Kev-mo

That free swinging hook seems important. Here is a question for those who use trailer hooks. Can you give us some details on how you put them on?

Pointing up and use a small chunk of surgical tubing to keep them from sliding off. The gammie's I bought came with tubing but I didn't think it was narrow enough so I used my own.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. I'd rather not call Simms. I'm afraid they may give me another pair of boots. The first two pairs of Simms boots that I owned caused me a great deal of pain. This pair fell apart. Three strikes....I'll try some other brand

Even if you don't want another pair of Simms I still think you should call them/send the pictures. Perhaps it's a design flaw they are not aware of... you get the idea.

Since your done with Simms I take a size 13. I'd like to try to the Riversheds so when you send in the pics etc tell them you just hit a growth spurt

Well that just seems wrong. I think you said those weren't too old. I think you should complain. Looks like epic failure vs. plain old use failure.

Was it stitching that fell apart or gluing? Glue should not be used on wading boots. I prefered the old style guides where everything was stitched and they looked like they would last a good long time except for maybe Norms abuse

I guess if companies made stuff to last they would not make too much money...

Could've felt threatened or (hopefully not) been rabid...

I startled one once but I was the one scared as it was pretty darn big and it made one large entry into the water.

No 3's but I see rain is back into the 4cast.

It looks like if I'm ever going to learn to fish high water then this is the year.

I too don't get along with the stuff that grows along our river banks, that's why I like to stick too the wading thing.

 

Any 4's? I could definitely use some 4's.

No 4's go fish! Got out last night for a couple hours on a rapidly falling but still chocolatey and chugging flow. The grass has gone to seed so no allergies. One well fed 12/13 on plastic in seam and one dink on a crank in slack. After not being out for over a month I'll take it!

One of the scout kids said his Off worked good. In looking online though I don't like what the precaution tab says...

Again in looking online the Theracell looks better and safer. However both seem to assume you are sitting in one place so it's doubtful either would work for hiking or fishing unless your sitting in one place "polishing rocks".

 

 

Time for the white spinner bait. A bacon wrapped glow stick will probably work if you get it in the right area.

 

 

itc?

Sure... mess with the one guy that still hasn't gotten a bite on that particular bait yet. I do have glow sticks and bacon in the freezer. How do you wrap the bacon around the stick? Is this a topwater presentation or worked on the bottom?

Oh, I'm sure I'll make my way to the creek and give 'er a good shot but it never seems to go the way I would like it to go.

This is one of the many reasons I joined the ISA, to pick-up on little high water fishing tips and such.

It'll take more water then we got right now to keep this smallie chaser at home.

Any 5's? Would anyone happen to have any 5's?

No 5's but a 20 would be nice

Norm is right about adapting. You just have to get out and check things out (safely of course). The fish still need to eat (just like winter). I personally can't beat the shoreline as I'm allergic to whatever that tall grass is when it's pollenating(sp?) and that usually coincides with the better part of June. Until the water drops or the grass is done; does anyone have any 3's?

Well, with all this wet stuff filling up my river every other day, I guess I'm going to have to start

fishing area lakes for awhile. Anybody ever fish Lake Le-Aqua-Na?

I fished it once for just a bit several years ago when we were there for camping for cub scouts. Pretty weedy (milfoil?). Picked up a few bass on a black buzzbait. I liked the looks of it and wanted to explore more but no time.

The four lakes area looks pretty good too. I was there once (didn't fish) but it sure looked fishy...

Thanks Scott. Sounds like the way to go if i get one. I'm getting it as a gift for a friend so I might get something that's pretty much ready to go. Price isn't that important I owe this guy big time. I might look around for a bit not in a hurry. If you have any other suggestions fire away.

Thanks again

Phil

You can get a Vexilar or any of the other brands people use for ice fishing. They might have a package deal where it can be used for ice fishing with an option to mount/use on a boat. I think they have several different transducer types with regard to cone angle etc. They'll be pricey though.

You still may want to think about going Scott's route. Back when the Vex's first came out I couldn't really justify the expense so I bought a Hummingbird flasher and an extra portable transducer with the suction cup. I also bought one the blue plastic ice boxes that hold the battery and you can mount the flasher on. Worked fine for ice fishing and could use it on a boat no problem. Unless you got a really good seal though the suction cup would come off now and again.

I guess it depends on how your friend is going to use it. If they'll never or rarely go ice fishing I would opt for Scott's idea. You could really trick it out and customize a real nice box to hold the unit and battery and make a real nice bracket to hold the tranducer. I'm not knocking Scott's 1x2 or tackle box as it works. Just thinking something customized would be nicer as it's a gift. I think the batteries can be found for less than $30 on sale. The only thing I didn't like was the cords that came with my unit were very long (to fit on a boat) so you might need to take that in to consideration when picking out a box. If you do go this route make sure everything is clamped in the box and the box can be bungeed or clamped to the boat so in case of rough seas etc nothing will go overboard.

That's a nice story Norm. Not everyone would go and sit at the river like you did looking out for people.

Gary you would be shocked at what's out there... I too had some trepidation at joining several years ago but was fortunate enough to meet and get to know a few members (Don, Norm, Jonn) and based on that along with going to a Blow Out I saw nothing but good things that were completely opposite of what I heard.

got my issue this weekend great cover shot! rich

Already read mine (good stuff) and I agree a great shot! I'm also going through a lot of my tackle and weeding out a lot of stuff this year (for different reasons than Rich) although I did enjoy that read.

Limit after limit.Very good,VERY EVIL fishermen.Wonder why the law waited several days allowing for the loss of so many smb before putting an end to the slaughter.

