Mike Clifford

You are standing waist deep in your favorite river early one summer morning. The sun has yet to show itself over the horizon, but you can tell it's going to be a gorgeous day.

Your buddies are spread out in this long stretch of river, and you have a $100 pool riding on who gets the first Smallie of the day- but it MUST come in the first 10 minutes, or it rolls over until the next weekend. Keep in mind, what you tie on before stepping into the river is all you can use for this time limit.

What are you throwing in this situation?

Ran across an interesting article while looking for something completely unrelated (isn't that how it works on the internet?):

"Crayfish are omnivores," Kratz said, and one of their favorite foods is "the slimy scum" that coats the leaves of aquatic plants.

 

But while a native crayfish will gently climb a plant's stalk to scrape away at a leaf, a rusty will knock the whole plant over by snipping it at its base, leaving swaths of denuded terrain on the bottom of several northern lakes.

That's a bad-azz species there, huh?

The point of my post is actually to ask a question in the hopes somebody might have some sort of answer.

Here is another quote from the article (the full text can be viewed HERE:

The battle against invasive aquatic species has largely been a losing one, with the few victories coming at a sizable cost to native species, water quality and budgets.

As most anglers know, it is illegal to possess live rusty crayfish in Illinois.

So what is the best way to eradicate this species, and in doing so- what effect does it have on the native fish populations?

They eat these crayfish as well, right?

Ever hear the phrase "...there, but for the grace of God, go I"?

Well, your local rivers and streams are in constant need of monitoring and a strong stewardship presence to ward off these kinds of things.......

Abnormally developed fish, possessing both male and female characteristics, have been discovered in the Potomac River in the District and in tributaries across the region, federal scientists say -- raising alarms that the river is tainted by pollution that drives hormone systems haywire.

Striking results!

More than 80 percent of all the male smallmouth bass they found were growing eggs, including all of the fish caught at four of the seven survey sites. The intersex condition doesn't change the fish's outward appearance but can be detected under a microscope.

Check out these horrifying facts:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0501384_pf.html

Thank you for coming out Al!

If I'm not mistaken, you recently signed on as an ISA member?

First and foremost, I hope you are enjoying your first year in the club, and find your membership beneficial in not only the volunteer opportunities we provide, but for the social aspects as well.

Just give a holler if you ever need anything.

The guy lived life to the fullest.

R.I.P. Steve.

News Articles

On a gorgeous Saturday morning we had 12 volunteers show up at the Kankakee River State Park to pick up trash, post signs and check for wear and tear on existing ones.

I'd like to thank everyone that showed up, as you are the reason we are able to take these projects on.

We managed to post quite a few yellow catch and release as well as white reporting signs after picking up trash.

A day well spent.

THANKS!

You can view the 2006 Kankakee County Management Plan through the following link.

Scroll to page 53, and the ISA is actually mentioned by name.

There is a ton of information to digest here, but the favored alternative for reducing sediment load seems to be voluntary participation for farmers, with coupons for seed and the like as incentives.

That would be as opposed to a plan that would require them to institute BMP's....in case you were wondering.

http://www.forest.wisc.edu/competition/kan...gement_plan.pdf

Actually, I don't chalk it up to luck where IL is concerned.

It's organizations like the ISA, Prairie Rivers and others that work extremely hard to make sure our rivers and streams don't get that far gone.

A little stewardship goes a long way.

Oh, alright.

It's sort of coming back to me now.

It may have been for the purpose of dumping and storing the sand being dredged from the river- which doesn't exactly have a full green light at the moment. I believe it might still be in the initial stages...though around $100K or thereabouts was approved to get it started last year.

Matter of fact, I'm most curious where that particular project is right now.

With all the politics behind the scenes in this watershed, it's anyone's guess what is going on.

There have been so many different start and stop measures instituted, we need a scorecard to follow it these days- or find all the meeting minutes on the internet.

I'm off to do just that.

Come hungry- I'll be bringing doughnuts and coffee for everyone to partake in before we get started.

Just when you think your urban fishing spots could be cleaner.....

The New River holds the dubious distinction of being called North America's most polluted river. It starts in Mexicali, Mexico, flows past homes in the California border town of Calexico and winds up in the Salton Sea. It is made up of 70% waste material and contains raw sewage, disease-causing bacteria, heavy metals and toxic chemicals. It is so dangerous that Border Patrol agents are not required to go in the river to stop illegal immigrants who use it as a "safe" crossing point.

