Dan Draz

Ron, since you were asking about the swimjig/swimbait combination... I can tell you that my son Quinn and I have used that same combination quite a bit and have not only caught smallies on it but have put a serious hurt on quite a few pond LM's as well. I even caught a Sauger on it down at Shabbona last year so it's quite a versatile combination! And as swim baits are dynamite on both saltwater and freshwater bass, there's no wonder it's such a great combination. Colors and tail action are important but we've caught them on a number of Jonn's baits and a number of different colors of Big Hammer swim baits.

Not to be derrogatory to people who are "sight challenged" (being a glasses wearer myself) but the following thought occurred to the investigator in me: "given that particular medical condition...how would one know the fish is 9 pounds?

Sorry, I couldn't pass on posting this piece of classic Canadian Fishing Humor along to some folks who will truly appreciate it! Hope you can open it I was having probs formatting it for the board.

One of the things that Bill mentioned was picking up trash and that's one thing I've instilled in Quinn is to "always leave a place nicer than when you got there." We were at a forest preserve last year and you could not believe the amount of garbage he and I picked up laying around the edges of the water, not to mention what we hauled OUT of the water. We could have stayed there all day doing nothing but that... alas there is only so much time!

I guess Jonn can start using a new slogan: "Warrior swim jigs... They catch FISH!" No one ever said he has to declare WHAT KIND of fish....

So, I asked my 10 year old son the other day if he was interested in joining ISA and having a membership in his own name? The first thing out of his mouth was "I haven't done any conservation work yet!" That was his biggest concern. I was amazed! So, I went on the website this afternoon and signed him up for membership. While Quinn fishes with me, it occured to me that that we as an organization should be encouraging our children to participate in conservation events or have children's conservation events when we can. Afterall, they are going to be fishing this water long after we've gone and if they buy into the conservation ethic at a young age, they are going to be less likely to dump things into the water down the road and discourage others from doing so. Unlike some fishing clubs we belong to where he enjoys going to the monthly meetings, listening to speakers and winning raffle prizes it is not lost on him at this age that there is more to this equation than that. Something to kick around!

I joined ISA in April of 07, having moved from the West Coast and not knowing much about what goes on around here. For job and travel reasons, I didn't have much free time available to fish or get involved. And what free time I did have to fish was spent down at the local pond in Naperville and various Forest Preserve locations drowning worms with my 10 year old son Quinn for panfish. Not that there's anything wrong with it... but I can't tell you how many times I sat there bored to tears thinking to myself, there HAS to be more to fishing in the Midwest than this! My renewal came due April of 08 and I automatically sent it in with a determined resolution to meet some new people, fish in some different locations, take my son to some new places, learn more about smallie fishing and try to unlock what truly goes on around here from an angling standpoint. I immediately immersed myself in the fishing scene, volunteered to take on a project for ISA, met a few members and started learning more about the ways of the Bronzeback. And its amazing what one can do in a year. We've caught Steelhead in Western Michigan to 9 pounds, catfish on the Illinois River, Walleye, Muskie and Pike in Wisconsin. Various ISA members have been kind enough to show me the river ropes here. I purchased quite a bit of new tackle (despite having about a billion dollars worth like everyone else in my garage!) bought waders and boots for my son and have been not only fishing smallies in the DuPage, but LM's in various local ponds which is what I did growing up in SoCal. I caught my first smallie on the DuPage, my son caught his first smallie on the DuPage, caught his first pond LM's, been interviewed on the radio three times, been in Outdoor Notebook 4 times, (he got the inside cover in this months edition which I am really proud of) and I have been asked to write a few columns for Outdoor Notebook and several other fishing publications about our experiences and what we've learned about fishing in the Midwest. I've also been fortunate enough to talk to quite a few national companies about supporting ISA and the response has been fabulous, reaffirming that we have something special going on here. The last year has been an amazing ride and while thinking about it yesterday I came to the following conclusion: Had I not become an ISA member, I wouldn't have had any of these great experiences, I'd still be drowning worms down the street and would still be pondering my miserable IL fishing existence. I am truly grateful to everyone within ISA who have given me this opportunity and assisted Quinn and I with our quest to learn more about fishing here and hope I get a chance to fish with many more of you over the upcoming years. It's definitely true: You get out of an organization what you put into it and I am living proof of that. Our organization will only ever be as good as the member volunteers so take some time and get involved in ISA activities.

And the icing on this cake is that I had a conversation with Okuma corporate yesterday and they are interested in donating product to us for the 09 Blowout. Good company, good product, interested in supporting a fishing organization with strong conservation program... a nice relationship for ISA.

Since we are targeting new members, who may not have participated in this before (like me..) can someone educate the rest of us as to exactly where this event will take place? A little more detail regarding the location is greatly appreciated. I'm there if I'm in town.

