Norm M

any of the white signs left to post on rivers other than the Kankakee ?

http://www.windycityfishing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=51050 It doesn't look good. I called Steve on his cell a few minutes ago to notify the IDNR .

if in parke county, go to the visitor's center and get a map of the covered bridges . some of the smaller towns have some interesting stuff . used to be a nice ice cream joint over by raccoon lake st park .

http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/7/71/772467/fishing-floods-norm-minas-rocks

a man who is trying to become a multi species angler . I fish for bass, walleye, pike, musky, gar, bowfin, carp, suckers, catfish, rock bass, gills and sunnies, crappie, chubs[for bait], hybrid stripers, white bass and drum. Some more than others and not every species every year . for cat stinkbait, I prefer punch bait to dips . cut bait , followed by mud leeches than crawlers drifted under a float is my preferred way of cat fishing .

There have been reports of brownish water and odd foam up in the Fox. I talked to an IDNR biologist today, says it's a brown algae bloom .

Sounds very promising

I'm ignoring the twins comment, how did baseball work it's way into this ?

Doesn't it usually start when the boss says something ? I work 2cd shift and own an alarm clock, stupid can jump up any time after it goes off .

with a fuller beard, you could be Jude's twin brother . nothing wrong with donning the waders to keep off the mud, the bugs and the poison ivy .

from ned himself

Is your river well out of it's banks, thinking about hitting a pond ? You will be missing out on possibly the easiest catfishing there will be all year. No need for a boat, no need to get in the water, fish from shore. How about seeing double digit cats so shallow that their backs are out of the water and tossing your bait ahead of them . You better have your drag set right and take your heart meds before hand. Big cats on short line in skinny water, heart thumping , arm throbbing action. All you need are some hooks, some split shots and crawlers or mud leeches. Your favorite dip or punch bait works as well . Simply fish the flooded grassy areas where the cats are dining on crawlers with one rod and set another out a little further to intercept cats that are moving in or out . If they are not up in the grass, simply drop back a little deeper in the slack area, many staging there . How much easier can it get ?

helgies crawling out of the river by me

sad to here, enjoyed his company .

Eric I learned many early lessons fishing CCFPD lakes and a local creek. Being young without much money, I got by with a ball head jig and plastics. The biggest thing was learning to have confidence in myself . To all, You can still fish year round with that simple set up on just about any local body of water and catch fish. It's fun to fish a multitude of lures, but I sometimes think that the beginners think it's necessary to do so because they see most of the experienced guys doing so . If they just concentrated on learning where the fish are , they would be way ahead of the game .

