John Gillio

Rob, nice catch! As I said, we often think alike on the water. Tie that fly in white, yellow, orange, and brn and you may be set up for when they are feeding on cottonwood fluff and, in the fall, leaves. They seem to fo us on a single color leaf on a given day.

That is a wicked looking fly Rob, and some nice fishing. I expect to be popping some small streams. I'll be sure to remember my bombers are in the bag.

You may be onto something there.

The Better Fishing Association of Northern Illinois had it's kids fishing rodeo today on the I&M Canal. This little guy wasn't having luck in that large body of water. Maybe the fish would be more concentrated in this smaller pool, or should I say puddle.

Nicely done Mark.

I do have a 3 wt. As much as I use it, the line will last forever. Not that I don't enjoy it. It is a favorite setup that just doesn't get used enough. It sounds like a size 2 wt iworks best . I'll be keeping my eyes open for an old one too. It would be interesting to see how it compares to the others. If I find something I'll send you some.

Mike, I read that the level end of a 2 or 3 wt, weight forward floating fly line works quite well on a Tenkara rod for dry flies. Maybe the end piece of an old line would be the ticket.

From my experience: I wear a size 9 and ordered a 9. It is roomy enough to wear comfortabley with a pair of Cabela's neoprene socks.

Don't be afraid to post your thoughts on them here. I'd like to here what you think.

Yes, this last one had many ways I could have attached it to my vest or belt, as well as slinging it over a shoulder. I'm just not bright enough to use them.

I wore my Soft Science wet wade boots for the 1st time yesterday. Here is the rundown for a couple hours fishing a sand/gravel and sometimes quite rocky stream bed: The boots are extremely lite wt and comfortable. I wore a pair of neoprene socks with them. They are relatively wide providing ample room but your feet don't slide around in them because the inner sole is somewhat tacky. The sole provides good protection for walking on rocks. I was very impressed with this. The outer soles also gripped the rocks much better than I thought they would. The shoe can be tied tightly above the ankle to keep out sand and gravel. The shoe does not have a belowed tongue however, so a small amount of sand snuck through at the tongue. This was not a problem with the neoprene socks which helped protect against abrasive sand. The shoe seems to be built well for being so light wt. Hopefully they will last me a while.

For a. fellow who still has a ruler that he used in 5th grade, over the past 4 yrs I have become an expert at loosing walking sticks. I've gone through about one per yr starting with the nice piece of ash that I carried around with me for about 20 yrs. About 4 yrs back it started a fishing trip with me, but wasn't with me when I got back to the car. Lord knows where it went. At that point I decided to buy a hooked cane made of a sturdy piece of oak. The hooked end was often used to help pull me up a river bank by hooking a tree root or branch and pulling myself up the slope. It was left on a midstream rock I was fishing from. The water was low and because it wasn't needed to get back to shore, I forgot it there. Irealized it was missing when I got home. No problem, I was to fish the same area in the morning so I figured I would grab it then. Unexpected rains that evening raised the river over the rock and floated my cane away. I liked that cane enough to buy another. I was fishing from the same rock about a yr later. The low water situation was about the same. I decided to stand the cane up against the back of the rock so I would notice it when I was ready to go. I jammed it snuggly between the big rock and some smaller ones there and when I turned to leave, it was gone. ???. Being I liked that hook so much I bought another hooked cane. This was a cheap lightweight model. I doctored it up with straps so I could keep it on my body . I figured it would be hard to loose it if it were stuck to me. WRONG. Yesterday on my 1st wade of the year, it happened again. Almost back to the car I hooked a respectable smallie. It was a pretty fish so I felt a photo was in order. I was mid stream and the cane was in the way as I was trying to keep the fish in the stream while taking the photo. I unhooked it and looped the hook of the cane around my ankle so it dangled downstream as the photo was taken. Pleased with the photo and the catch/release of the fish as well as with the realization that there were bass on beds in the area, I started back downstream forgetting about the cane. I'm sure my first step allowed the cane to float free, but I was too interested in looking at the bass on their beds to even notice the cane floating away. If anyone runs across a hooked cane along a north central Illinois small stream, you can probably guess who once owned it.

I spent some time this morning at a little local pond with the tenkara rod. I fished the tenkara style flies as well as some regular wets and pull chain head marribou bluegill flies. All fished well. I was able to work around the algae patches that are quickly taking over the shore line, landing a good number of 6-7" gills, some 8" black crappie, and a 9" largemouth. This tenkara thing is fun but I'm needing to find some running water that is low and clear enough to wade. I spent the afternoon driving around in search of such a thing and was surprised to find one that fits the bill. Now I hope I can find time to fish it before a rain messes it up.

Mike, I received your message and sent a reply. I didn't get a notification that it was sent though. I only found it after you mentioned it and I looked for it. Let me know here if you receive mine. The mail box still has quite a bit of room. Thanks.

I have an 11.5 ft braided tapered line from maxcast with an 18" tippet.

Nice, I'll be trying mine again early this coming week. I tied some actual tenkara flies this time. We'll see how that works.

Thanks for reposting that. Lots of good info there. I used the rod for the 1st time today and had a blast with a bunch of 7" gills and crappie.

loop

This may be of interest to those wanting to try a Tenkara rod but don't want to spend a bunch on something they may or may not enjoy. A friend of mine ordered what looks to be a nice 12' Maxcatch Tenkara rod, rod case, line, flies, and fly case for about 70 dollars with free shipping on Aliexpress.com. He also ordered another 12' rod for 12 dollars which he gave to me. It came with an extra tip section. It does not have a cork grip like the Maxcatch rod but not bad for 12 and free shipping. They both took a few weeks to arrive in the mail. Neither has been put to the test yet, but claim to be able to handle fish up to 22" or so, which is also the length of my rod when folded down. The Matchcatch folds down to 20". Here are a few shots of the rod he gave me.

And catching fish.

It always amazes me that there are fish that thrive in a river that looks like that so often.

I'm getting excited. I was largemouth bass fishing today and saw 7 carp feeding along the shoreline. I should be able to get after them within a week or so.

Somehow I missed this post. What Manny is saying makes sense on this stream, especially in the lower reaches where the river has a steeper grade and is basically in a gorge. Like Manny, I have limited experience upstream toward Pontiac.

ROB, THANKS FOR SAYING THAT. ARRGH !

I would guess they would be nice pike flies.