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I've always felt that drinking bottled water when perfectly good tap water was available was yet another in a long line of examples of our vanity and stupidity.

In addition to being a little early with 49 degree water, it was sunny & calm making it a much better day for such things as golf.The beauty of the lakefront was worth the trip. I sure hope Daley's ego trip bid for the Olympics fails.We don't need any more development along it.

In a nutshell the purpose is to find out how many and what kinds of micro invertebrate life a river is currently capable of supporting.The method is to scour a 200' stretch of the river once each year prefferably in May or June when most such life is at its peak.This is done by stirring up the streambed across the river at 50' intervals i.e.4x in the 200' stretch and collecting in a net the dislodged insects in their pupal/larval stage and also stirring up any woody or leafy debris in that stretch where such insects also can be located.The insects are placed in a preservative liquid in order to later be viewed under a microscope for identification.Some of the insects hoping to be found in a healthy river are caddis,mayflies,hellgramites, streamborn beatles and worms etc.The work is done in 2 man teams,1 doing the stirring up while the other works the net. Josh B and I will be doing 2 such stretches on the Dupage.Best to do it in mid -late May on that river before all the ribbon weed makes things difficult.

No excuse for me not to pitch in too.

Ryne The kind of staff you have is actually a folder(as in Folstaff) not a collapsable.Those have sections that slide into each other to close and when open won't pull apart when stuck in the mud etc.

You must be talking about the Swissgear walking/wading staff made by the Swiss Army Knife Co.They're availlable in the camping section at Gander Mtn. They're only $15 and I like it better than the $99 Folstaff or any of the more costly staffs in fishing catalogs.It collapses to a short length is easily stowed inside your wading belt and unlike the Folstaff is infinitely adjustable.Don't overtighten especially the tip section which could make it difficult to loosen.The bright red one is easier to spot if you should drop it in the river which happened to me. I probably would've lost the black one.

Sounds good.I'll come.

2 otherways to deal with a crosswind into you are to tilt the rod to the right for the backcast and than tilt it over to your left side for the forward so that the wind is blowing it away from you on the forward cast.The other and surest way to avoid getting hit is to turn around and face the opposite direction so that vthe wind is blowing the line away from you during both the back and forward casts.The backcast then becomes your delivery cast.Regardless of the conditions false casts should be kept to a minimum if not eliminated altogether unless your drying off a fly as in dryflying for trout.False casting wastes time and energy increases the chance for a foul up and no fly will catch fish while it's airborne.Amost all my casts are done without falsecasting or with no more than one.

Fished a big chartreuse& white streamer on 3/24 on a cupl stretches.It had an epoxy head keeping it afloat and so I used a splitshot to get it down.It was windy calling for my 6wt.Several hours fishing produced just 1 dink and a 16"from midriver.Fished a few other stretches on 3/26 and finally got into some #s.The lowest stretch was not as clear as the 2 a few miles upstream which had that clear green look with a clearly visible bottom.Got fish in both the murkier and clear stretches fishing a beadhead tequeely fly with a 4wt in the light wind.Caught a half dozen rock bass and 8 smallmouths.Only 2 at 16 & 17" were photo worthy along with the one on the 24th.Plan on fishing today too before the weather craps out over the weekend.

Rich The way lmb like plastic worms I think your worm ties would be better than clousers.

On 3/21fished the same stretch the same way i.e. mid river with a big weighted leech pattern as I did the previous day when I got an 18.5".Once again could only manage 1 at 16".Accidentally deleted the pic.fOn 3/22 fished this stretch yet again along with another one and got zilch.So far this early season my limit when I can get any at all is 1 just like a designated driver's.

While I cannot speak to the stretch of river Jamie describes never having seen it the entire main branch thruout Plainfield and Joliet i.e. about 15 river miles or more has had a huge influx of silt in the past few years. Where before shorelines with even just moderate current were largely silt free with the cobble rock fully exposed now silt covers them. It's only in the fastest current stretches were you can step into the river without kicking up clouds of silt and in slackwater you step in at your own peril for getting stuck in the muck. Woody stretches that like the rocky shorelines would otherwise be good smallie habitat seem particularly silt laden.In the Kank it's sand;n the Dupage it's weeds and silt.Sad to say of the big 3 in our region only the Fox is not a river in decline.

AT LAST.Took some time out from posting to fish this afternoon.Temp was only in the 40's but the sun warmed the water to 50 by late afternoon.The river was a little lower and a little less murky than it was a few days ago.Finally got 1 this season swinging a big weighted leech type fly with my 4wt.Only hit the 1 but at least he was big at 18.5".

