Mike Clifford

I'm seeing now the event starts at 9 a.m. this year. See you around 8! 

This Annual Fishing day will be held at Herrick Lake in Wheaton, IL on June 15th @ 9AM. As always, the participation of ISA volunteers is greatly appreciated by all.....especially the kids. 

Please respond if you have a few hours to lend for this amazing event! 

Set-up will begin at 8 a.m.

The meeting is Jan. 10th. 

It will likely be a comprehensive, very expensive endeavor with regulations and such. Just kind of excited to possibly get involved in "something" resembling conservation. But it isn't conservation. Just so happens to be walking distance from me. But hey....public access!!! 

I'm curious to know if the ISA still does conservation grants. Riverfront Park on the Kankakee River is getting a Master Plan in motion in January with a community meeting. Among the plans is a public kayak launch. Back in the day, this is the sort of thing we contributed to. Not petitioning for funds, just saying I'll be at all the meetings. 😁

Thanks for joining us at this event, all. Spectacular weather. 

Photos: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02XVii8qJ8JNLgFdLoXGEnz1Ywmup2eu3PaDGrF9QrCDUY1hemTg9Fw4kWE4i5hdtjl&id=823017807&mibextid=Nif5oz

Forecast is for 80 and sunny this Saturday. A spectacular day for fishing and fun. See y'all there! 🥰

15 minutes ago, rich mc said:

anyone else for a fun filled morning .

Looks like we have 6 so far. 

The annual event will take place this year on:

 Saturday, June 17th at Herrick Lake in Wheaton. 

As usual, the ISA will provide volunteers for the Casting Field. Please plan on arriving around 7:30 for set-up. 

The activities run from 9-12. 

If you know of kids that would like to attend, sign-up is activated: http://www.sgttommyskids.org

I look forward to seeing you there! 

Recipient of the ISA Youth Appreciation Award in 2013. Craig was a diligent volunteer in the club. A regular in the casting field for many years and countless conservation events. The woman in the photo is Susan Alexander, who carved the award. 

Did I miss an announcement on Craig Holderness passing? 
Found an old article, and he has not logged into the ISA site since Sept. 2021. Asked about him at Sgt. Tommy's event last year, and only learned that he had been sick. 😥

Good thing Google steers us toward the ISA site when typing in what you guys kept saying.....Illinoismallmouth.net

😉

Nice job. 

1 hour ago, Bart Durham said:

 

DNR has shown some resistance to support for the bill, saying it will increase their administrative burden,  and there is big meeting today with DNR and Bill Committee counsel to address their concerns and garnerDNR  support. We have to have DNR on board for bill passage. 

 

Because the current governor has zero concern for these matters. Not too long ago, the IDNR would have not only been on board, but pushed hard for it. J.B. would rather have all of his "yes people" running it, rather than qualified individuals with experience in natural resource management. Makes it easier to divert dedicated sportsman dollars into his general slush fund. 

On 2/25/2023 at 8:55 AM, Mark K said:

I was reading stuff on the ESCONI (a local geology club) and noticed this. If it's been discussed already (especially by me, I'm getting old don't judge me), my apologies.  Spoiler alert: It's not good news. 

https://www.esconi.org/esconi_earth_science_club/2022/06/new-illinois-supreme-court-decision-regarding-access-to-the-mazon-river-fossil-morris-fossils.html

 

If that is the best anybody in Illinois conservation can do, that can't be good. 

Very interesting. Hope this passes. 

Protecting Homeowners from Animal Waste – SB2161 (Koehler) – Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) produce significant amounts of waste and environmental nuisances for surrounding homeowners. Currently, if a local county board votes against an application for a new or expanding CAFO, the Illinois Department of Agriculture can still approve that permit. This bill would make a county recommendation binding.

32 minutes ago, Eric said:

The hard question is -- what's your "product" and why would people want to pay for it?

You're competing with oodles of FREE online information.

Exactly. In our booth, I used to present the "product" as joining like-minded anglers on various waterways all over the state throughout the season for a nominal annual membership fee versus paying a guide hundreds of dollars to fish one location on one day.  That strategy seemed to work well, coupled with some other techniques that I was using at the time. 

Interesting observation, Chris. I took my 3 kids fishing often when they were growing up. Now in their late 20's, I think it is likely they have not held a fishing rod in maybe a decade. What I also learned from many years of hosting kids fishing events is that it is extremely difficult to convince parents to take their kids fishing. 

Maybe you are right, and there is a period of time where recreational fishing is put on the back burner as they themselves are concentrated on earning a living and taking the kids to baseball, football and cheer practice. Obviously, it is no longer a matter of fishing to put food on the table, and we are being told that it is a bad idea to eat anything from local waters regardless. 

