Norm M

or chenille stockings

Not even pass the taters and gravy you dang bogarts

Oh goody.

oh yes, something very interesting could be coming.

turduckhen season

Besides that anyway, I thought it was wabbit season?

it's swami season

A guy I know dabbles in fishing when his career allows, he fly fishes. He told me he went to a warm water discharge last winter and said he had problems with his line freezing. He asked me how to keep that from happening again.

I told him to keep the line guides clear of ice but I have never used a fly rod in cold weather so I wonder why it occurred and how to fix it for him.

I know with my spinning gear I get ice chips flying off the line in my face at times and off course the guides have froze up. I've never had a situation where the line froze and I was unable to make any more casts.

nah just smallcicles

Buy the big spools and tie your own, if your feeling adventurous try spinning up some furled leaders, it's winter now what else ya gonna do right.

fish until the river is completely frozen for smallmouth

most of my 20 inch plus smallmouth came on 17 lb test trilene xt or mccoys mean green. many of them where caught in the much clearer water I get during the winter on the river. the only time I use leaders is when I fish for bowfin or pike and use a wire leader.

I spooled fluro on my reel for two different seasons just to see if I caught more fish. I did not.

ever think that something larger or even fished more aggressively may have gotten eaten right off the bat ?

Sam

I'll do my best to take some pictures and get help posting them when I can. right now dealing with a kid in the hospital.

That's me too. I wet waded this past weekend and probably will if I head to the k3 tonight. I have never understood the need for breathable waders, but I don't put them on until the air is cold.

when you take meds that make you susceptible to bleeding easily and have medical conditions that don't allow you to heal easily, you appreciate breathables. I would love to still be able to wet wade.

not matter how you wade cover any cuts, scrapes etc in a liquid bandage to keep any micro fauna out of your system

I was fishing in a situation where the emergent vegetation was anywhere form a couple inches to 9 or 10 inches below the surface of the water. The fish made a pass at a buzzbait on the surface a couple of times but just one pass and didn't come back repeatedly like they do most times.

The buzzbait I was using was designed to allow the blade to rotate from a horizontal axis to a vertical axis when you killed the retrieve. This allowed the blade to spin and slow the drop as it fell. Basically the blade is on a separate wire with a loop at the end that attaches to a loop on the end of the wire coming from the bottom of the lure. I have no idea who made it as it came in a tackle box I bought at a garage sale and has no brand name on it.

I got a couple bass to hit when I let it drop, but I got more to hit when I started the retrieve again. They would hit the buzzer while it was moving forward under the water but not when it got close to or broached the surface again. I wanted to be able to keep the buzzbait running below the surface as that seemed to be the trigger. The best solution I could come up with streamside was to add a water gremlin bull shot to the shank off the hook. I figured I needed to have the lure running as close to horizontal as possible as that seemed to be working best. Unfortunately I couldn't get the bull shot to stay on the hook shank , it was too thick. I put it on the wire ahead of the body of the lure instead. this caused the lure to run slightly nose down.

I am happy it worked out that way as they hits changed to absolute slams.

I was able to keep the buzzbait running below the surface even when retrieved against the current. I did have to slow the speed a little to sustain the sub surface movement when retrieving against the current.

where I fished the keys were staying out of the water as much as possible, making longer casts to the water, shade and some depth to the water.

in the shallow skinny stuff if there was a little slot or depression with a fair amount of current, I got smallmouth, albeit small ones. in the deeper water I got a bit bigger smallmouth, nothing over 15 inches, a channel cat, hooked three musky, landed 2 lost one and the rattlebait to a bite off.

I think I had an advantage with the spin rod as I didn't need room for a back cast, sometimes I was closer to the trees behind than the water.

rattlebaits primarily, bandit 200 crank, worked stop and go against the current, bumping as many bigger rocks as possible and a 1/0 weighted keeper hook with the old Berkley power pulse worm. I didn't see another soul until I was taking the waders off back at the car.

got to meet some new folks, other folks I don't see often, fish some water other than my home river, catch some musky which I don't have at home and watch the Bears win that evening. Plus I got paid to do all that, vacation day.

The bacon, eggs and pancakes at the Pit Stop were like something I'll never taste.

I let the fish decide how fast they want it.

got the day off work, I'll be there unless kidnapped by aliens.

time on the water, a hard thing to come by in your situation right now , Mike. You're a standup guy putting the needs of the family first and the needs of others ahead of what your desires are.

bump

I plan on making this one

Hi all,

 

I joined the ISA a few days ago after catching my first smallmouth about three weeks ago on my first trip to the K3. Since then, I think I've been back 6 times. If I could go right this minute instead of sitting here at my desk, I would.

 

I moved to Chicago from southern IL 7 years ago and basically stopped fishing for the first time in my life (I'm 39 and have been fishing since I could walk, ffing since I was 10 or so). A new job, the big city etc all combined to keep me occupied doing other things. A few months back I made a trip out west, caught a bunch of big trout, and remembered that fishing is good. I proceeded to explore fishing options for someone living in the city. I started with trout and made some trips up to WI. The 3 hour drives up and the 4+ hour drives back make those waters the occasional treat, though. Then I remembered reading about the Kankakee years ago. Someone told me then how much fun SMs were, but I never got around to making the 4 hour drive up to fish it. I wish I had, because I probably wouldn't have stopped fishing when I moved up here.

 

Smallmouth bass have to be the most fun fish per inch I've ever caught. And maybe more importantly, from what I've learned they live in waters that are usually in places where I want to spend long periods of time unwinding -- something I've always depended solely on trout to lead me to.

 

Looking forward to chatting and fishing. Thanks for being a source of collective wisdom about these awesome fish.

 

Joe

get with Capt Austin Aducci for the big pond and the K3

also if you see an ugly old dude with grey/white hair, beard and stache while out wading the K3 say howdy. generally in waders and a beat up ball cap. did get a purty new yella cap lately

bump

Grooving .

compared to Phil, I'm slow. compared to Kamala, I'm not moving. with my knees I just don't go real fast any more. when I'm on an outing with other ISA guys on my home river, I'd rather see them catch the fish, so if they get out in front, it doesn't bother me.

I guess he's playing to the majority audience amongst the local crowd. sometimes they get daring and use leeches. whatever plays in Peoria.

Saw in the weekend Journal ABC 190 North show doing a feature on the area, actually mentioned doing something about the river and the state park