Norm M

Ron, not enough officers.

Mike, I have a chocolate lab, I could prolly sweep up enough hair to cover them rats if you want to glue it on them. Either that or wait til I get my annual trim if you want white rats.

Dec 8 , no show in Bourbonnais

Craig, you shoulda heard all those guys from Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana I work with moaning the blues when it snowed down there last week. It got better when I told them I'd been out wading with 16 degree air temps.

Not sure what the weather has really been like around here the last few days, got stomped flat by some sort of nasty bug. Hopefully out tomorrow, fishing topwaters in the whitecaps blowing upstream with the high winds and cold being predicted. That ought to put the hurt on some shad and turn some bass on.

It would be very interesting to have an outing in coldwater with a variety of techniques from over sized cranks and topwaters to jig-plastic to F-N-F[the expensive way and the cheap way] to anything else that suits you.

Maybe even more interesting to do a few followup outings that you use techniques that you wouldn't normally do.

Phil, I sat thru Thill's moving water video just for review tonight, I may never do that again. The discussion on shotting patterns was the highlight. I should have dug thru my tackle and found the slinkys.

You want me to do floats on Friday or are you going to?

Be careful wading.

Just wait til he bobs back up to look for his hat and ask him how many fish he saw down there.

December 1 still no need for knit hat, gloves or hooded sweatshirt and water temps still in the mid 40's. Enjoying the respite to be sure.

There is more than one railroad in that area, guess which one was not notified.

Write to your legislators and members of the executive branch at all levels of government to express your concerns and what you desire to see accomplished concerning issues that you care about. All it takes is some time and some stamps.

The IDNR also has opportunities to do volunteer work. Look to see if your river has a local partnership or stewarding group that could use a helping hand.

Take some kids fishing, teach them what it's all about. Take some senior citizens fishing, let them remember what it's all about.

You find something that needs to get done, spend your time trying to work on a solution rather than moaning someone needs to do something about it.

Take a stream monitoring class from the River Watch or get together with some like minded folks and adopt a stretch of your local stream.

Fishing show season is coming, volunteer to man the ISA booth at your favorite show. Come on out to an ISA conservation event, we don't bite, tho the fish may afterward.

One thing is certain, there are always more opportunities than there are volunteers.

The fight for the Kankakee may die with those that are currently fighting for it, at age 53, I'm one of the youngest with the exception of maybe Mike.

It can be fixed with lots of money and even more importantly the political will to make the necessary changes.

I can understand pulling everything, been more than one time I've thought about doing away with everything Creekyknees.

Thanks for all the years you've put in from being President onward.

Due to budgetary concerns the Kankakee River Basin Commission newsletter is going to be sent out via email in the future.

If any of our officers or interested members want to recieve it in the future please send your email addy to kankakeerbc@gmail.com

Please white list or safe list this address as well

Phil,

I pretied some dropper rigs, barrel swivel on one end, snap on the other. Snap makes changing weights with the walking sinkers a breeze.

It's becoming apparent that having a 3 to 4 inch dropper and using a floating jig with the plastics is a good way to keep the lure out of the coldwater algae. Otherwise I just slide the sinker on like you're doing.

Plastics without a high salt content that don't sink as quickly might be better for this technique. I'm also going to mess around with the Lindy floating things and some cork beads[got some with propellers attached] from steelheading to add some lift.

I think I remember a cone shaped float that looked like a bullet sinker someone used to make, maybe it was Burke lures. If I find some, I wonder if rigging them with the wide end to the front of the rig, i.e. backwards, would help or if it would be too much ruckus or lateral movement for the more lethargic coldwater fish?

Wacky rig plastics as well ? Floating Rapalas ?

Let the fun begin.

Phil,

The Lindy style walking sinkers have worked well on rocky areas up by me. I've also tied them on a dropper line off a barrel swivel and put that above the plastic stop. When I combine that with a plastic rigged on a floating jig it keeps the lure up from the cold water algae.

More experimenting to be done.