Ohhhh man. I can't wait to see it!

That reminds me, I've got to do some repair work on a couple of my rodent cranks before the weekend.

Beautiful Smallie Steve!

Way to go.

Kind of puts to rest any doubts I may have had, as in that conversation we had at the State Fair with Marc? LOL!

Those frogs look very interesting.

I love the minnow pattern as well.

Any chance you could mimic a baby rodent in some fashion?

I know for a fact Smallies eat them. = )

Very interesting discussion.

....and here I've only fished downstream when drifting hamburger on a treble hook for bulldog catfish on the Kankakee.

Which is not an easy task, BTW.

That will be plenty Rich.

Thanks.

Good question Mark.

I used to launch my boat there just about every Sunday for a few years, then came to realize it became a free launch when the state bought it.

Haven't been there in a few years, and everything was boarded up at the time.

There was a big push by the state to purchase land in that area, and they even approached a club I belong to that is right on the river- we turned them down.

These days, I'm not sure the state has any funds to actually make any purchases in that tract, or do anything with it if they did.

Would love to know the status on the properties they have acquired to date.

I am going to make sure I deplete just about my entire stash of signs- so yes, we will be doing postings on this day, along with light trash pick-up.

Please chime in if you have received it AND read it.

I have to say- they just keep getting better with every issue!

My hat's off to Scott and Jim for working so tremendously hard to make this happen every other month. Beautiful work.

Sometimes we take it for granted when it just arrives in our mailboxes, but it should also serve as a reminder that we are very lucky to have such a strong commitment and volunteer effort being put into this.

THANKS!

From the IDNR Website-

There was a near-miss in July below the Wilmington Dam as well!

WEEKLY ACTIVITY REPORT

July 19, 2006

A CPO responded to a report that a person was drowning at Wilmington Dam on Saturday. A 15 year old male had entered the boil area of the dam after repeated warnings from his parents to stay away and became caught in the current. His father attempted to rescue him and also became caught in the boil. After rotating within the current for 30 seconds or so, the father was able to escape the current. The son was caught in the current for a few more seconds and was able to be rescued by onlookers. The CPO arrived just as the boy had been rescued. The boy was completely wrapped up in fishing line and was not even able to attempt to swim during the time he was caught in the boil. The CPO cut the fishing line away and assisted emergency staff in transporting him to the ambulance. Both individuals are fine. Wilmington dam is not owned by the IDNR, but rather, the City of Wilmington. As such, Wilmington Police handled all reporting duties and media inquiries. The Wilmington Dam is prominently posted in English and Spanish restricting people from wading or swimming.

Yorkville is on there, Tim- under the Fox River heading.

Very interesting to see the Wilmington Mill Race dam on the list!

It used to be a concrete wall, and according to local lore it was dynamited some years back, for reasons best left to one's imagination. That thing serves no purpose whatsoever and is as dangerous as any dam can get.

It's nothing but chunks of concrete that were blown out of the wall, with loosened chunks and trapped debris flying out of the thing willy-nilly.

I have spent many a night perched atop that wall, and had some remarkable smallmouth experiences there- but it needs to be cleaned up once and for all.

The Momence dam is only on one half of the river, but the wash looks deadly as well.

Wilmington Mill Race (Broken Dam):

Momence:

Here is an article that discusses the acrylic model more extensively.

The Illinois Paddling Council deserves much of the credit for coming up with the idea:

ARTICLE HERE

I took some video of the Dam Simulator, but these guys do a much better job-

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6846124409391034920

Yes indeed! Just like the real thing when out on the river.

Hey- at least they were NATIVE plants. = )

Once again I'd like to thank Marc Miller and the office of Lt. Governor Pat Quinn for inviting the ISA to participate in the Illinois State Fair activities.

Our Kids Casting clinic was a big draw as always, as there was little down-time for Steve Jordan and myself throughout the day. Each child left us with a smile and a goodie-bag, and hopefully a better understanding of how to cast a fishing rod. There were actually quite a few that had never done it before, so perhaps we may have succeeded in "hooking a kid on fishing for life".

Yet another example of why they are good for nobody.

The Wilmington Dam in particular serves no purpose whatsoever.

Rather than spending all that money on the Danger signs, they should have just installed the fence like they discussed- making it a crime punishable by a $1,000 fine for trespassing.

Rip out the dam, or fence it off....but if you are going to do that, there better be some way for rescuers to reach the canoeists and boaters that tend to get sucked over it as well.