I recently found that we can see on the IDNR website our entire history of buying a fishing license going back to at least 2006. Dates and location purchased. Interestingly, there were a few years during that time that I may have not fished at all, or only once or twice. But I still bought a license every year. Maybe out of habit or with the hope I would put it to use.

Lots to ponder here. 🤔

Crazy. I use Upwork to get various writing jobs, and almost every client states that they fully expect we will use ChatGPT in some respect....but need to have that reflected in our hourly billing. Somebody needed a blog article on fishing, and I asked the generator similar questions as Eric and was astounded at the amount and quality of information flowing from it.  

An interesting conversation. For those not aware, I started an ISA "Youth Program" around 19 years ago at Monee Reservoir. It was not long after that I was asked to help create the Sgt. Tommy's Kids organization and the ISA will be operating the Kids Casting field for the 17th consecutive time this year. In between all of that, we hosted the casting field and fishing pond for several years at Northern Illinois Hunting and Fishing Days. At the Illinois State Fair, we had a kids casting station for a few years. Scout-a-rama was a couple years of running the fishing pond. All of this was in addition to several macroinvertebrate samplings and river clean-ups I hosted, all geared toward youth education. An interesting thing to note is that these events ran the gamut of Northern, Central and Southern Illinois. We were all over the map with these efforts. 

As for the outdoor shows, we agonized over these for years due to the difficulty of getting volunteers to make them happen. (See the forum post just below this topic by William C). When the getting was good and we had very motivated members in the booth, we could easily sign 100 or more new members in a good week at Rosemont. That doesn't happen by standing there just handing out brochures. It involved a concerted effort to get them signed up. My go-to method seemed to almost always involve discussions about conservation most days. Other times, it was with a map of Illinois spread out on the table and discussing where they like to fish. Had to play it by ear on any given day. I'm not sure if those days are even possible any longer. It takes some serious dedication to get crazy numbers. We did it.

I agree that the younger crowd are not on Facebook and Instagram. At all. It's mostly Snapchat as far as I can tell. 

I've said for years that Lake Michigan is an untapped resource for the club, and we briefly had a cup of coffee with that, but it never really evolved into anything. For a time we had club officers doing seminars at shows, but those guys got older and burned out/faded away.  

Many people told me at the shows and the Blowout that they almost never attended meetings or outings, but stayed on year after year just to help donate to our conservation efforts and to get the awesome newsletter in their mailbox. That is literally all they wanted from the ISA. That kind of "above and beyond" service can't possibly be sustained when the old fade away and few step into the roles they occupied for years. Decades. The obvious result is less value to the members. Which correlates to less member retention. 

I can say it now because I'm no longer the Conservation Director or a club leader in any capacity. I only had one vote. What really discouraged me was that we found ways to give away club funds for a grant program that was poorly designed by a social club not set up for such a complicated endeavor. I poured my heart into it despite my misgivings from the start, because I was a team player. We all were. In hindsight, I wish we had thrown more pizza parties and social events for our members on the club dime and less massive outlays for sometimes questionable returns. That may not be a popular opinion, and that's OK.

You are only going to get out of a club what you are willing to put in. 5 or 6 people can do this.....for a while. But we all know that isn't sustainable. 

Speaking of youth, I found a video of some of the things I spoke of above. Those were the days. 😏

The ISA was represented well once again at this event for the 16th consecutive year. Many of these guys have been sweating it out over the last 20 years as volunteers for the ISA kids casting field. I may not have gotten all of the names, as some brought young anglers and grandkids to help out. I counted nine of us at one point. I don't have to explain it any further, if you've ever been a part of this, you know. A picture paints a thousand words, but an album tells the story. 

THANKS. AS ALWAYS!!

16 hours ago, Jim Wright said:

I will be glad to help. I will bring a fly rod. 
My girlfriend would like to help as well. She is not an angler, but can help in other capacities. 

That's awesome! Looking forward to it! 

13 hours ago, rich mc said:

 i have rod outfits, banner and kids felt fish    my grandson tony will help as well

Awesome! Thanks!

I'm told the 16th annual event has reached the capacity of 350 kids. Please reach out or comment if you plan to attend, and let me know who is bringing the full ISA casting kit. 

If anybody has a fly-casting rod to bring as well, it would be a great addition. This has always been a big hit with the kids in past years. 

We should plan on arriving at Herrick Lake between 7-8 for set up. 

See you on Saturday, June 18th!

For those that plan to attend and help with the ISA Kids Casting, this year's event is on Saturday June 18th. at Herrick Lake. 

Hope to see a great turn-out, as this is back to full capacity.