Wondering what kinds of things ISA is doing to get noticed? wonder no more! I picked up the current issue of the June Outdoor Notebook today and holy cow, it's ISA palooza! Page 5,6, 7 and 12 Jonn Graham article & photo of Jonn holding bronze! Page 25 & 30 Adopt A Stream article information about ISA Membership Page 27 & 28 Don Rego article on our sign posting event Page 33 Quinn Draz got the inside cover photo on a pond LM with a Jonn Graham swim jig in its mouth! Page 34 Quinn and Dan Draz with Illinois River Catfish Page 35 & 36 Article by Randy Dunlap on ISA membership Page 35 Quinn Draz with his first river smallie Page 36 Dan Draz with river smallie spitting up a 5 inch bait fish Page 36 Reference to Don Rego's sign posting article Page 39 The Joz Man holding a nice fish Page 42 Sign posting photo Nice job guys!!

Jim, What you are expressing about member participation with the "same 10% all the time" rule seems to be status quo for most non profit organizations I've belonged to. You have a dedicated group of people who always get involved and they are the same faces you continually see at events. But it doesn't have to be this way. An active outreach effort to members, which starts when they sign up and asks them what areas they are interested in, and then attempts to enlist their participation in the areas they are interested in, may help resolve some of the 10% rule. I am happy to kick this around with you further if you are interested.

I am too new to have a favorite day from last year but if you ask me this question next year I definitely will have one from this year. I'll say this however: I got involved in ISA because I want to be part of the solution and not the problem. I also want to teach my boys about the things that are important so that they can practice these ideals before it is too late for them to do so. We are leaving our waterways to them when we are not around and I really would like for them to be able to fish and catch fish in the same places we are today... and not just stare at polluted water and say "remember when our dad took us fishing here... not any more!"

I called Jonn and ordered several dozen some swim jigs to use. I thought I would originally only fish them for smallies but then discovered that they are also quite effective for LM's too as my 10 year old son Quinn and I have caught both types of fish on his swimjigs rigged with some type of plastic. My son then talked Jonn into making us several dozen more at the Riverside Fishing Club Meeting Jonn spoke at so it is swimjigpalooza for us! The quality is top notch!

Now that I have my son Quinn out on the water with me, I am not scaling back despite the great reasons listed here to do so. Mine is a little different situation in that I do not want him carrying a chest pack as I am requiring him to wear a life jacket and the chest pack over the top would be a little much for him. This way, he only has to worry about himself, his balance and his rod, and for a kid learning to fish the river that is all I want him to have to deal with. He can concentrate on lure presentations and techniques more effectively this way and I get to be the pack mule, basically carrying everything needed for two people! Because kids always want to fish a certain thing, I tend to carry a few more options for him vs if it was just me, I might be inclined to scale back once I find the groove I am looking for with this type of fishing.

Norm, what size, type, color snap swivels would one use to do this?

If that's illegal in Naperville, then I guess you won't be setting up on them with night vision goggles and a flashlight... now will you? So much for the "Carl Spackler" Caddyshack routine. "It's a cross between Kentucky Bluegrass and California Sensimilia. The great thing about this stuff is you can play 18 holes on it, then go home and get stoned to the bejesus off it."

And two very large photos of our own Mr. Jozwiak on fish.... what else. Look for it at your local tackle shops now!

The guy who first recommended the high vis Fireline to me is a full time fishing guide in the Pacific NW, and one of the very best out there, who fishes client trips about 280 days a year. He definitely knows what he's doing and uses this line on all his steelhead reels for clients, and in all the years I've known him I've never heard that this line has that type of problem. I've never had it happen to me either but hey, you learn something new every day.... good information Ken.

The one thing that's really interesting to me is about this is that what works on the ocean for saltwater fish is also a very effective technique for freshwater fish as well. I cannot tell you how many times I've been fishing and seen seagulls diving on a spot and when you arrive, the fish are driving the baitfish to the surface. It can be fast and furious catching fish for a while and then poof... it's over just as quickly as it started! Now then, we were down in Mexico on one trip and came across a bait ball the size of a football field on the surface but the only difference was that there were no birds present. We fished that thing thoroughly: all around it, under it, through it, next to it, besides it, you name it and could not catch a fish. The bait fish could have still been driven to the surface by big fish but it was interesting because no one was home and that hardly ever happens in this type of a situation. Normally, if you see this... it's like THREE LEMONS ON A SLOT MACHINE! You catch fish until your arm falls off!!

Berkley "Fire Line" in High Vis Green... all the guides on the West Coast use it for river steelhead fishing because they can see it!

