jamie

Best report I've read!

Well here's what i got from Anthony Charlton, Director of StormWater Management for DuPage County.

He said that basically even if Tronox is not ordered by a judge to continue the clean-up, the EPA has their eye on the project and will step in down the road because it's a federal Supersite.

Timeline? There isn't one. When Tronox went under, so did the timeline.

As far as the warrenville Dam being removed, the NOAH Grant they received runs out in 3 years. IF that runs out before dam removal funds could be allocated from elsewhere ( meaning inside other projects ) and redirected to the removal. He asked that if needed he may call on myself to spread the word about an upcoming meeting where it may be beneficial for local anglers to show in support of removal.

There are long range plans for stocking. Their shocking surveys showed a dismal number of baitfish in the entire stretch to be able to support a large gamefish population. There are also plans for stocking gamefish in the future but no date could be given. The vernal pools at Blackwell have already been placed and should aid in reproduction of forage fish species.

So...It'll happen. It just isn't going to happen any time soon and we're left with quite a mess. There are plans to have an independent contractor clean up the Cenacle site when the ground is dry...but judging by the photos you are about to see of Cenacle...that's not gonna be any time soon either.

There ya have it. A booming fishery and a greater ecosystem are promised. Unfortunately mother nature is going to have to wait a few years while Father Time drags this thing thru the court system for God knows how long.

Until then, enjoy the scenery, as i present to you The Upper Stretch of The DuPage River...courtesy of Tronox.

The plan was this.

Meanwhile roads like this have been cut into the forests at several locations. And everything inside sits. Including huge piles of dirt that were destine for a dumping site in Nevada.

And the river in this 2 mile long section??

Miles of chickenwire, anyone?

Stumps. Covered in matting.

Many stumps ( still rich in Thorium) left in place. This one used to be a prime habitata for smallies of all sizes that used it as shade. There was a deep hole under it.

Spots like this were goldmines. Tons of rocks on the shore. 2 huge overhanging willows. Now..spots like this are mud shorelines with absolutely no cover whatsoever. There are many like this.

It seems that certain "finished" areas weren't even touched. I've been fishing these very concrete slabs for years. The water used to be clear enough to see the bottom. It's only 2' deep at the end of those rocks.

A classic spot. It had trees, deep water, everything! There was a higher berm that divided it from that carp infested pond you see in the background. Guess where many of those carp are right now? Notice how the area hasn't been finished and is now a huge mud flat. Previously I would have graded this as one of the best spots on the river. You've seen a couple of our biggest smallies come from here.

A formerly great clear water area.

Lots of this around

More chicken wire.

A formerly nice area. The water was clear. In fact we would pick them off by sight fishing. Trees like this weren't laying around. And all the brush was supposed to be removed as well.

Yet another access road that used to be forest...no longer used.

If anyone needs several thousand linear feet of some sort of blue plastic, I know where to find some.

Areas like this were never cleaned up and are now a mess.

Areas like this were stripped clean of foliage and rock. Left flat with mud. Unfinished. Washing into the river for who knows how long.

Stumps and debris liter the water.

And places like Cenacle have been destroyed.

Thousands and thousands of yards of now-unsecured ground mesh, coming to a neighborhood near you! ( ahem..naperville)

So..those are SOME of the photos I took. There's dozens more but I think the point has been made.

To all the anglers south of here I'd like to say this: Even though it's out of sight, this is YOUR river. This is where your fish come from. This is where the waters start that you wade in. And even though you may never fish it, I urge you to not forget that it's there and needs us to make sure that it gets fixed.

I was told today by a friend of mine to " walk away" from this little issue. Sorry Pal..no can do. This is my back yard. And if it dies...it'll be your back yard too someday.

This what I've found about this so far:

"...since all expenditures will ultimately have to be approved by a bankruptcy judge, it is too soon to say to what level the cleanup will be funded by Tronox for the coming year. "

Nice. So are you saying that the area that looks like it was carpet bombed by a B-52 on a napalm run should just be left as it is? No offense but it seems like you're trying to make a point, Don.

I'm going to put up a series of photos tomorrow that might get some attention. Plus it'll surely piss off a few people.

Understood. I hope mother nature likes sloughs.

Rich, with all due respect, whatever anyone talked about in 07 or 08 has no bearing in this matter anymore. The piles of dirt weren't washed into the river in 08. The digging didn't stop in 08. And the dams were and are still in place since 08...along with a 1 mile pool of slop.

So..are we saying that no one knows what the plan is other than what Don talked about in 07 or 08, which has now gone down the proverbial crapper?

I just want an answer. That's all. If the answer is " we have no clue on God's green earth waht's going on up there." I can accept that. But to say that there was some mild stocking done and to think that even 1/10 of those fish are now still in that 1 mile area he talked about after the 3 record floods kinda leaves me to doubt that any of his points remain valid.

Ok..so now that Tronox has filed for bankruptcy and all but stopped dredging on the Dupage river....and now that the piles and piles of dirt has washed right back in due to the 3 floods in the last 6 months...and now that the banks that were supposed to be re-planted ( they tried last year but the plants didn't take because of the floods),,,and now that there's an entire section that has been wrecked and the smallies weren't re-stocked.....

Um...now what?

Anyone know what the plan is? I know that the Army Corp is in discussions about how to fix this God awful mess.....but that's mainly because naperville is pi$$ed off that the riverwalk flooded 3 times and is blaming the upstream work.

