Dick G

"Veeeery interesting!" That's Artie Johnson from the old Laugh in show.

Yesterday I lost two really nice fish that threw the hook as they leaped entirely out of the water. I love the sight of airborne smallmouth, but is there a technique to prevent the fish from jumping while trying to bring the fish to hand. The bigger fish seem to know all the tricks: they pull upstream testing your drag; they bolt downstream faster than you can take in line or set the hook; they dive down into rock, weed or wood cover and tangle your line; or they propel into the air with a tremendous twist and shake of their bodies. To prevent the jump, do you let the fish play itself out in deeper water? Or do you try to get the fish to shallow water immediately? Or do you stick the end of the pole under water? Or do you just smile at the sight of a flying fish, and realize some fish are jumpers and some jumpers get off? Just asking.

Don, Most fishermen in the ISA do not hike 2 or 3 miles through the woods to get to a new fishing spot and then wade for 10 hours nonstop through boulder-strewn fast flowing water for three days straight. Most of us leave our wading boots on a shelf and get them out for a weekend 2 hour wade a couple of times a month.

Got out to a west suburban pond to catch a few largemouth bass late this afternoon. I had just caught one on a white spinnerbait when I looked over my shoulder and saw this house on fire. As I dialed 911, a lady walking her baby signaled that she had already called. The fire department responded quickly. I lost my fishing mojo. I snapped a few pictures and headed home.

Is that Eric down by the tree with a floatin' fly?

Even though Ed Buric was in charge of the meeting, there appeared to be two other "chairmen" at the table. Also, I noticed that I was the only one to have ordered the Smallmouth Fisherman's Breakfast Burrito. Nice to see some new faces.

I think that many of you have tired of attending outdoor shows that have turned into something that resembles a flea market. Having worked the show on Wednesday, I got a few minutes to walk around and visit the booths. Here are some impressions. The show is smaller than in past years, but most of the exhibitors are outdoor related. No ShamWows or vaccum cleaner demonstrations. The The fishing tackle on display consisted mostly of stuff that you could actually use. There were a lot of lures and plastics that seemed very suitable for smallmouth fishing. I saw a lot of pumpkin-brown-green colors on the plastics, for example, replacing all those bubblegum pink and neon shades I have seen in the past. Also, there was a lot of emphasis on kid oriented activities (ISA-Salmon Unlimited casting area, high school fishing competition casting, alligator handling, dog shows, archery shooting and tent pitching contests). The seminar speakers are headlined by some really big names. All in all a very nice show. I am looking forward to going back on Sunday. I saw some pumpkin crayfish that look nicer than my go to Yum Crawbugs, and some Storm Minnows with custom spinner blades attached that I just have to try. If you come to Rosemont, be sure to stop by the ISA booth and say hi and renew your membership and buy your Bronzeback Blowout tickets. We are easy to find. Our booth is right by the great big yellow fish tank and the girls with the tiny bikinis!

I will be at the booth all day on Wednesday from 2pm until 9:30 pm.

I have a Tarpon 120 SOT that has a rudder that can be lowered into the water and is operated with foot pedals. This is a great feature in moderate to slow moving water. I can fish for long stretches without using the paddle at all. By pushing the foot pedals, I can go from one side of the river to the other. On flat water it helps keep a straight course when fighting the wind. The downside is the rudder system does add weight. As far as water in a SOT, there are plugs that can be purchased to fill the drain holes. If water does come over the top of the kayak, I always carry one of Vince's Sham Wows or a sponge to mop up the water.

Before I run out and fish in the winter, I always check my weather monkey in the back yard. It looked like snow, but I went anyway. Man, it got cold out there. I got to start wearing socks again. I know that's a dink, but he came gift wrapped so I included this picture.

Jim, That is a picture of James Whitmore, the actor.

Norm, that weather alarmist, Tom Skilling, is projecting snow totals next week of 4 to 12 inches. I gotta get the outdoor lights finished now! Hope to get a nice smallmouth in the snow this year.

On a recent trip to Sweden, I found Lundgren's fishing store. It was founded in 1892, and they used to make all of their own lures, hook, and supplies. Today they only make various nets. The fishing around Stockholm is done in both fresh water and the Baltic. Favorite sport fish are pike and perch pike (walleye). Everything they catch, they eat. Eel, herring, flounder and salmon are in heavy rotation on the Swedish kitchen table along with the various pikes. I thought it was interesting how they displayed the lures. The only thing I bought was a nice black hat.

On a just completed trip to Florida, I managed to get some photos that I thought might be interesting to the guys and gals of the ISA, since nobody is fishing this year. One picture is of a large alligator eating a big soft shelled turtle. Another features a well hidden gator in the Everglades vegetation. The heat index down there was 105. Real temperature upper nineties and humidity about 88 to 90 percent. It feels down right chilly back in northern Illinois.

The Wednesday Dale Bowman column in the Chicago Sun Times takes note of achievements of 2 long time ISA members. Norm was noted for his remarkable catch on the Kankakee the other day, and Dan Basore was cited for winning an antique fishing equipment casting competition. Congratulations guys!

Wow! I really did not expect an answer to my musings. Al, you kind of take the fun out of my imagined scenarios. I pictured you painting for a few hours, checking out the water flow gauges, looking at the weather channel and dropping everything and heading out to the nearest river. I guess I have watched too many PBS 30 minute painting shows with "happy little clouds". Seriously, I had a pretty good idea that you adhered to a rigorous work schedule, but I had a little hope that you only painted enough to support endless hours on endless rivers pursuing endless smallmouth. Thanks for replying!

