Mark K

Dobsonfly. EEEEWWW.

There's a big population around here too.And anyone not just ISA members can access these posts.Not mentioning "spots" includes general areas including towns as well.Some of our members including those who go back to ISA's origins don't ever mention even the river.Fishing reports are for how to not where too info.I don't see what's so hard to understand about that.

Sorry Ron, I am kind of a noob to the organization. No one sent me that memo. Thanks for the update.

Forgive me, if I am reading something post edit...

It's a big river. Warner bridge is like mentioning St. Charles on the Fox. It's not even a spot, it's a vacinity and a place to park.

I picked up a pair of Simms Gravel Guard Socks to wear under my boots while wet wading. I got to try them out yesterday. They are the ticket- none of those nasty pointy snail shells make their way into your boots. I was also able to wear them over the bootie on my waders. Its a bit snug, but it will add some insulation value.

I had a cheap pair of Cabelas or BPS knock-offs that had a seam straight down the middly rather than a true sole shape. Blister-City.

So anyway. I give these a big thumbs up.

About 30 bucks.

http://www.simmsfishing.com/site/guard_socks.html

Scott, try it and tell us how it goes.

 

I always thought of baitcasting as a big bait technique. Santa gave me a Curado 200E7 with a 6' Medium rod. It is easy to cast 1/4 oz lures on 12# line with the outfit. The rod is rated 1/4 to 5/8. With 8 or 10 pound line I might even handle smaller baits It seems baitcasting is not just for big plugs.

I once watched Eric S. cast a #2 Mepps with his Calcutta/MH Loomis as if he was using an ultralight. He can cast a spinnerbait and land it under a treelimb so it makes almost no splash hitting the water. It's pretty amazing.

I have a 6'8" St Croix legend tournament "topwater" rod and a Revo spooled wih 20lb braid. I can cast unweighted plastics no problem with it. It's a beautiful combo and a joy to use. Though it was pretty expensive if I remember right.

It has a really light tip so it loads up easy. I can throw a 3/8th oz spinnerbait with it, but any heavier would be doable but awkward.

The biggest disadvantage of a baitcaster is a castrophic backlash, which happens no matter how good you are, and can put you out of business unless you have another reel or more line to respool. I am reminded of this because it happened to me on saturday in Wisconsin as my Sammy snapped off mid air, then floated downstream out of reach.

Sammy Wanjiru died yesterday. This guy was a real racer. Here he drops Kebede at the end of Chicago 2010. This finish is incredible. Keep in mind the avg pace for these guys is in the 4:40s for the whole 26.2 miles. I think thats about 12 mph. You have to witness in person to see how fast that really is.

The mid point of Roosevelt Rd bridge is the start of the final 400 meters where he produces an incredible kick (uphill) and drops Kebede.

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/237467/video/359189

They don't show him almost faceplant from exhaustion after he crosses the line.

your committment is rewarded. good job. your in such good shape, if i had you rowing my boat it would be speed trolling. rich

LOL. I don't know about rowing, but I thought about getting one of those pedal powered kayaks. I could pay the thing off by charging people a few bucks to pedal them around all day. A human trolling motor!

I read Joe's lengthy article.I'm not sure what to make of it.My concern is for the future possible extinction of fishing period when I see so few kids interested in spending time outdoors today other than maybe shooting a few hoops in their driveways. Why experience the outdoors when there's a WII game that lets you simulate it all w/o leaving the comfort & safety of your living room while all the while pointlessly texting & eating junk food.As an alternative for some hands on adventure there's always The Mall.

As for flyfishing itself, the advent of spinfishing in the 50's rendered it(along with baitcasting) a minority pursuit.If it were to become extinct it would've happened then.Following The Movie leading to a big increase in ffing it was to be expected that a good nummber who came to the sport as a result were dilletantes.Tennis enjoyed such a short time boom in the 70's.While it's unfortunate that mom & pop flyshops have closed the reasons have to do with factors other than a drop in ffing interest & more to do with big box & especially catalog/online competition.Why go to a shop that may or may not have everything you need in stock when you can pu the phone or go online & be assured it's all there & will be at your door in a few days sometimes sans shipping or sales tax costs.

