Mike Clifford

Excellent suggestions.

Thanks all!

Now that is very interesting to hear Al.

I've always wondered just what people are looking to gain from attending a meeting.

This helps greatly.

I always seem to be in need of various lure parts, but never really went looking for the best suppliers.

Of course, everybody knows Janns Netcraft- but sometimes I'm wondering where to get unusual stuff.

Specifically, I need some strips of leather that mimic a rat's tail.

Any suppliers worth noting?

Is that Joz hiding behind the tree around the bend?

Nice photo Don.

Thanks for sharing it.

Finally made it out for a couple hours today on the Kankakee and only stuck a few short smallies on a Rebel Craw.

Wish I would have taken advantage of 4 days of glorious weather.

Back to work Monday- and the easy pickins' could be all but over by next weekend.

Then we'll actually have to work for fish....LOL

Schedule a pizza joint south, and I'm there. = )

The air is 39 degrees, Lake Erie is 46.

A sampling of the 30 smallmouths these guys caught during a three-hour November outing on Lake Erie.

From the Detroit Free Press.

ARTICLE LINK

Now yer talkin' some girth on those fly patterns.

As for coming over to the "light side", I'd actually enjoy the challenge.

....but I want to see Joz standing next to me in that class.

Bring the camera!

Oh, and not just a digital camera- we want video of this to put up on YouTube Bloopers or something.

Yet another implementation of the Gamakatsu.

Tube Jig Heads w/ Extra Wide Gapped Hooks (EWG)

I'm ordering the package of 50 right now.

Thanks Gary!

Yet another non-believer, I see.

That's OK.

I understand.

I only have one type of lure.....and you can't have it.

I'm still looking for my first 20.

Can you PM me with directions to that hole, Tim? = )

Came across the following video on YouTube, and thought you might enjoy it.

Interesting watercraft (pontoon) application with some kind of "lean rail".

Anyone ever use such a thing?

Thanks Bill.

Go right ahead and PM me with anything you find.

I did some searching and didn't find anything definitive.

Wow. That skirted Spyder grub is a spittin' image of the garlic chompers I use. Can't find anything in that link stating if they are salt or garlic impregnated though.

Of course the garlic chomper doesn't catch a thing, mind you....so don't go rushing out to buy 'em all up = )

The ISA website Calendar has been updated for your convenience in checking the winter Outdoors Shows at a glance.

We are expected to participate with a booth and/or seminar at the following shows (subject to change):

Northwest Chicago Sports Show

January 4-7

Chicagoland Outdoors Show

January 10-14,2007

Midstate Fish & Feather Expo

January 26-28, 2007

The Tinley Park Fishing & Outdoor Show

February 10-11

Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo

February 16-18

Rockford Fishing Outdoor Expo

March 2-4

Man Law #20:

In addition to Scott's Man-Law..

If you are using a certain live bait- they are not called "worms"- they are crawlers.

"Worms" are made of a plasticized substance and come from a pre-determined mold, should always be "watermelon w/red flake" and attached to a Gamakatzu hook.

Man-Law!

Man Law #17:

No man shall photograph any smallmouth estimated to be under 14" (and subsequently post it on all your favorite fishing forums).

Just tell us about it- we believe you.

Eric- I recently upgraded to the latest Firefox version, and it comes with this really annoying spell checker that puts a red line under misspelled words as I type them.

Smallmouth is one of them....LOL

BTW- anyone know how to turn that damn thing off?

Al- the dark side is calling your name.

It's still OK to use the spinning gear- as long as none of your fly fishing buddies see you.

If one does happen by, explain that you fell and hit your head on a rock, you have amnesia or all your fly gear got stolen back in the parking lot.

They'll understand. ; )

I confess= I'm somewhat of a YouTube addict. LOL

Every day I seem to find another band I hadn't thought of previously.

Have actually found quite a few shows that I actually attended!

Cheap Trick at Soldier Field for Chicagofest back in the 80's...

(Joe Walsh was there too, so give me some slack here, huh?)

Yeah, lots of Smallie videos to be found there. = )

Excellent work gang!

Thanks for taking the time out of your weekend to give back to the resource.

Well Gary, there were lots of Indians around at the time. Couple that with some rather large buffalo and other beasts. Prairies were often burning, to facilitate hunting by the Indians. The Illinois were known to kill members of other tribes, such as the Miami from time to time, so you can imagine what they thought of the white man.

LaSalle, at the wishes of his King, Louis XIV of France, explored the area of the Kankakee in 1679, when the territory belonged to the Potawatomi- his party including the first white men to paddle their canoes in its current.

Tough conditions for these men.

Hennepin wrote:

"For more than forty leagues of the way, we could not find a camping ground, except for some frozen hummocks of earth on which we slept and lit our fire. Our provisions ran out and we could find no game after passing these marshes....for more than sixty leagues journey, they killed only a lean stag (goat), a small deer, some swans and two wild geese for the subsistance of thirty-two men."

As a compliment to a recent ISA newsletter article I wrote in the "Rivers of Time" series on the Kankakee River, I compiled some interesting photos and thought I'd share them here.

In your next issue, the series returns for an article on the Fox River through the ages.

If you have a favorite IL river you'd like to see profiled, let me know for future newsletters.

I have a tremendous databse of information from which to research for these.

Hope you enjoy them!

Historic photo of a group of Kankakee River Valley hunters:

Original equipment used to dredge the channel in Indiana:

Looking east from the state line bridge into Indiana:

A view of the Wilmington Dam as it used to look (the mill building and RR bridge no longer exist):

The watercraft used to navigate the rivers of the Midwest (including the Kankakee) by La Salle's team.

Note the flat shelf on the front of the canoe- this is where they cooked their meals, as it was often too dangerous to camp on land for long periods of time. They literally lived in these boats for months at a time....

As I thought about this more, one thing came to mind that will absolutely rock your world this spring-

Go out with the kids and capture some live crawdads from a local stream.

There is a net you can buy that has a flat front which you stick straight down in good clean cuurent, while kicking rocks around. They will wash right into your net, along with hellgrammites and various minnow species.

I'm pretty sure you could probably give me more pointers on capturing little critters than I could ever offer, but anyway- take the biggest one you can find and get it hooked up.

The biggest fish in a given pool will slam it.

We used to do this often on the Kankakee on Sunday mornings.

One day I'll never forget is throwing one of these bad boys on a slip bobber in late spring. It got hung up on a rock in the current, I gave it a twitch, it went over the boulder and an 18" smallie pounded it.

Got it landed and released, rigged up another big 'ol craw and threw upstream of the same rock on the next cast.

Same thing- a little twitch, it goes over the rock and an 8lb. flathead cat had taken up residence in place of the smallie.

A nice bonus catch and fight while wading.

Thanks for a good laugh, Tim.

I needed that today.

Notice I didn't say "Rodent" in this thread?

HAHA

Oooops.... just did.

Bettencourt Baits makes them- grab a few and meet me at the river. We'll talk "Big Baits=Big Fish" from there. = )