I really enjoyed all three speakers. There was definitely some excitement in the room when the DNR chief ws announced. There was obviously a lot of pent up frustration over the last 6 years of mismanagement. It was also nice to see Mr. Labrose, representing Dupage County in attendance. The slide show running throughout the evening was a really nice touch. Maybe some of those Clifford You Tube video treats could be added next year. Moving the food into the bar area was really helpful. It kept the prize area less congested. A very enjoyable evening!

I really enjoyed Al's presentation. I wish I could have talked to him, but I was busy selling tickets. It was such a busy evening that there was not time for the usual Q & A after his talk. I would like to know more about the artistic process that results in such striking pictures. Does he work from photographs, or often paint from memory? Does he work on more than one painting at a time? How many days or hours to do a completed picture? Does he paint only in the winter, and do field research (fish) in the warmer months? Does he have a special paint color/mixture that is smallmouth "bronze" that is used as a base color for many of his paintings? Also, is there any chance of getting any more of Al's t-shirts or hats anywhere? I put a lot of tickets in the raffle for one, but I would gladly pay for one if they are available.

That 5 pound smallmouth on your video is a great looking fish. Looks like it was caught right on the breakwater.

I will be able to help out all day on Sunday

Step aside Obama and McCain. We've got Don Rego as our new leader!

I agree. I see the kayak as a tool to get to the good spots, and then get out and wade. I was wearing my waders on both trips, but I just had to fish while heading for the "good spots" downstream. Now, Eric S. actually does all of fishing from the kayak. He barely breaks a sweat when he fishes from his tandem kayak. He has even perfected methods of trolling by shoreline structure with only a few feet of line out. Of course this utilizes the white spinnerbait.

The cats they were shocking were in the deeper holes under the bridges and by the dam.

On Friday I ran into Bob Rung conducting a fish survey of the Dupage River for the state. He and his associate were collecting fish from the dam in Hammel woods to about a mile downstream.When they came back to their put in spot, I talked with them as they recorded the length and weight of the fish they had shocked. Here is a very unscientific summary of some of the information I gleaned. 1)The river is so rich in nutrients that their batteries could barely produce enough of a current to stun any fish outside of a one foot radius from each of their metal probes. The river was like "wading in copper wire" because of the ions in the water. They saw many more fish than they could stun and net. 2) The top gamefish in the river by numbers is the smallmouth bass. But a very close second is the channel catfish. They actually collected more catfish than smallies on this day, because the bass were better able to swim away from the electrical current, while the catfish were more stationary. The biggest catfish was about 5 pounds, while the 4 largest smallmouth were in the 14 to 17" range. Smallmouth at 20" are rare on the Dupage. 3) A distant third in numbers was the rock bass. A few bluegill-sunfish and one largemouth rounded out the sport fish. 4)Carp and suckers were the most plentiful of all the types of fish brought in. They were big. The largest carp was 29" and aqbout 15 lbs. The neatest looking fish in carp-sucker tub were the hog nosed suckers. They had a pronounced light and dark shading on their bodies that gave them a tropical fish look. There were also a few creek chubs measured. 5)Bob's favorite fish were the two mad toms they captured. They were a nice pumpkin lure color, and not black like I thought They would be. They are not baby catfish, I was informed, but a separate species. 6) There are a few flatheads and pike in the river, but they are rare. 7)Some of the carp and catfish were kept for further study on contaminents in their tissue. Bob suggested eating no more than one fish a week from the Dupage. The results of their findings are put up on their website.

Used my Tarpon sit on top kayak for the first 2 times on the main branch of the Dupage the past few weeks. The good: Floating down the Dupage with the sun out and the water (dare I say it) gin clear, you get a close up view of smallmouth bass waiting to pounce on anything that looks like food swept their way. Many of the fish you float by are in midstream, open, sun lit shallow water-but always relating to some kind of structure that is capable of deflecting current. A small patch of weeds, a slight dip in the river bed, or a rock shelf only a few inches high can hold nice fish. The big fish are often alone, and the little guys are grouped up. But sometimes when I hooked a large fish, other comparable fish would suddenly materialize out of nowhere and give chase right up to the kayak. So, I guess I've got to learn that those perfect, shaded eddies along the shoreline are not the only place I should be seeking out. The bad: Catching and landing a fiesty smallmouth from a moving kayak can be very challenging! A perfect cast (one of my few) by a laydown results in a 17" hookup. The fish takes off downstream and passes the kayak, pulling me into faster water. Then he darts into the weeds. All at the same time I'm trying to play the fish with one hand, steer the yak with the other hand on the paddle, decide if it is wise to drop the anchor, look back upstream to mentally mark the spot where I hooked the fish for future reference, and fumble for the new unfamiliar camera in its waterproof bag. By now I have floated 75 yards down stream, and I have yet to bring the fish to hand. By the time I unhook and release the beautiful fish, I have decided to forget the photo and have floated past some really sweet looking spots. I think about turning about and paddling back upstream to where I first made contact with the fish, but I decide it's easier to just continue with the flow. The ugly: Paddling back upstream to my takeout point in ninety degree heat, fighting both the current and the wind (which of course is now picking up dramatically) with two bad shoulders and an empty water bottle. All in all, good times.