Re ffing magazines I dropped my subscritions to all but Midwest Flyfishing years ago primarily because after awhile they became redundant which I think holds true for how to magazines such as In Fisherman also.There's only so much that can be said about how to catch a fish.Re equipment costs ffing equipment is necessarily more expensive due to lower volume of sales for profit support.That said I do think costs did get out of hand.I never understood why someone would spend over $500 for an Abel freshwater flyreel for example.By the way I see you can now drop many hundreds $ on a spinning reel too.The ffing mfring industry has introduced more economical equipment recently & that trend will only continue.There have always been low cost beginners outfits available as an equipment base for anyone who wishes to advance to a higher level if they become engaged in the sport.If not little money's been lost.

Finally I think that while ffing is of course part of the picture Joe overstates its importance to the health of the environment in his last paragraph.Most who belong to organizations such as Audubon,Sierra Club,Nature Conservancy etc & for that matter the ISA don't flyfish.

Pretty good response Ron.

Congratulations on this accomplishment Mark I am sure you are as proud of yourself as we are proud of you for finishing such and event. I guess Chicago is next right?

Thank you guys. I fell off the face of the planet the last few months. I've done little more than remove rubber from the bottom of my shoes. It was particulary rough this winter. I'm still tired and feeling like I have been run over by train.

Qualifying for and running Boston, is nothing short of an honor. It's the oldest marathon in the country, steeped in tradition and just plain better.

Boston is a one way course (the same as it was 115 years ago). It's held on Patriots day which is a huge Holiday in Boston. The kids are off school, so they use the school buses to transport you from Copley Square in Boston to the tiny ass town of Hopkinton. Where you freeze your ass off at the highschool for two hours. The course is a tiny road (with 27,000 runners) everyone is trapped in their house. They are BBQing out front, drinking beer, drinking beer, the locals hold out water (and beer??!!) and orange slices and there are rows of kids holding out their hands to high-5 you. I SWORE to myself, I was going to avoid every single one of their germy little hands and cut every corner and shave every second off... But you just can't...cause your running Boston! The people are so wonderful, you can hear them coaching their kids on how to hold the drinks out.

At mile 10 you go thru Wesleyan (sp?) College. It's known as the Weslelyan tunnel. You can hear the roar from 1000m away. The girls from the college try to get you to slow down and kiss them. All I'm going to say is..."What happens at Boston, stays at Boston". Seriously, no stops. They all look like kids to me. Though an innocent peck for tradition sake, would not have been a big deal or in my opinion a violation of dad/husband ethics it might have more importantly f'ed up my time. By this time I had realized that I was kicking arse and needed to stay focused.

It's down hill most of the way up till mile 16, when you hit a series of hills thru the town of Newton. They are not particularly steep but if you went out even slightly too fast...you are toast.

They end at mile 21. This hill is affectionatly known as "HeartBreak Hill". Then it's downhill and into Boston. Where you are surrrounded by Red Sox fans, waiting for the Patriots Day game... another much larger tunnel. Here is where you see the carnage of runners that went out too fast. Limping with miles to go. Here is where the risk lies.

Anyway... I was pushing hard. Real hard and felt okay till mile 24. I never came totally unglued but the last 2 miles all I'm gonna say is I was out of my body.

I was pretty close to passing out after the finish.

So... Gary, to answer your question. Yes Chicago is next. But to quote Frank Shorter, "You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming."

Are there still smallmouth around Chicago?

For those in the know, how long are there likely to be eagles in the Starved Rock area ? Wife wants to go up there on the last weekend in February for some bird watching. Will that be too late?

It is dependent on whether or not the illinois is frozen or not. You can call the visitor center or Starved Rock State Park for an update. I would say late Feb is too late.

In spring the waterfalls are spectacular.

I took this on 1/9/2011

I think a bigger consideration than brand (as...there are a lot of nice reels out there) is whether to go righty or lefty. If you are going to do a lot of cranking, without imparting a lot of action to the lure. I would go righty (assuming you are right handed). If you fish a lot of lures taht require twiching or whatever. I would go lefty.

I think we should all meet in Eric's garage. Trouble is he'll probably want us to take our shoes off.