I put 250 days or so on my boots in a typical year, I rarely have a pair last more than a year. Lots of hiking, wading in a very rocky river, use in all types of weather and the fact that they are rarely if ever completely dry take a toll on them. I've used low end to upper mid range priced boots and the result is always the same, they fall apart in a year.

I have not been able to justify to my self paying top dollar for boots that I suspect won't stay together long enough to justify the price difference. Maybe get 2 years for $200 plus for 1 pair of boots or get 4 pair of $50 dollar boots and get 4 years out of the deal.

Any of you guys find a boot that holds up to the amount of wear I put on boots, please let me know.

To answer the original question I gave up on felt years ago, never got close to a 1/2 year before I was regluing or replacing the felt. Besides when trying to negotiate the clay banks I climb up in wet felt boots it was like 1 step up and 2 back. I've done jug soles because that's what is primarily offered in the price range I buy in and they work in my river.

The new vibram soles intrigue but once again the issue would be durability vs. price.

BTW, I go thru a pair of stocking foot breathable waders a year as well.

As far as warranties go, I fish too much to wait for replacements to show up, so they pretty much are useless to me.

Mike,

I had the time off to attend but a non negotiable family function came up so I couldn't get downstate.

There's a fish in photo # 4 ????

I'd get back into guiding if all my clients looked like that. Unfortunately most of them looked like Joz.

Last year I had an issue with a hunter who had no decoys out in front of the blind and got upset because I started fishing. I asked a CPO and they told me that a legally occupied blind is to have a minimum of 10 decoys out.

Now if I see even one decoy out I'm staying away as I have no desire to infringe upon another sportsman or get shot accidentally. I proposed to the DNR that some sort of metal flag be used to the rear to denote occupancy so that you could see it from a distance. It was supposed to have passed up the line but I don't think it was acted upon.

You should note that the blind on Willow Island sits right at the end of the island rather than up the main channel side as in past years.

This is one of my responses on a thread on Riversmallies about Fall feeding and locations. As requested by Steve.

Thanksgiving,

You put on the feed bag, go to the table and eat large cuz you're hungry. Afterward you got the sweatpants on in the Lazy Boy watching the Lions lose. Your beloved wife says the pie is ready. If you gotta get up and go get it odds are you'll stick with watching the game. However, if your truly wunnerful wife brings you a piece covered in whip cream you'll eat it.

If a big bass wants to eat , it will try to be as effecient as possible by getting the biggest meal it can. Once it's fed, it's watching the game and won't get out of the Lazy Boy, drop the pie in it's lap though.....

Sorry Bill CRS got me and I forgot to post this last night. Hopefully better late than never.

http://riversmallies.invisionzone.com

Did you get the waders patched?

I had a nice chat with a very good fly fisherman I know who fishes the same river as me. He routinely uses an 8WT rod and large flys and does very well. He told me that fishing that size rod and flys is not more difficult it's just different than a 6WT and smaller flies. He believes that his success has improved markedly in fact since he made the switch.

I'm inclined to go with him and Craig on the 8WT rods and the difficulty factor.

Like I said before though use what makes you happy, the only guy you have to please is yourself.

Proper depth and speed control are always the most important factors so use the gear/lures that enable you to do that, the rest is window dressing.

Wouldn't have missed this chance for the world, some of my comments made in the poll may not be exactly what they wanted to hear.

I've caught triple digit numbers of 20 inch plus smallies in my life, many of them in cold water. Without going into detail on how the numbers break down on different sized lures, I can safely say bigger is better even in coldwater.

In winter I throw crankbaits that have diving bills that are about as long as the so called typical size crankbait most use for smallies.

I don't believe in big fat dumb slow eat me for no reason.

Yes you can catch bigger fish on smaller lures but in my experience the odds be with the guy fishing bigger stuff.

In the long run you should fish with what makes you happy be it a bamboo cane pole, black thread and worms in a Folgers can or a $1,000 rod-reel-line combo of your choice.

Peace.

so if we say that prayer, we will be enriched with more fish caught?

Some folks are beyond the help of prayer when it comes to fishing. They need to make a substantial financial offering to the bibically bearded saint of their river.