Mark K

What a great line. I'm going to borrow it, if you dont mind.

Feel free. It's a Mark K original.

I guess the bottom line is that we all get what we want out of the experience.

Yep. I spent about two years fishing fly rod exclusively. Sometimes it got really tough especially when it got windy, but I stuck with it. I'm not great at it, but I'm certainly a hell of a lot better. Recently, I started dragging out my spinning gear and I'm fishing a coupla times a week at lunch in a pond near work. The spinning and bait casting stuff is fine...if you're catching fish. otherwise it's incredibly lame. Lets face it, most of the time you're casting-not catching fish.

And I'll tell you what, fishing with a lure someone else made- is totally second rate fishing...IMHO.

I can see why the true devotees go thru the trouble of messing with sinking lines.

Not knocking the spinning guys and certainly Eric makes baitcasting into an art form (most of you just see pictures, you have no clue at how good he is it), but for me making that line sail might be just as fun as catching fish.

Once during the coho run in Indiana I was fishing with my buddy Joe. I just baited one rod up, a St Croix Legend and a Shimano Stradic, and laid it out on the break wall. Started to rig up a second rod, when the first one darts into the lake. It went in like a freakin' javelin. Then I watched it sink and dart away like a jerkbait. I just stood there in disbelief. I just bought both over 200 bucks and I figure they are about 20 feet down or swimming towards Door County.

You know how clear Lake Michigan is. Imagine how long it took to disappear. we continued fishing.

It's pretty quiet. I'm totaly down, feeling like the worlds biggest dumbsh*t for a A. bait fishing with such an expensive outfit and B. not leaving the bail open. Joe knows how bummed I am and does his best to cheer me up...to no avail.

Joe, puts on a deep diving crankbait and starts casting. It's still dead silent. Then I see waaaaaaay off in the horizon a silver fish jump with something orange (my bobber) wrapped around him. Seconds later my Joe yells, "got one!" 'cept he didn't exactly have a fish on, he snagged the line in between my rod and reel and the now surfaced coho.

I start to hand over hand the line in, the fish end. Easily a 100 feet. I flip the fish up on the breakwall. Then I began the task of trying to retrieve my rig. I started to handline, what seemed like an endless amount of line. It was clear the bail was still open.

I'm a pessimist by nature. Optimists usually get screwed. So do pessimists, but at least we see it comming and are never dissappointed.

So recap....Standing on a breakwall in indiana holding onto 6lb mono, that just went thru zebra mussell hell with maybe $220 bucks on the other end about 15- 20 feet away. I lay belly down over the wall. Joe holds my legs. i gingerly bring the outfit up. Slowly...hand over hand just waiting for...PLINK...only it never happened. I could see my outift, held only by the arbor knot tied by John from JJ's bait and tackle. To my disbelief the rod and reel came to hand.

So that outfit went to the bottom of Lake Michigan easily 20 feet down and 30 feet away. Those are really conservative estimates. What are the odds? We got the rod, the reel AND the fish in. Hung out caught a few more fish.

On the way home I (Jokingly, expecting !@#$ back) told Joe, "You know, technically that was MY fish" Ever humble Joe, responded "Yeah, I know".

We went back to my house, drank some beer, ate some fish.

Nice reels for $40

It said $109 yesterday.

Anybody have any feedback..

http://www.abugarcia.com/prod.php?k=78556&...1LX%20(1130455)

Thanks, good enough.

I have a good amount experience and am still pretty cautious. Also had my fair share of dunkings. Sometimes no matter how cautious your they can get ya.

Can anyone give me a number on one of the USGS graphs for the Dupage that would tell me when there are good safe water wading levels. I'll need to know which graph. Don't need any locations, just a number.

I have substantial wading experience. PM would be fine if you feel more comfortable.

Looking for Naperville and south.

My wife freaked out and made me get rid of it.

You'll shoot your eye out, Kid!!!!

Any recommendation on said line. Looking for 10lb. Something low stretch.

Thanks Mark:

 

I am seriously looking at that vise..............should be a good fit.

The only thing it doesn't do well is hold tiny flies, which I guess should not concern you. Otherwise it has a Kung Fu grip. It works great for tying deer hair bugs.

It is time I look into a new vise. The vise I have now came in a kit. Don't get me wrong it still works great but is not a rotatry vise. So I have to rotate my jigs by hand. No big deal, but if I had a better rotary vise I could probably tie jigs quicker. Right now I stand at about 3 minutes per jig. Would like to lower that at least a little. I have looked around the net and have seen too many to count.

 

I figured you folks could help me. I have to have a rotary vise with a pedestal stand and it must be able to accept hooks up to 5/0. I would definitely like to spend under $200 and would prefer to spend less than $150 if I could.

 

Any particular vises anyone would reccommend would be appreciated.

Jonn- Griffin makes nice USA made vices at a reasonable price. I have the Superior 3ARP. It works really well especially with big hooks. I think you might like it.

http://www.griffinenterprisesinc.com/vises.html

If mother nature decided to put a false eye (like a bluegill or shad) on a fish i would say eyes are at least significant in one way or another.

I started collecting antique postcards of the Kankakee. this one is dated 1909.

I can't read the writing. Must have been a doctor.

Don your right about the spots thing-dead on. I'm pretty liberal about where I fish.

More than a spots thing. Bad choice of words.

It's here more like- "lets park here on this road, put a car at the tother end. Cut thru the woods here- down that path and get in the river here." work our way around this Island.