LOL!

Blue loctite you should have no problem getting off. red requires heat. a lot. Personally I like the teflon tape idea.

wonder what caused the leak? Want to bet all the corporate ceos and stock holders decided maintaining all of the infrastructure carrying there black gold would cut to deeply into there bonuses.

Exactly my thought. And overall, petroleum sucks.

Why is it the hunting community always manages to repel these kinds of things, while anglers barely have a leg to stand on?

Easy. They are armed. HA!

I believe there are cases where birds get lead poisoning from fishing tackle, especially fish eating birds.

Putting my money where my mouth is, I have been trying to use non-lead where possible. The bullet sinkers are da-bomb far superior to lead.

Gill lice in the driftless region. There was a pretty good article on this, for the life of me I can't find it.

http://forums.flyfisherman.com/forum/midwestern-states/gill-lice-popular-driftless-area-stream

Here we go again......

 

On August 23, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was petitioned by the Center for Biological Diversity and four other organizations to ban all lead in fishing tackle under the Toxic Substances Control Act. This includes sinkers, jigs, weighted fly line, and components that contain lead such as brass and ballast in a wide variety of lures, including spinners, stick baits and more.

 

http://www.capwiz.com/keepamericafishing/issues/alert/?alertid=16355526

I looked over the Center for Biological Diversity's website. Hate to say it, but the only thing I find disagreeable is the lead ban.

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

And they sound well intentioned but misdirected, if you ask me.

You gotta appreciate the thinking behind the Endangered Species Condoms.

http://www.endangeredspeciescondoms.com/

I like the Snail Darter one LOL.

I've tried 7" Power Worms and similar Culprit worms in the Kank and can report 0% success rate. I have no idea why but most likeley a confidence thing.

I was wondering if any of you smallie hunters with ancient legs might have a suggestion. Once the beginning of October comes, I can hardly wade any more. The cold temps seep right through my polypropolene long johns, jeans, and waders and render my knees useless (I can take the cold on the other parts of my legs). Do any of you fellow arthritis sufferers have a method for concentrating heat or insulation on those joints?

First make sure your core is warm because of it gets cold your body works to keep your organs warm, sacrificing extremties. Someone posted this tip when I complained about cold fingers. It's true.

Second, blue jeans and cotton s the most worthless fabric of all time. It really has no redeeming value. It sucks in every way possible.

Go poly propylene( like Under Armor, not Walmart stuff) followed by a layer of fleece. You can buy cheap fleece at places like Marshalls and TJ Max. Actually you can find nice name brand stuff there.

If you are old school, wool is the way to go. Actually, I think wool, especially nice wool is a truly wonderful material.

Third if I had bad knees I would bandage up a chemical warming pack, like hot hands on each knee cap.

If I could make one month last the whole year around here it'd be September.Warm, not hot, days,crisp nights,rain usually minus the violent storms.The weather in October can be that way too but is more iffy.Last year we had nicer weather in November than we did in October.

Oh yeah. September rocks. Normally I don't bitch about summer, but the heat indexes were relentless. I feel really bad for guys that do physical labor outdoors. Last year's summer was nice IMHO.

Fall sucks because it's pretty for like two weeks, then grey and ugly AND it's a precurser for a long miserable Chicago winter. Snow screws my life up big time. I hate it with my whole soul. I'm praying for mild snowless winter.

What a miserable, worthless summer. For the first time in my life I'm looking forward to Fall. Hopefully we'll have a mild winter.

Ron- quit being crotchety.

that's a fine day's fishing.

Good Job Mike and John.

I had the opposite problem today. Fishing at lunch. It made a great topwater smash, jumped twice then crawled under a rock. I couldn't get him out and I wanted my damn lure back cause it's a kick ass bait and I wasn't sure they still make them.

So I rolled up my pants best I could and waded in knee deep. It was a big rock, but I flipped over and he took off again. I got him in raced back to work a few minutes late and with my pants half wet.

I work in a pretty nice facilty,where they are walking customers thru all the time, so I cowered off into my corner wet pant legs and all. Just glad I didn't fall in.

.

Let 'em jump I say.