Mental Aspects of Fishing Success- Musings From a Lifetime of Learning When I first set out to learn how to fish rivers there was not a lot of information availible on the subject.There was no Internet-ergo no easily accessed websites like River Smallies or the ISA forums where you have excellent information avaiible.The national magazines really didn't cater to river fisherman with the exception of some minimally helpful trout articles.I finally found a magazine-Fishing Facts on the newsstands with articles by Dan Gapen which were very valuable.The local libraries had some books written by trout guys with names like Bates, Brooks and Ovington. These books were helpful once it occurred to me that current was current and learned to apply thier teachings to my style of fishing. For the most part though it was getting out and doing it and learning from my mistakes,putting in my time on the water.I was lucky enough to have a couple old riverrats take me under their wing but only after I proved myself worthy in their eyes.It was through their efforts that things finally started coming together.At the time I didn't understand why they helped but I was glad they did. Now that I am older I realize they felt the same thing I am feeling now, the need to pass along what I learned and not let it die with me.They were limited to passing it along person to person but that is probably the best way to teach.I,however,have the opportunity to share with a much wider audience through the RS forums. There have been some sources of learning already acknowledged and others like InFisherman and The Hunting and Fishing Library to name a couple to which I am indebted.There have also been some individuals along the way who have contributed.One who desreves acknowledgement is my good friend Phill Fiscella . He has the rare gift of really making me think about things and coming up with truly innovative and interesting approaches to fishing.I would like to thank Phil now for all the great conversations and times we shared on the water and wiil have in the future. The best thing you can do for yourself to be more successful is to develop a sense of confidence in your abilities.You should be able to believe that YOU WILLCATCH A FISH ON EVERY CAST and to sustain that belief no matter what.If you go in with the attitude I'm not going to catch fish that will become a selffulling prophecy.Learning to believe in yourself and that you will catch fish is not easy to do.It is worth the effort as once you have the attitude you will succeed you are more alert and attentive to your surroundings.Your mind will not be wandering, you will see and feel more strikes, thus catching more fish. In my opinion the next best thing you can do is to keep learning, all the time,everytime.You should learn from both success and failure.I believe you can learn more from failure than success even though it is human nature to remember the good times and forget about the bad times.When you have success do your best all the factors involved and write them down if necessary.When you fail remember what you tried and analyze it for ways to change and improve.You should question your usual ways of thinking as well as trying new techniques and changing locations.You need to bear in mind that you will never know everything and that learning will be a lifelong process. Another thing that helps is to make a gameplan before you get in the water or start casting.Learn to read the water and decide in advance where to wade, the route to be waded,where to cast and what you will use in each spot.I would reccommend a plan to throughly cover the water if that is how you fish.If not, than make yourself happy and use what floats your cork.I would suggest something on the order of:shallow fast-shallow slow, deep fast-deep slow and then strain the mid and upper parts of the water column. If your initial efforts fail,don't keep stubbornly pounding the water.It is better to take 5 or 10 minutes to think things through and review your options before proceeding.It may well be that your intial plan is the best option but by stopping you may notice changes in the conditions that warrant changing your plan.If you are fishing with someone else they may have insight gained from experiences different than your own that could help make for a successful day. You should pay close attention to your surroundings as natural cues can be important and extremely helpful.You should consider the total environmental package:changes in bottom content,depth,contour of the shoreline or islands,water clarity, water velocity, water temperatue,wind direction, cloud cover or shade to name a few.The presence of woody cover, weeds, boulders or man made objects should be noted.You should learn to watch for the movement of forage and note the types in the area.If you learn to see feeding activity of fish or even the flash or shadow of their movement you will benefit greatly.You should strive to notice birds feeding over the water,bug hatches,weeds moving without the benefit of the wind or anything that may give you a clue as to fish location or attitude. Look around you and pay attention to plants blooming or wilting or animal activity that will be a much more reliable indicator of similar fish behavior in the future than man's calendar. Let's consider thinking about the fish themselves for a bit as