Mark K

Job killer (sarcasm).

Nice job, guys. I could not make it out there today or I would have. Have you all done this every year since it started? I think the first planting was 2003. Man, that's a LOT of water willows.

I bought these hooks in the early 2000s. Bass Pro used to carry them and they called them "Conservation Hooks". I think they were made by eagle Claw I bought a dozen or so, but never used them until today. While I am am not nuts about mutilating fish for fun, I am a whole lot less nuts about mutilating my thumb, Which have done. I caught 3 fish today. each was seriously pinned, but very easy to unhook with very little damage. https://flic.kr/p/HsQrM5

Now that I think of it I have a 6 1/2 foot Medium (SJR782) Loomis IMX that I was going to hack 3" off the rear grip and turn it into a short rear grip, 6'3". It's a super sensitive blank, outrageously light and totally beautiful American craftsmanship. i used it like 5 times and it looks like it, the cork is still DNA free, without ever being cleaned. I'll give you a great deal if you are interested. I have a 6 foot ML SJR721, an old one which has a very short rear grip, that's one of my favorite rods. I was going to have Eric at Corens shorten the rear grip, to match the 6 footer, but if someone bought the rod off me i would recommend fishing with it first. Speaking of fishing with it first. I bought my son Max this really nice Gander Mountain 6 1/2 medium rod "Vortex" and I got him this GM reel to go with it. I paid $30 bucks for the rod and another $30 for the reel. They are normally like 60 but you just have to catch the sales. I borrowed it from him on occasion to fish at lunch when at work. Seriously, for the type of fishing I described, it's outstanding especially if you use a light braided line. I don't know how long the reel is going to last, but fishing with it is pure joy. Thats probably your best bet, figure out what you like and don't like.

No such thing. But if you like to throw light plastics, like flukes and assassins, smallish topwater like poppers and walk the dog type stuff and rapalas and smallish cranks then something like a ML would work. The actual rod length is kind of meaningless, because the placement of the reel seat dictates how much rod length you actually get. Personally I hate a long rear grip when I throw topwaters and I think it's particularly clumsy in a kayak. But not something I can't work around. St Croix is making a line called Avid X that has a short rear grip, and I am probably going to get the 6'9 or build a rod similar.

I cast a Lews Pro the other day. It was just cleaned and tuned by some dude up in Rockford. I was highly impressed.

that is awesome.

In the 90's I used to fish the I&M in Morris, Gebhardt Woods. We caught lots of quality fish in there. I was told a dyke busted on the Dupage and all the water drained out and it pretty much went dry. A local netted a 7lb largemouth and let it go in the illinois.

like.

If you have any clever DIY storage hints, or better yet a picture. I would appreciate seeing it. Looking to stack two.

You know, damselflies, if I am not mistaken by definition actually rest with their wings folded back against their body when not flying. That alone would probably make it cast better with twisting.

signed.

I think that would certainly do the trick.

For panfish, specifically bluegills before any other pattern there should be sponge spiders and small poppers and Sneaky Petes. You can tie the sponge spiders fancier than they need to be, but seriously those el-cheapo white ones with the orange paint are just killer. i am going to make some nice poppers before spring, but I don't think i can make a nicer one than Boogle Bugs, which are 5 bucks each. But they are really durable and just a wicked fly. For bass look at Gartside's Gurgler and also various poppers, Dahlberg Divers and bass bugs. My favorite fly by a long shot is a downsized Murdich Minnow. I met this guy while fishing the Mazon, nice guy. We ended up chatting and he gave me a baby murdich that he tied. That fly stayed on my leader for the rest of the summer till it disintegrated. It was only 3 1/2 inches or so. All you had to do water see the fly in the water and you'll know why it catches fish. They shed water real nice and really the full size Murdich really isn't that hard to cast, I was just doing so well in numbers and enjoyment on my 6 wt with the small one. the key to the murdich is the polar fiber causes a wake that makes the flashabou and deer hair wiggle when you strip it.

How about Sag Quarries?

Dude, you aren't an InFisherman, you are a renaissance man!

Gage park for me Steve, 54th California. Yes. Fishing' poles on the "Green Limousine" for me too.

Point I was getting to there is teaching someone to fish, is not going to happen in an afternoon. i see well intentioned people totally put people off on fishing for the rest of their life. Here is an example. A relative asked if my boys could tag along on their kids cub scout troop. I was okay with it. they told me there was one kid there that in the last 4 years they had done this he had never caught a fish. I thought that was peculiar since the lake they were on was awesome. I fished there a lot. Our company is right next door so I used to go there at lunch. It's just crawling with nice fish. So I come to pick up my kids the next morning. My relative told me the skunk happened again and the catch overall that day was pretty pathetic. this kid was maybe 10? let me tell you he was convinced that it was his fault. So I grabbed an ultralight with a tiny jig and a small bobber. I had some gulp baits. I took both him and his dad and explained to his Dad, how this all works. I told the kid you are going to catch at least 10 fish right now, twice as many as anyone else. Do you believe me?....No. first cast he catches his first fish. A nice gill. Then he goes on to catch 9 more one was a really big gill before a thunderstorm rolled in and we had to leave. his Dad took pictures and all and this kid was freaking beaming. did it inspire a life long desire to catch fish? I don't know. And I bet a million bucks his Dad didn't listen and buy the magic set up and taken him since. point here is that kid was convinced that either fishing sucked, or he sucked at it or both. That's why I think if you are going to take someone fishing you need to make sure they are gonna catch fish.