I highly doubt if most ( if anyone) even knew anything about what I just typed. But i figure it's worth a shot. I remember bringing up the clean-up project 2 years ago and was told that the ISA was involved or had knowledge of the full project. So...what about now? Anyone on this problem?

I think I need to take some photos of what has happened on the Upper Dupage. No one here sees it. I get the pleasure of seeing that destruction every day...and let me tell you, it aint a pretty sight. It used to be a fine place to find some big smallies. Now you'd be hard pressed to find a good sized creek chub in that 7 mile stretch.

Rattle baits burned in as fast as I can reel it.

Don't know where it came from.

But I can tell you that it went into a freezer.

Bummer.

So...Tronox filed for Chapter 11.

It'll be interesting to see if they finish the clean-up of the DuPage. They say they will...but I'm still skeptical.

All I know is that he wasn't an indian. He was one of my people. Kinda like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of commercials. Could have been better if some Ennio Morricone was playing in the background. Perhaps some "L Arena". Wait...Tarantino already took that idea.

Sorry I went all Dennis Miller on ya there, Mike.

I finally decided to see what a Chatterbait could do and if it could live up to the hype . Unfortunately my timing stinks as we got the highest flows I've ever seen . For the most part there wasn't enough large slackwater pockets to use it with a steady retrieve and cover some water which is what it looks to be best at .

 

When I tried pitching it to trees and pockets it just didn't produce on short retrieves . It also didn't handle the current real well but maybe I'm just not used to what it's supposed to do .

 

Anyone else use them and have any thoughts ?

I personally hate that bait. But partner Mike throws it all the time. It's his main weapon of choice. If you want some tips on that thing drop him a line mike@customfish.com

We must have 50 pictures like this, all from that bait.

They last 10X longer. The sink rate is pretty good too. Senkos are more often than not a 1 fish bait. And a pretty expensive one at that.

The odor. Pipestone trip in june. Nasty.

Tips and whatnot for 07:

You can NOT reel in a rattle bait or Storm wild eye shad fast enough in 40-50 degree water. You.Just.Can't.

Ditches hold alot of 16-20"+ smallies for 3 seasons.

Red+chartruese+April=Happy.

Smallies love 2-3" tight wobble cranks that are custom painted to look like a smallie.

Megabait Charlie is perhaps the greatest big smallie/largemouth lure in the box.

No..wait. Wilson is. Still the king.

The above-dam section of the river holds a TON of untapped big smallies in an area where there aren't supposed to be a TON of untapped big smallies.

Bass Pro sticks are better than Senkos and last 10X longer.

Retention pond smallies are found in exactly the same spots as and with largemouth. That heavy mat of crap algae that rings the shore is a gold mine.

A #4 Mepps, A 3" Husky Jerk, A Tiki Stik, A Hula Grub, A Zara Puppy, and a Chug Bug are all you need for an entire week on a prime shield lake in Ontario.

A Gorillapod is a great tool for the solo fisherman.

4 ISA members in one cabin for a week is not a good idea, just from an odor point of view.

Vegetables?

Iguana. Tortoise. Or a plecostomus.

(personally, I mix them in with the dog food. My dog aint picky. Probably explains the 3 digit weight.)

Or just get a dog.

6 over 20". 1 at 23". That's all the memory I need.

Mike,

Yeah, it's a good one. I have a list of about a dozen that i follow every day. I lean way more that way than board sites lately, which probably explains why that smallie shot is (I think) the only one I have on the board this year in total. I guess I like my indie sites like I like my indie music.

I follow the Moldy Chum/ Reelpure sites around as well. Quite entertaining.

My company and theirs just traded hats ( we trade hats with alot of other fishing companies. )

Nothin' better than a new mojo hat.

Moldy Chum pic, eh?

http://moldychum.typepad.com/moldy_chum/flures/index.html

Check this out. This could be really useful to the solo fisherman! http://www.customfish.com/2007_11_01_archi...674212004840127 Pretty cool, huh??

The weather outside is frightful.....

What now?

 

Are you packing it in, or changing tactics?

 

Inquiring minds want to know!

Probably packing it in. Fishing show season is coming up so that basically shuts down any free time for us.

BUT..that being said, 11-17-07 was one hell of a day to close out the season. And quite unbelievable. Finishing the year out with another 20" smallie (or 2, as it was. Go Ken!) was icing on the cake.

Steve is a great guy. Glad to see him in that seat!

Yep. We see fish pictures all the time that are claimed to be from some other place. It's a daily occurance on muskie sites that I'm on.

I could put up a pike picture that has been claimed by just about every idiot who fishes that it was caught in their lake. It's the one of a big pike t-boning a smaller one. I've heard LOTW, Rainy,Rowan,blah blah blah. Turns out that it was in friggin Holland. That kind of crap happens all the time. I'm sure it happens with bass fishing sites too, but they don't catch the attention that some b.s. 65" pike gets when it's emailed 3 million times. Heck I heard from a friend who told her that a coworker at her job said his friend caught that fish. The muskie/pike stuff gets a ton of air time. Generally no one wastes the time to b.s. about a bass or a walleye. But it still amazes me that any fish picture gets rumored around. Heck...I've found CF pictures that some dude in Poland lifted from us. Go figure. Just comes with the territory.

That's what I hate about fishing. We're called liars for a reason.

I've seen picture 7 on other southern bass sites listed as a spot. I seem to recall using that picture as well in one of my reports as a comparison. Could possibly be a meanmouth. http://www.customfish.com/2007/05/meanmouth-bass.html