after all that is ultimately what we are after.Fish don't have intelligence as we know it but rely on instinct instead.Yes.you may be smarter than the fish but they have had the best of all of us,probably more than we care to admit.Fish instincts let them know such things as when and how much to feed,when to switch locations or food sources and when and where to spawn.They do this as a result of changes in such things as local climatic conditions,intensity and duration of light,temperature,seasons[theirs not ours],and water level or clarity.There may well be other influences that we don't know or completely understand. There are also different kinds of fish interactions that need to be considered as well.These would be the relationship with their prey,relationships with other species that compete for food or habitat, relationships with fish higher on the food chain that may eat them and their relationship with man through fishing pressure. The presence of food may be the most important factor to consider outside of the time frame when they are spawning.Very simply the fish that are easiest to catch are those that are closest to their food. If these fish aren't activelly feeding than probably soon will be.If food isn't present or nearby the gamefish generally won't stay near that cover or structural element for any great length of time. If there is another species that can out compete the bass for food or utilize the habitat more efficienly they will take over that environmental niche and limit the areas the bass can use. By the same token if there are no competing species the bass can use a wider range of niches in that watershed. When the bass are not the top of the line predator in the food chain that can limit when or where the bass can be found or when they feed.These limitations can have a profound effect on your fishing success. Anyone who has fished my flow can attest to the smallies shutting down when the gar start activelly feeding. You may not have considered man as an influence but as pressure increasesit can have much more effect than many give it credit for.I have had the experince of heavy fishing pressue causing a shift in the times fish become active in particular locations.In some cases it could cause fish to relocate to less desirable but less pressured locations.Keep both of these ideas in mind the next time that the classic bass holding spot that everyone knows and fishes doesn't produce. With experience and time on the water you may reach the point where you have an understanding of how fish behave in your body of water,well most of the time.The fish have a way of humbling you if you get too cocky.I know I'll never be able to understand everything about the fish. I also know that I wouldn't want to reach that point as it would take all the fun out of it.Would you really want to know ahead of time what is going to happen and to catch a fish on every cast? Believing that you can do it helps to be a better fisherman but actually doing it would be a reciepe for boredom.I'll take the challenge presented by having something new to learn as it helps keep things fresh and interesting. What holds us back as fisherman? How about the self imposed obstacles with which we limit our potential.If we fail to use our senses to the fullest or not let our imagination work for us in problem solving,we will not achieve the success we desire.Pre concieved notions of what should be and the reluctance to reconsider those notions can hinder your success.Clinging to outdated fishing lore and not making an attempt to educate yourself will severely limit your potential to grow as an angler.I would also suggest taking manufacturer's claims with a grain of salt or two.We should strive to make learning a lifelong process that allows us to continually improve our chances of success. One of the more important things you can do is to figure out what makes you happy and what you want out of your fishing expeiences.When you put your efforts into learning how to fish effectively in in the style you are happiest with you will learn faster and retain more.If you try to be something you are not because of what you percieve others expectations of you than that will take the fun out of it. It is more important to make your own choices and please yourself.Now, that is not to say that you shouldn't try to expand your knowledge by trying different techniques or methods- if you want to. It is just that I believe you should learn what pleases you the most first.You should bear in mind that what pleases you can change as you grow as a person and an angler. Please realize that you will never know it all and don't get frustrated by that fact. I believe there should never be a final limit to be reached but instead a neverending quest for knowledge to be gained.For me, the continual challenge is what keeps things interesting. I know I have made this point several times but in my experince it is extremely important. Finally we should be grateful for what we have as fisherman.We shouldn't necessarily judge the success of our trips by the size or amount of fish we catch.I believe we should enjoy the total experience, the surroundings, the company or the solitude as well as the challenges meet and overcome. Please just enjoy the simple fact that you could get out and fish. Peace be unto you. Norm Minas aka Creekyknees

