deeper water versus fishing the deepest part of the deepest pool. Those fish are generally inactive in cold water. The active fish will push out of the deeper water warm up in the sun a little by some wood and then get in a feeding mood. You could try another watershed that is known for bigger fish. Some rivers go through cycles where they don't get a good push of fish that year or they have a die off of the older class and it takes awhile for those fish to be replaced. This time of year I look for wintering holes. My best luck comes in the lower part of a branch or lower part of the main river. I look for deep bends in the river with timber. Usually the lower regions of a river have alot of sand/silt bottom and high water events scour nice deep holes on the bends especially when there is timber to deflect the current. When the water comes back down this combination of deep water and timber warmed on a sunny afternoon provide my best action this time of year. I've actually seen the smallmouth suspend along the timber out over deeper water. My go to presentation is a 1/16oz jig and large fathead minnow. On my home river I catch a nice mixed bag of smallmouth, walleye, crappie, white bass, and the occasional catfish or northern pike fishing this way. Since the last cold snap with the snow the dink smallmouth have disappeared. I don't catch a lot anymore but the ones I get are nice. It's weird, in the summer over 1/2 of the fish I catch are under 12". In October they are all 12" or better. Where do the dinks go?

Jeff, What is the boot size?

I fish dams but usually only during those peak periods when the fish stack up. They are not my favorite places but I go where the fish are and I have had some great days below dams. There was one day I was atching some guys wade below the dam in Rockford catching some nice walleyes. I put my waders on and gave it a try. After I got about 1/2 way out and had spots where I could feel my feet being swept out from under me, I decided to turn back. When I got back to shore I told myself "it was not worth and that is the last time I'll try that". You have to use common sense in these situations. Is it really worth life or death to catch a few extra fish?

My story is a lot like Don R's. All 5 of my 20" + smallmouth have come from up north in lakes. 18.5" is the best I've done in IL waters and I've tied that several times. Even got (2) 18.5" in one day one time. The latest 20 was about a week and a half ago when I caught this 20" pictured below. Its not the best picture since the sun wasn't at the right angle. We were anchored over a good spot catching 16-19" smallies pretty consistantly. I wasn't going to pull anchor just to get the right angle. This one was caught on a 5" Kinami Hulagrub in a dark pumpkin color fished on a 1/4oz slider head. The fish came off a rocky hump in about 4-6ft of water but was near some deeper water. The retrieve was just a slow drag with some pauses. It went out over some deep water after being hooked and really bull dogged me down deep. It took a while to get this fish to break the surface. The next one was the first 20" smallmouth I ever caught. Same lake but 4 years earlier. This one was caught on a 4" purple senko dragged along the bottom on a 1/8oz slider head. We had caught several 18's and 19's out of this spot that this fish really didn't seem extra special at the time. It looked just like another 19 but this one just stretched out a little longer in the tail. The spot could best be described as a saddle. It was a narrow between too points that had shallow water coming up out of a steep drop into deep water. The bottom was mostly sand with a few softball sized rocks mixed in. The other (3) 20's were caught on Senko's or Bass Pro Shops stick O's. It all the same thing in my book. The colors were pumpkin and white on the other ones. Great topic. I wish a had some stories of local 20's but I'm still working on it. They just aren't that common in IL rivers. At least not the ones I fish.