Kevin Dells

Im hoping all the river levels come down soon as of next wednesday im for for a week maybe more. Summer stock slowdown's!Ugghh Im thinking of riding up to the wisconsin river next thursday pending my wife's doctor consultation, she may need shoulder surgery and that will determine my play time.

Terry, wev'e got two large tupperware bins were going to attach side by side, that way when we do need to empty them we can just grab and go. But thank you the plastic barrel was initially what i considered then my buddy suggested the bins and he already had them. Looks like we might be out of luck using them for a bit were hoping levels come down by the 31st for our next float. And Paul feel free to join us for that one, were having a cookout afterwards. Just let me know reasonably soon on FB were trying to get a head count for food.

Just trying to keep the river clean guys! You both know me theres a chunk of my heart that crys out when i see how bad it can get. We would go every weekend if we had more skin, were all so tan and burnt i don't think we have anymore skin to give up to the sun gods!I know my ankles have peeled four layers easy! If any of you guys would like to join us it really is a fun, relaxing day on the water. Warning though the group i go with is really out there! Some of things said should not even be repeated at a truck stop!(and that's the girls talking that way!)

As many of you have read my rantings for years about people float tubing on the Kishwaukee and my hatred of it,I have changed my attitude of it completley. I have recently decided if you can't beat them join them. But as we do in the ISA there really is a need for educating people as well. This summer i have joined a very good and always growing number of friends on float trips, the Kish being as clear and floatable as it is it really lends itself to great days spent on waters with friends. I have over the past few weekends parked my innertube in the dead middle of my group and nicely pointed out what a beautiful river it is as we pass through some of the prettier sections along the 5 miles we float. This has quickly gained their appreciation even as non fisherman for the river it is. The last two trips we have also NICELY preached to groups besides ours about making sure beer and pop cans go back into the coolers after they have been consumed. But what you will really see if you were to watch our group(last trip was 21 people on sunday)was our all day efforts to pick up all trash left by everybody as we see it. As we passed it it dissappeared into trash bags and every forest preserve we emptied and refilled again. I am going to share a picture that yes i was very upset about when i saw it but very happy when we were done fixing it. All the contents of the bags im holding was only HALF of what we pulled out of one deep hole that current had dug behind a boulder. This rock is directly across from the Espenchied FP canoe launch. Judging from the condition of the cans(some new and some not so new) they had been accumulating for a few weeks if not longer. In closing i am going to add that myself and another guy from my group are building a 4x4 floating platform that will serve as a garbage barge for future river tubing runs to help the ease of clean up efforts. We will be floating again in two weekends(july 31st). We are also going to hopefully bring more camera's to show the clean up efforts. Like i said i used to be dead against this, but the response is pretty cool from onlookers who witness us not only tubing and partying along with them but more so watching us haul the cans dropped by others. I think it's beggining to rub off on others, we are not shy about telling somebody they lost a beer can and could you please pick it up! They get off easy, people from our group that drops something they get dunked! It would be really cool if somehow we could get t-shirts or swim shorts with something written on the back stating that we are doing this and WATCHING THEM!

Where in Wisconsin are you headed John, were getting pounded by the rain gods as well! Your probably heading way up which did clear the storms

Hopefully it won't get swept under the table for some reason. Why wouldn't it? It always does! The big fish kill on the rock last year....Nothing was ever done about it. The Mega farm on the Apple nothing was ever done to change the fact that that's a disaster waiting to happen. We live in a world of .."Oh Well!"

Good take their boats, this will be something they never forget! Auction them off and put it towards restocking the damage they caused! It won't end up that way but that would be nice and justice would be served!

Yeah the wind was insane that's why i chose to go where i did, Lots of tree's! Although it was kind of dangerous because branches were snapping all around from it, you could hear them deep in the woods smashing to the ground. South branch very wadeable though!

Guys im not that old but I do remember fishing with Grandpa and him having bought a bio degradable brown worm container like the picture that Mike put up, looks like a gardening peat moss container. They probably got to expensive to manufacture compared to plastic so the retailers went cheap to put more dollars in the pocket. Grandpa would dip the whole container bottom in the lake to keep the worms fresh all day, container would soak up the water just a little. And Yes we brought them home for grandma to start her spring seeds in!! There was once such a thing! Even a mulched up cardboard pressed composite would break down and have very little effect compared to plastic

Are you kidding me! I should have looked at the events calander i drove right past you guys today on the way to the south branch!! Sorry guys my Bad, i didn't get the Bronzeback Bulletin and i forgot to look here!!!