During my last pond outing with my son Quinn last weekend, he tripped in a gopher hole and fell down breaking the handle on his brand new (first day it was used) Okuma spinning reel as he hit the ground. I have fished some of the higher end Okuma reels for steelhead in the Pacific NW and have never had a problem with my them. I previously started fishing them when I wanted some new steelhead reels and the high priced Shimano reels were going for hundreds. Okuma came out with 12 ball bearings in a reel and were charging less than $100. I thought, what the heck, they seem pretty smooth, I'll give them a try. Anyway, a few weeks ago, I found a great deal on these lower priced Okuma reels online at a fishing store in Washington so I bought 8 reels for us to use as they seemed perfect for our largemouth and smallmouth fishing. Even though this wasn't the top of the line model, I thought I would just replace the handle and be done with it. Not being a warranty issue, I e-mailed Okuma Service today to get the correct part number for the reel handle. The paper parts list and the online parts list had slightly different parts numbers. I explained that my son fell down and that it was not a warranty issue and could they please tell me what the part number was so that I could purchase it? It appeared to be about $8 for the new handle and a few bucks for shipping. Let's just say $10 for discussion sake, which I was more than willing to pay, despite it only being a $40.00 reel, because my son felt pretty bad about it and it was totally our fault, nothing to do with a manufacturing defect or poor performance, which I would expect them to cover. Expecting to receive the correct part number and the charges, I received an e-mail message back stating that there was no charge to me and that they had already mailed it out to my office address! Ok, so I realize it is only $10 but they could have easily charged me and I was expecting to pay for something we broke! I'm not sure what others experience has been with their products but mine has been stellar and they demonstrated to me today that they understand what customer service is really all about. And in my opinion buying a quality product is one thing, but a company that sells products AND backs it up with quality customer services is someone worth doing business with. The sale doesn't end at the cash register and most good companies realize that.

My wading boots have felt soles on the bottom and are probably 5-6 years old. Today when I was climbing out of the Dupe, the felt sole on one boot came half way off the bottom of the boot and is majorly on its way off. The rest of the boots are otherwise in excellent condition. Question: Do felt soles get somehow reattached with the old ones taken off and new ones reattached so that the boots can continue to be used or is this the death of them and you have to go buy new ones? If they can be repaired, who around here does that sort of thing, I assume they have to be taken in vs, a do it yourself job?

Jonn, I think it is safe to say your wife is "protecting your spots!" Women remember EVERYTHING including what color shirt you had on ten years ago when you made a rediculous comment which led to an argument. She is like my wife who gives up nothing on the phone unless 1) she knows who you are and 2) she knows she has clearance to reveal what I am doing or my exact whereabouts. Of course, she's an investigators wife... but the same principal applices to double secret fishing locations.... trust me!

I've been a member for a little over a year now and cannot recall seeing anyone post on this issue so I thought it important to start a thread on this topic. A couple years ago, I had the unfortunate pleasure of having to assist in the search and rescue efforts of a river steelhead fisherman who was missing and had not returned home from a river fishing trip. The man's car was found in the parking lot at a location someone suspected he might have gone to but he was nowhere to be found. There was no fishing tackle found in the car so the theory was that he had gone fishing somewhere and was out on the river. The search teams scoured the river very thoroughly for quite some time over several weeks and never found him. They looked from the point they suspected he had entered the river at and worked their way downstream which seemed like the logical thing to do if someone was going to float away... they would be downstream and not upstream. The body was not recovered during that search. About a year later, a fisherman saw some tackle floating in the water and when he went to check it out discovered a body wedged between several logs. When the police arrived, they determined that it was the fisherman they had looked for a year earlier. However, no one ever thought to look upstream because there was no suggestion that is where he would have been going. That said, I have fished rivers all around the Pacific NW and am now fishing rivers in Illinois. It is always advantageous to fish with someone else but I realize most of us tend to be fishing "loaners" and often capitalize on a couple of hours when we can get out on the river by ourselves. If you are going by yourself, be sure to tell someone where you are going. The other day, when I was heading out solo, I told my wife what my fishing plan was, where I was going to drop in at, what the streets were, where I was parking the car and the area I was planning on fishing. First river area and second river area as a backup, and how long I was planning on fishing. Another ISA member knew that I was out fishing and had some similar information since I'd discussed it with them prior to going. In the event something happens which triggers some type of search and rescue, now several people are informed and have solid information to tell the people where to go start looking. While the Pacific NW situation might have still ended the same with the same result, there is a chance someone could have found the person earlier while they were alive or they would have found him earlier even if it still ended badly, saving the family and loved ones much aggrivation. A little communication goes a long way... What other suggestions do you guys have for river safety things you do? Let's kick it around.

What I look for in fishing outings: 1) Meet new people 2) Get on new water 3) Learn something new 4) If #'s 1, 2 & 3 are accomplished... catching fish is just an added bonus!