Brenden, I love ffing too much to go back to spinning.Gave away all my spinning stuff almost 20 years ago and have never regretted it.While spinning is certainly easier less complicated and often more more productive I find a kind of enjoyment in flyfishing that doesn't exist for me nearly as much in spinning regardless of #s caught and after all that's the important thing.You're a young guy.Maybe someday long before you've made your last cast you'll have tried ffing too.If you do you may come to feel the same way.

Mike In an article Wulff wrote about 30 years ago describing it he named the cast the Constant Oval.Since he gave it a name it would seem in reading the article that he developed it as well not for weighted flies but for the short rods of 6- 7' rods he preferred using even for his beloved Atlantic Salmon on his theory that shorter rods were actually better fish fighting tools.Since you say it didn't originate with him do you know who it did originate with and when?

I prefer to use my left hand for things other than madly stripping in line in an effort to keep up with fast current cast after cast after cast. I'm a cheerios man myself.

Brian It also helps to keep even an unweighted fly from hitting the water/ground on the backcast when using rods of 8' or less.Unless your guide was kidding around I bet he got a lot of ribbing from the other macho guides for that helmet.Though I do this cast occasionally as a change of pace a standard overhead cast works ok for me with weighted flies as long as hauls are made.

From x-x I hear about guys having trouble casting weighted streamers such as clousers( which due to their slim profile and non absorption of water tied with bucktail are actually the easiest to cast).As an alternative to a standard overhead cast for those who do is a cast developed many years ago by Lee Wulff which he called the constant oval.Instead of an overhead backcast a sidearmed cast is made. The rod is then immediately swept upward as a standard overhead forward cast is made.The reason he called it that name is that the cast is made in one constant, continuous motion without any hesitating between the back/forward casts. This cast keeps the weighted fly from falling low behind you thereby preventing it from possibly striking you on the forward cast.Don't attempt it if there's a crosswind blowing the line at you.As with any cast hauling makes the cast easier and gains distance.

I like John's suggestion to use a minihead sinktip on a floating line.If you need more than that might be best to just carry a spare spool with a sinktip to alternate with a floater.I used an Airflo multitip fishing the surf in Ireland 10 years ago.It didn't cast as pleasantly as a dedicated line and on top of that the mono connection broke rendering the line to the trash heap.

Have been out 3 x in the past cupl weeks with only 1 15" smb to show for it and even he got away after a cupl jumps. Last year I did consisently well beginning in mid March.Then the water wasn't as high or as muddy as this year which makes fishing and flyfishing in particular tougher.Hopefully we're done with the repeated heavy rains for awhile.

The scenario Craig presents is about the only one where I'd choose to tightline fish with a straight upstream cast with either a streamer or bassbug.The question raised in this post was which method should be the preferred one.A straight upstream cast requires too much effort trying to strip in line fast enuf to keep pace with the current and will invariably result in more lost fish due to poor hookset on harmouthed fish like bass. And the bigger they are the harder their mouths. The furthest upstream I would choose to cast would be quartering.

Casting upstream is ok for nymph style fishing using a strike indicator ala Holshag where shorter casts are made but for tightlining I don't like it for the reason John cited and since it also makes getting a good hookset difficult. Cross stream casts with an air mend to get the weighted streamer down before drag sets in is better.Repeatedly flipping a little line out as the fly drifts downstream will help keep the fly down and also extend the drift's length. When stripping the line in for the next cast it helps to be able to hold it coiled in your hand rather than allowing it to fall to the surface where the current wil pull it away from you and also create surface tension making distance casting harder.It does take practice to do this without it often tangling.All that said my favorite method and the most effective in my opinion for big bass is bassbugging once the water reaches and stays in the 50's and above in Spring and Summer until it chills again in Autumn.

Tom Things really must be bad for you to sell all your ffing stuff.Do you have any other options instead?The only way I'd sell all my ffing stuff would be to buy a gun to blow my brains out with.I hope things get better for you soon.

I own a pair of Cabelas wet wading boots that have felt soles.The nice thing is they're much lighter than most wading boots and ez to put on with a side zipper.They fit snug keeping out all debris.The only problem is their soles aren't as thick as wading boot soles and your feet can take a beating on streams with a lot of cobble stones.No problem on streams like the Dupe whch don't.You can go 1 size larger and insert a pair of Dr Scholl's for comfort on cobbly streams or as BT suggests neprene socks.

I recall an article in which Kreh said he preferred black bassbugs without legs for smb and unlike lmb fishing which calls for leaving the bug sit motionless for awhile between strips stripping it constantly for smb.He didn't explain his reasoning for the differing techniques. He may have assumed that the lmb fishing would be in stillwater and the smb fishing in streams.