I run a 14 foot Phoenix poke boat and if you don't know what that is i"ll explain. It is pretty much a Kevlar Kayak with a larger opening, it's very stable for fishing,and because it is longer i can paddle up river without a problem.(at least the Kishwaukee)So no need for a shuttle where im at. Average price is a whole lot more! Kevlar means money, my boat is about 20 years old but in awesome shape, but to replace her would run me 2800$ for the same model now. Oh yeah and it weighs about 15 pounds so very easy to portage!

I apologize for not getting to the meeting guys my wife was interveiwed that afternoon and needed several of her shots before she could test for her CNA certificate which she took and passed yesterday,she just left for her career as a nurse this morning. Anyhow we ended up at a walk in clinic that night instead,but it was all for the better...a paycheck! If at all possible for one of you to post some step by step tutorials on tying these flys i would love it, im getting ready to do some tying myself. And it would be cool if Paul got into long rodding that way i won't have to look like an idiot on the Kish alone!

Mike, If you've ever fished the apple you would know to bring plenty supply's because it's going to be a long day. Plenty of snacks for ankletwisting walking/climbing,possibly some rope and carribeaners for repelling in or out,excess tackle to feed all the rock monsters that gobble up your jigs,first aid kit for blisters possible broken ankles and sawgrass ointment industrial sized of course! Oh the backpack on the Apple is a Must Have!

I shall be bringing my good looks!

Making poppers out of lightweight wood for my spinning gear is what got me interested in making them for my flyrod a year or so later out of foam. The wood poppers i made because as many pointed out i was tired of throwing chug bugs into tree's at 5 bucks a pop. I could make pencil poppers and fatter poppers from dowel rods, a small assortment of hardware and also tie tails on the trebel hooks.Dremel tool to shape the mouth and cut the slot for the hook. I found small translucent circles that were plastic (about the size of candy you would use to decorate a cake maybe 1/8th inch) and glue those on in rows and then clear coat it. I did this after a base color because i also admit im awful at the painting. I carried the translucents over to the fly poppers as well and just from my own experience it seemed to catch more fish. Anything you add just make sure and clear coat a couple times to lock it in place. Great topic! Where's my vice!

Don when did you take these last two pictures? And since im addressing you, is that stool technique something new? Put stool in the middle of the river, sit on it and fish directly below it?? You'll have to show me this sometime!:: Jigging between the legs!::

Iv'e seen the same guys doing it while driving a car, down right dangerous! Good for you Terri, im not a big fan either but society forces me to have one.At least i pull over if i need to use it and won't answer it if im already on the road. Why possibly kill somebody's family because im not paying attention to other things.

Scott, My thought was to actually take on a lot of work myself if they accepted it, i can't build a forums board but i can moderate it and put topics up that might draw interest. Design is not my forte, but you know me i love to talk fishing and conservation so i would jump all over the chance to be the webmaster or Moderator for it. The Newsletter i would be more than happy to write articles for it if they do have somebody in place that can put them together, again im not to skilled in putting a newsletter together. My strong points are writing, photography, and finding interesting things to write about. Being as you put together the ISA newsletter what does it involve to put together such a beast!LOL Is it a layout program you use? Im not in anyway trying to step on toe's so please don't think that,you know me im the guy alwasy trying to fight the good fight and better anything i can alliance wise within my ability's. My thought really is since their meetings are a half hour drive then maybe i can help them. The toughest part for me is i just don't know any of these guys and i wondered if anybody might be in good relation with any of their officers. Being as that i am up north now making meetings would be easy for me to do.