Possibly to make a stronger case, bigger fines etc. You would think one extra limit would be enough but maybe not enough to really come down hard and make an example/statement about what happens when you overharvest.

I'm no expert on either the Dupe or the Kish. Here's an 18.5 from each. I'm holding the Dupe fish (Sept 08) closer to the camera than the Kish fish (April 09). Same camera, same original pixel size and same pixel reduction. Beyond the dupe fish closer to the camera they look pretty similar to me. Maybe I got lucky and caught the exception on the Kish. I don't know... just putting in my 1 cent.

dupe

kish

Mike

I just re-checked BPS and Cabelas and did not see the ones I'm looking for. I'll just have to pay shipping or wait until I find them. Thanks

Phil

Thanks for the info. I saw some other jigs I liked. Maybe I'll pick up a pack of each and play.

Rich

It almost seems as if you are trying to subtley bring me over to what some have referred to as the "dark side". The force seems to be strong with you

I have the tools to custom make whatever type popper heads you'd like. I can either make the popper heads for you or make the sliders that you need. I usually make them out of foam, but if you need cork, I can do that too. Drop me a PM if you're interested in either. If you have a particular size or color of slider I can make them to order fairly quickly.

Guess my post was ambiguous... looking for Charlie Brewer lead jig heads.

Sure do appreciate the offer Mike!

I would just go to Charlie Brewer's site and order them direct if you can't find them anywhere close. That is what I did for the 1/16oz. Crappie Sliders I used up that way.

How much was shipping? I'm kind of anti-shipping charge oriented if I can help it. GATS is nowhere near my house but I do pass close enough in my travels that it's thriftier to wait until the next time I'm out that way and stop in. If it comes down to it I'll order from Charlies site if I have to.

I'm mostly looking for other places that carry them that I don't know of or a similar substitute people like.

Are you looking for the heads or the slider worms? Your post was a little ambiguous.

Sorry... the lead jig heads.

I'm looking for the classic sliders (the bigger ones). It doesn't appear BPS has them anymore, GATS was out when I stopped recently, last couple times I stopped at Strictly Fishing they didn't have any. Short of ordering direct who else might carry them? Has anyone tried the pro series or ewg on the sliders? I only heard a couple negatives on the pro.

Anything else similar design wise that you tried and like? Thanks

Due to the straight drop from shore down to the water making it difficult to land a decent size fish getting on the water with some kind of craft would be advantageous as well as for other reasons.

I'll be duct taping a net to a broom stick. Five dollars per fish per net job

Seriously, if you have longer net bring it.

is there an address for people that aren't familiar with the area?

Chris

You could probably paddle your yak around the harbor.

Ron, looking at the pics of terrific fish you all catch out of the Dupage, those fish are eating very well indeed. I seldom see a picture of a skinny fish. They are above average girth for a smallie in a stream, certainly beats the whole of Indiana stream fish for average girth at least. Forage might be bigger and down out of sight?

 

Algae and weeds can offer very good hiding spots. There are several streams where I never see any craws, yet the bass eat tubes quite often and the fish grow very fast...for Indiana. I'd bet being close to Lake Michigan doesn't hurt.

 

You asked in another thread what I'm doing to compensate for dwindling numbers... Work harder, walk further, cover more ground, downsize baits, look at new streams in areas where floods might not have impacted as much, think out of the box more. LMB aren't an option, I need flowing water.

 

Maybe got to Ky, MI, WI...

The fish eat very well in the dupe. I'll have to take and send you a picture come summer of the weeds. I think you'd be shocked by how weedy it gets. There are plenty of places for forage to hide in the weeds. Now what happens in winter is still something I am trying to dissect.

Btw most everything isn't even connected to Lake Michigan with regard to drain off etc.

It seems like I am catching less fish than I did several years ago but I can't say it's a direct correlation to less fish. I got out less last year. It was a different year weather wise and I didn't adjust. I've been playing around the last couple/few years with different and larger baits. I threw a baitcaster all last year which meant very little in the way of finesse baits. I haven't thrown some specific baits at the dupe in 2-3 years and I used to throw them a lot catching a lot of fish. A few sections I frequent had a lot of shoreline wood washed away from high water events from 2008 on that really hasn't been replaced. If you put just the above together leaving out all other variables you would expect me to catch less. Less outings also equals less of a chance for quality unless you hit the mother lode just right. I'm not saying there isn't a decline but maybe take a look at your own habits also. I know I'm going back to some basics this year just to see.

Btw how long does a fish live under utopian condintions after it hits 18 inches, 2 years, 4 years? Just curious. Perhaps all those 18's I and others caught 3 years ago went to fish heaven.

To add to the follow up; it started out with nice weather but towards mid morning the cold front finally showed up and got a little chilly and pretty rainy. The kids and their parents really stuck it out though. Saw a decent amount of fish caught and some happy kids. Jim picked up a good amount of garbage. I had a nice conversation with the one volunteer Ed mentioned. I let him know a little more of what the ISA does and he was seemed intrigued. Really nice guy, hope he joins. I kept trying to place a couple that was also volunteering and we finally figured out that it was at the Rosemont show where I saw them when I worked last year. Small world at times...

Went back Monday with my kids and my oldest managed one trout despite the sunshine. He had to catch and prepare a fish as part of his fishing merit badge for scouts and this worked out nicely. He didn't mind cleaning the fish but then when I had him battering he was pretty grossed out when the egg and flour got all sticky on his hands. Quite comical.

Yeah, you got me too. I'm only half paying attention right now. Even had to edit for poor proof reading. Too bad at least number two couldn't become a reality.

It would also be an easier issue if they stopped letting people build right next to the river and leaving buffer zones. Wait a minute, that would help with flooding too. That makes too much sense