Blaming Jude is something new ?

it was in there, a few years back . no objection to a reprise .

there was some water in that brew at the start, they just simply added some healthy stuff like hops for the added flavor .

We as river fishermen are affected by current in all aspects of our fishing experience. How many of us really understand how it functions and how it affects our fishing? This will be the first in a series of articles I plan to write about current, current situations and objects in the water that affect current flow. The fisrt article will be the primer, so to speak, of the series. To start with, gravity moves water downhill, this movement is what we call current. The steeper the gradient, the faster the current flow. Riffles and runs are what we associate with this faster flow. What we think of as pools are places where the gradient decreases and/or there is an obstuction that slows the current. The gradient is the inclination or slope of the land's surface in the direction of the flow. The velocity of the flow is affected by several other factors. They are discharge, which is a quantity of water passing through any cross section in a given unit of time and the form-ratio, which is the proportion of the depth to the width of the stream. Water temperatures have some effect as warm water is more fluid than cold water. In straight flows the maximum velocity occurs in midstream near the surface. In bends the maximum velocity occurs near the surface on the outside of the curve. There are two types of flow recognized in limnological texts. Laminar flow is more or less defined as all the water moving in a parallel course in one direction. These texts state that laminar flow is seldom found in nature. Turbulent flow is defined as multiple eddies in a variety of sizes with all the water moving in all directions as the main flow goes downstream. This mixing of the water is caused by friction with the air-water interface, the bottom of the river, the shoreline and any obstructions in the water's path. This friction that slows the flow and the upper water that moves faster rolls and mixes the water which aids in the distribution of oxygen from top to bottom. The difference in flow rates from top to bottom contributes to the bow in your line as you fish. Fish hold on the bottom of rivers because the drag of friction on moving water significantly lowers current velocity. This creates an area you can think of as a slack water zone. The slackwater zone is a place where fish can hold and conserve energy. They can hold until they need to move for reasons of survival, i.e. predation, changing water levels or spawning. This bottom slack zone is where most of the fish will be found most of the time. Where do you think you should be fishing? The larger the objects on the bottom of the river and the faster the current flow the larger this slack zone will be. These two factors- size of objects and current velocity- can cause distrubances on the surface of the water that we note when reading the water. The Law of Fluid Dynamics also affects current flow. This involves Conservation of Momentum if I understand the texts correctly. Basically what I got from this was that water does not like to bend as it goes around corners and when the velocity of water decreases it's pressure increases. Please don't ask me to go into great detail as that was rwo aspirin reading. When water hits the front of an obstruction it stops and moves sideways toward the current flow. It also moves both toward the bottom and the surface at this point. You may get a visible bulge on the surface if when the speed decreases the increase in pressure is enough to push water up in the surface. You can also get a slackwater pocket at the base of the obstruction due to these changes. This pocket, if it forms, is a key feeding area for the most dominant predator in that spot. On the downstream side of the obstruction you get another slackwater area. This is because water does not like to bend. The size of this slackwater area is limited only because the pressure of the faster water going around the obstruction is lower than the higher pressure of the slower water in the slack area. this causes a mixing of the waters as it moves from the slacker water to the faster water. The turbulence from this mixing is what we think of as a current seam. The slackwater area gets narrower as you look downstream because it's losing it's energy to the lower pressure of the faster downstream flow. A slackwater pocket forms at the base of a riffle[lift] on both the upstream and downstream sides of the riffle. This pocket is an excellent feeding area especially in warmer water. As the faster moving lower pressure water moves over the top of the slower moving higher pressure water mixing occurs limiting the size of the slackwater area. This causes the turbulence which is a familar sight to river anglers. On the upstream side of the riffle the bulge that is present is a result of water being pushed up by the change in water pressure. When a river bends the current picks up speed on the outside edge and a current seam forms on the inside edge where the current slows. The faster current on the outside moves sediment and carves away at the bed and bank of the river. This is why you have deeper water on the outside of a river bend. The slower current allows sediment to be deposited on the inside which is why the water is shallower and you get that familar point bar at that location. if the angle of the bend is sufficient an eddy is formed. In this eddy friction with the bottom and the shore further slows the current. This variety of current speeds, depth changes, changes in the direction of the current and slackwater zones make this a place for holding out of current and for excellent feeding opportunities. Turbidity in a river is the presence of suspended solids in the water. Turbidity reduces the transmission of light either thru scattering or absorption. This reduction in light can affect water temps, the amount of aquactic vegetation, fish location and fish activity levels. From what I read the amount of sediment load can affect current velocity in different ways due to a number of different factors. The consensus seemed to be that with a higher sediment load there would be a slight reduction in velocity once everything was factored in. Once again this was two aspirin reading that would require lots of specific details to go any further. Now for a brief primer in reading water. Start by looking at the surface for differences in speed and the seams created by those changes. Look to changes in curent direction, turbulence such as boils and bulges, slicks and changes in water color that denote differences in depths, You should look for areas where the current narrows forming feeding lanes that concentrate food washing downstream. If you can see a foam line that is an excellent way to track feeding lanes. If multiple foam lines or feeding lanes converge that can be a key spot for the most dominant predator in the area. Look for objects in the water or in the shoreline that can deflect current influencing current direction. Next look for objects in the water that can serve as ambush points for feeding or for cover when fish are spooked by predators or careless, heavy footed fishermen. Remember that boils on the surface indicate the presence of underwater objects that can hold fish. These boils will be downstream of the object, just how far depends on the size of the object and the current velocity. I know this was a little technical but hopefully it will help those new to river fishing. It may also offer new insights to crumudgedy old river rats. Peace Be Unto You Norm Minas aka Creekyknees _________________

dudes with grey or white beards are the cream of the crop .

if it's the crick I'm thinking of, I'm still exploring it .

Grasshopper better than master .

http://chicago.suntimes.com/outdoors/7/71/593365/passing-fishing-tradition