Im sure this will turn into a conservation meeting with all thats going on in the northwest. I'll bring my musky baits i catch smallies on in case anyone wants to see the wood i throw!LOL Kidding

Not a problem, glad to help out Jude

After writing what i did here yesterday i went and looked at the wisconsin SA website and there are a few things that seems their missing that we do that would help them a lot. The biggest thing is a forums section of their website, it's not there or not to my seeing because im not an actual member so maybe thats something they give acssess to after youv'e become a member, who knows. BUT if in fact they do not have that section. I would find it very hard to discuss a LOT of issues that an alliance needs to discuss, meetings, speakers, conservation projects and on and on. Pretty much a good working board to make things happen as we do here. Imagine how slow we would move with out our forums board, imagine how hard it would be to keep people interested.Thats pretty much the boat their in. Now the good news and i would be very willing to play Liason between the two states SA. Their monthly meetings are held only a half hours drive from me. Should we take the inititive and ask them if they would like our help, would Eric be able to help set up a good working forums board or is this a huge task? Another thing that i could see needing a little tweaking would be their Newsletter, it's two pages and thats it and the three i did look at(they have an archive section) is very basic with very little information about smallmouth fishing. Again i would love to write for our and their newsletter, maybe submit one article for both seeing as that Illinois members don't get theirs and vice versa. Make it my monthly agenda to write for both. Missing both a forums board and a good interesting newsletter how do you keep members interested in the club, what are their dues going towards? Their meetings.... they hold their meetings monthly right around the Madison area, im 30 miles away and when i read this i thought hey why not attend one. But at the same time i saw their speakers for meetings were not even talking about smallmouth but other species???? They also only hold meetings from January through april so that's only four months for actual bussiness discusion on a face to face basis. So my question is does anybody from the Illinois Alliance know anybody from their alliance well enough we could offer advice without seeming pushy, maybe giving somebody on their team a call and saying hey were sending this guy up to help discuss idea's to help you make your alliance stronger in time? I wouldn't want to walk into their meeting and just outright ask this. If i could do this with the Wisconsin Chapter and somebody could help the Indiana and Missouri chapters (if they need help) improve their membership and agenda's then i think at least the Midwest would be moving in the right direction to becoming a national alliance start. Thoughts?

Rich if you get one to Paul at the blowout that will work great, he can go in and grab one for me from the booth sunday morning as he and I are covering the booth sunday. Which by the way i"ll cover the whole shift with Paul and then help teardown and haul everything out. Now with the blowout the same weekend will we have the backdrop at the show or is that going to the blowout?

Thanks Mike but don't throw me into it that quick! Im still trying to keep my wife by my side and that title warrants a lot of time away and PC time! Does sound dam nice though seeing as that im always on the crusade to stop the bad guys!LOL Would i get to wear a shiny badge and knock over buckets????PLEASEEEEE!! LMAO

::And the simpleton raised his hand:: "I need a job!" And my 2 cents, as a once officer of the ISA and may I add the largest Smallmouth Alliance in the US i seem to remember a time not long ago that some members felt we were giving too much already as far as our time was concerned, that it was starting to feel like at least a part time job. By going to a national level it will take one state to at least propose the idea and recruit the starting of it which more then likely would be the ISA with it's large member base. But break down the ratio of members who give sometimes and members who almost give until it hurts and that percentage is a big difference. I remember as an officer that although we had a nice sized member base it at times still felt overwhelming to be an officer and see to all the duty's asked. Deligating became nessecary to get things accomplished and thats when the fun kind of gets lost in the equation of being a member. So my point is it would take a large very dedicated non for profit team thats already very knowledged to what the alliance has done in the past to even kick it off on a national level.Do we have those team members in place now that would be willing to donate that much unpaid time to see it get started. And as somebody said i believe Mike, would we have as much passion fighting for rivers 1000 miles away that we may never fish or visit as we would have for rivers in our own back yards. Guys i would think the smart thing to do is help other alliances get better, possibly alliances that have already been and are dropping in membership,alliances that we sometimes share waters with and my point being...Wisconsin and Indiana Alliances. Geez we give away and bid on fishing trips at the blowout to fish on a lot of rivers up north why not back the people who guide us and share their spots with us while we vacation? I can't even count on one hand the amount of different rivers iv'e fished in Wisconsin, or the lakes in the UP. It's our home away from home so why not back those places if were going to do anything at all. Help them with a better website, a better newsletter,trade trips maybe? Who knows again just a thought.