My parents had me late in life. My Dad really did his best to entertain me. I remember going to lots of Sox games, back in the 70's. Think Wilbur Wood, Bucky Dent, Ralph Gar etc. I saw greats like Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter and Nolan Ryan many times. My Dad took me fishing, often, but a cane pole was his speed. it and really didn't help that he was old and sick from of a lifetime of smoking. My older brother was much older than me, old enough to be my Dad. He took me fishing occasionally and was a little better at it than our Dad. i don't want tome off as ungrateful because some fathers never take their kids fishing anywhere. We did go to Wisconsin a couple times where we hammered white bass . That got me pretty hyped up. Then my Dad went to Wisconsin, once with his buddies from work and He came home with a pike about 8 lbs. It looked like a freaking sea monster to me! So we had a little Chicago Public Library branch around the corner. I read every book they had on fishing. One comes to mind "Fishing with Worms and other Live Bait" by Ray Bergman. I also read Outdoor Life and Field and Stream cover to cover every month. We rode our bikes to Marquette Park and used garden worms or Pillsbury dough for bait. City boys on bikes with fishing rods. Urban angling at it's best. Point being, if you really love doing something you'll figure out a way on your own. My Dad still took me to the Cook County FP lakes like Sag Quarry and Maple Lake. Then for a long time, I stopped fishing. My Dad got really sick and died. Then I was in a store and I picked up an issue of In-fisherman. Spring 1983. back then it was as thick as the Sears catalog and really great information. Anyway it had a lot of information about panfishing. so I bought an ultralight rod and boom, I was catching fish like I never did before. Fast forward. Congratulations! It's a boy. and a new fishing partner. I had Max fishing when he was really little. He sat in my lap and together we caught bluegill after bluegill. Then he got old enough to hold the rod, but I still helped him set the hook. Really it wasn't that long before he could cast a spinning rod effectively and pretty much do everything on his own. Using light line, small jigs under light bobbers we fished CIRCLES around people next to us. Adults just getting their asses kicked by a 4 year old right next them using to come up to me and tell me "that's amazing". The point I am trying to make here, is teaching someone to fish is more than handing them a sucky-ass spin cast rod with a bobber the size of a tennis ball, then walking away. To get them as good as they are was a lot of attention on my part and I rarely fished myself in those times. LOL I used to rig up a rod with stink bait and I would let him battle these big cats when he was really little. It was highly entertaining. Max, A Nice Cat and I. by Mark Kasick, on Flickr Max got better and better, then it wasn't all that long before I wasn't doing anything for him, and he could fish on his own. I could actually fish! Max caught this fish on his own, baited his own hook and beached it. Fought it in current with light line, just like a pro. Max's Channel Cat by Mark Kasick, on Flickr Then he got a little brother and the process started over. Will's First Big Bass by Mark Kasick, on Flickr Both of them are at home wading Rock Creek flipping rocks, catching minnows and crawdads as well as in shorts wading thru armpit high water willow and all the critters that reside in there. The great thing about having kids, is you have full license to do all the dumb shit you would be embarrassed to do as an adult. Max is really, really great at photography. i'll have to post his shots. Man before you know it they are as tall as you. 20150907_133752 by Mark Kasick, on Flickr Last year we went to Sylvania and kicked it ups notch. It was freaking awesome. 20150813_101453 by Mark Kasick, on Flickr I have hundreds of fish pics with them. I need to get organized and make a slide show.

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From the perspective of someone fishing for bass and trout in rivers and streams, probably not. But it really doesn't matter what I think. Angling...either you get it or you don't. I can't stop anybody or force them to start. Personally I see no evidence of it going away. My son starts high school next year, they actually have a fishing team.

Dunno. If I want to watch someone cream 'em I'll put on reruns of Bill Dance and watch him fish a private phosphate pit. :-)

The big blue green ones are green darners. Green Darners Mating by Mark Kasick, on FlickrYeah I have seen that too, LM just going airborne over them. Not just one

I have a video somewhere I shot from kayak. it was on the Kank and damsels were locked and ovipositing eggs and smallies were just going crazy over them. I have a feeling if I start carrying a damsel pattern it will almost certainly ensure that I will never see that happen again.

Here is a cool pattern. i follow this guy's page on You Tube. He mentions video above. That's how I found it.