Jim Wright

I’m sorry. I will not be available. 

I’m in,  Mike!

I’m in!

Looks very fishy! Love the game changer style. 

Thanks Rich, see y'all Saturday. 

I will be glad to help. I will bring a fly rod. 
My girlfriend would like to help as well. She is not an angler, but can help in other capacities. 

I will be there, John. What can I bring ?

That set up is sweet! It looks like a dang fly shop!!

Sad news indeed. I still keep a copy of the Kankakee River Map he and his son produced. it is still a great resource. Sorry to see such a great ambassador leave us. 

That was very entertaining! And some very sage advice to which i will ignore🤪

Well done! The Clouser is a great intro to tying. Less is more with this pattern for sure. 

Keep it up!

This will be a great way to become comfortable with the Zoom format.

4 minutes ago, Bart Durham said:

Van texted me photos of the two flies he tied at the event and I was so impressed I had to post them here, I hope you don't mind Van:

 

Those look NICE! It looks as if we have a potential ISA Zoom Tie Lead.😎

Thank you for choosing me to lead this inaugural event. I missed having the open banter that all of enjoy by sitting in person. Yet this is the next best thing. I hope I provided some good tricks for tying. I love to tie easy and quick patterns, then if they snag up no worries. Van, you're comment on weighting the front was interesting, I will apply it to a batch. I am intrigued!

Rich the eyes don't last long without some reinforcement. I haven't found a great application yet. I've tried thin CCG but it takes away from the action a bit.

Again, thank you to all who helped put this together and all whom participated.

I would be glad to donate some bugs! PM me for the 411.😁👍

3 minutes ago, Tom L said:

Cleaned and well organized.  My tying table would be cleaned and organized for a few days and would go back to being messy again.   

It doesn't take long to get messed up, that's for sure!😁

On 8/27/2020 at 3:55 PM, John Gillio said:

That sounds like a nice space to spend some time in.👍

Thank you, John!

My station is very messy at the moment, I have been tying randomly through out this fishing season. This is my basement. It is a music studio, tying station, office man cave.

I like seeing what you all have going on. Rich you have to post a pic of your station, I am intrigued!

The weather was perfect, warm partly cloudy days followed by calm cool evenings. The bite was slow but steady, The fish large and angry! It is every angler’s challenge to solve the mysteries of weather and water to find fish that will eat our offerings to allow us moments of sheer joy. The highlights of this four day ISA adventure includes; whopper popper bites yielding many 18’s and 19’s, campfires and camaraderie, and fish stories galore!

I traveled up with Bart. He was kind enough to haul my Nucanoe even though he had his Towee boat trailered. We fished together in the Towee, a great vessel and perfect for a river.

Our group: Ken and his daughter Lauren, Kevin, Bart, Eric and myself was great! Everyone pitched in to shuttle, cook  and clean. However, Kudos to Kevin for selflessly washing our supper dishes after every meal, he was never asked nor complained.

We quickly planned an adventure day to shuttle everyone up stream to a dam. Then float 11 miles back to camp. It was so peaceful, scenic and my first big river float in my vessel.

We had stumbled upon a large Bald Eagle struggling to get out of the water. It made its way to shore and sat, wings spread flat against the ground. We felt bad as it seemed to need help, but that thing had some serious hardware, we thought best to leave it be. Bart called WDNR to report it. He then called a Raptor Society. They wanted him to box it up! We let nature take it’s course.  The journey downstream produced fish, albeit a slow bite.  Growing weary of casting the shore. I switched my focus on mid river structure. Recalling Tim Landweir’s Smallmouth book, I employed the “Mr. Wiggles” tactic of drifting a rubber legged popper. Moving it very infrequently…less is more. I was relaxing, drifting along when low and behold a bass sipped in that thing like a Koi! I finally got my wits together to set the hook, an 18” specimen came to hand. Later, the same technique yielded a 14 incher.

While fishing in Ken’s “River Machine” with Kevin and of course, Ken; we had made several drifts through some fast water. Ken had deployed a double fluke rig, which he had been very effective for him. We were anecdoting about catching doubles, (Which no one had done).

Wouldn’t you know, that double rig caught two on one cast! An 18” and a 13” = 31 inches of bronze!

Bart and I had been deploying our fly rods to deliver poppers. There were some great takes! Fish sharking up behind the lure, sipping or slurping, or pouncing from above. I’ll be darned if Bart couldn’t catch anything but 19’s on those poppers.

The Menomonee is certainly special water. Her waters run clear, and she does not give up secrets easily. During our stay, flows were strong and levels above normal. Which favored the fish. Yet, players could be found. I sometimes put too much focus on the numbers of fish brought to hand. When you boil it down, it’s about making great memories. Can’t wait until next time!

Thank you Scott for organizing this trip!

Nice fish Paul. Please, don’t catch em all! 😆

20 hours ago, Tom L said:

Jim, I had good luck with the Foxy and the CF Muddlers in white yellow and tan.

Alan did well with the BadHairDay and Fuzzy Grub.

 

good stuff as always, Tom. Many Thanks

3 hours ago, ericg said:

Hi Jim,

I will be there same days as you and will also be kayaking. We can all help each other with kayak shuttles.  There are public access points every few miles perfect for kayaks. 5$ per day for a tag that goes in car and is good for all the wisconsin public access points all day.

EricG

Absolutely! Give me a shout. 
773-297-3542

29 minutes ago, Scott Ferguson said:

Because you are arriving on Tuesday, you can get there anytime you like. And, because you leave on Saturday, you can leave anytime you like as well. For meals, you just coordinate with the others who will be there with you. I’m not sure how restaurants are operating during these times. There are supermarkets 15 minutes away in Marinette with anything you might want. As for flies, I’m sure someone will post who knows. As a non fly guy, everything you use on any other river will work. Whopper Ploppers have done well in the past as well as Ned Rigs, Senkos, spinnerbaits, jig and plastics, in line spinners, most smallie baits will do fine. The water levels were over flood stage recently but have been falling steadily. And if the trend continues, should be good by the time you arrive.  Here is the nearest gauge, upstream of the cabin. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/wi/nwis/uv?site_no=04067500
There is a good launch a few miles upstream of the cabin where you can float in 3 to 6 hours back to the cabin, and another a few miles downstream. The launches require a $5 (?) fee. Several other places to launch on both sides of the river. You’ll find some maps showing their locations on the counter by the back door of the cabin.

Address of the cabin is W 2437 Twin Pines Lane, Porterfield, Wi. The sign at the road says Tinkers Dam. Some other things to know. Cell phone service is nearly nonexistent at the cabin. There is a phone in the cabin with free long distance if you want to call home. The phone number of the cabin is; 715-732-2623 if someone needs to call you. There is WiFi and satellite TV.   The schedule posted at the beginning of this thread is up to date as to who is coming and when.
Any other questions post here or call me and I’ll try to help. 630-209-9452. 

 

Thanks a million! great info

As a first time Road Tripper, and first time on the Menominee, I have a few noobie questions:
What time is check in/ check out? 
How are meals handled?
Any fly/lure recommendations? 
What are the safe USGS gauge levels? 
I will be bringing my kayak, any advice there 🙂

Thank you in advance, looking forward to this. 
Jim 
 

This Is amazing! More humans of this variety are in high demand. We dont own nature, just borrow it from our children.