Here- throw into that pocket right there... " See that tree? If you wade straight towards it you can make it accross. The water's a bit dirty, use a spinnerbait. This is a great place to run a buzzbait across." etc.

Well thanks. I had fun bye....

Then...It's the last you ever hear from them. and sometimes thats a good thing.

I have to ask myself...exactly why I would want this person along in the firsts place. thats just me and my opinion. You guys enjoy it, it draws members o the club, have you are having fun. More power to yah. It's just not for me.

You and i have different personalities. I do things for people AND I want things in return. Otherwise I have no incentive. It makes no sense to me otherwise.

I'm sure you can meet cool people too, but for me it's just a crap shoot, and when boils down to it. I'd rather just hang out with the guys I know and like.

Yeah. Personally I liked the folks I met doing the conservation stuff. Some of my best freinds now. We all hardly get to fish together, but still talk on the phone frequently.

Anyway, if he was bashing we would have deleted him.

In grates.

Good question. I'm not into the outting thing. I have no interest in fishing with strangers. I feel awkward taking someone I just met to spots that took me years to find access to. I was once taking a high ranking ISA officer to a great little spot that rarely got hit. I told him not to give away the spot to just anyone. His response was "Just what do you give away in a spot". That pretty much put me off the whole outting thing permanently.

Another friend of mine, who is pretty much one of the best fisherman I know and pretty much knows more about the kank than anyone I've ever met basically dropped out of the club because the outting thing. This guy loves fishing with people and is very generous. and he is pretty humble too and not one bit a braggart.

He attended several outtings took total strangers to GREAT water AND put them on fish. They would exchange numbers and that would be the last he ever heard from them. No follow up thank you, no "hey want to get together again". Nothing. Which was pretty stupid on their part.

Sad part is, between immense knowledge of the Kank and the fact taht he was very active in the conservation stuff too, it was a big loss.

Don't take that as bashing the club or the outting thing. Lots of guys do it and enjoy it. But if someone basically, guides you have the friggin' courtsey to throw him a "Thank You" at the very least, but better yet a reciprical invite later.

My son has become my main fishing pal. And due to the time consumed by my athletic endevours my solo fishing time is very limited. So what time I have I can't ditch him.

He is pretty good company and a fine fisherman. So in short, maybe I'll get lucky and make 3 or 4 serious Kank outtings this year. It looks like he's really into the overall outdoors thing. So maybe he'll take me out in his Ranger or drag my rickety old ass out an an occasional Quetico trip when I'm an old fart and all this will pay off. On the otherhand, he's not that far away from getting a pair of waders.

Fishing without child-

What am I looking for? a nice day. A nice easy wade, preferably without waders. 5 or 6 smallies would be fine. Really happy if any are over 15". Elated at an 18".

Prefer to catch everything on a fly or topwater.

if I'm drifting helgies. Probably catch more. Maybe a stringer of small cats for dinner.

A cold beer or two afterwards.

damn. Thats sounds cliche.

Too cold.

Too high.

Not pleasant.

Too expensive. A trip to the Kank now costs 20 bucks in gas maybe more.

Not worth it for a few hours of bank fishing. Maybe a fish.

Norm's numbers are totally irrelevent to me. I've never come close to those. Ever. Not even a tenth.

I'm not a hard core hawg guy, either. I catch a few descent fish I'm happy. More into nice conditions and an overall pleasant experience, which is what drew me to fishing the Kank and smallie fishing.

I'm waiting for lower warmer water.

Couldn't make it out to this one as my daughter was on a retreat this weekend, but thanks for the heads up. CHS does some outings during the year if you like to hike and learn afoot.

Don, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I kind of figured you would.

Sadly Steve, we missed the 2008 Salamander Safari. Fortunatly another ISA member gave up a good spot to find blue spotteds. What suprises me is how many people I know are closet herp fanatics.

Here is a cool pic from '07 show:

Mark,

 

I didn't know you guys were talking about Shimano spinning reels. I don't have much experience with those since I've used Daiwas for the last 10 years or so. Still, this is the first that I've heard of this problem but I'll take your word on it. Getting all hot and bothered about fishing reels is kinda silly if you ask me. Good fishing.

Not mad at all. Sorry if came off that way.

Do a Google search:

"Shimano Binding wet"

Clearly, it's an issue.

The clutches on stradics are crap too. Now that I think about it I had three stradics. All were crap.

I had some very old Symetrities. Pretty good reels but it was before they got the really tight anti-reverse. Those held up fairly well. I think I actually still have them.

I was eyeballing some new saltwater Shimano. Sharp looking reel and felt really nice, but I'm not getting sucked in again by it's evil dark force.

I am extremely surprised to hear the negative comments about the Shimano reels. Shimano has a reputation for being an extremely reliable and durable bass reel. I don't know if river fishermen do something to their reels that tournament bass guys don't but criticism of their reels is a rarity. LOL- I go to enough sites and read enough threads where I would of seen something by now. If anything, Quantum has the reputation of being an inferior reel to the likes of Shimanos and Daiwas.

 

Personally, I use Daiwa products. I used to use Shimano Curados and Chronarchs but after using a supertuned TDX last year, there was no going back. It's quite a bit more than the Quantum but it is an awesome reel.

 

Raymond, I recently purchased a Zillion so I am looking forward to giving it a good workout. Good fishing.

I have two Stradics with exactly the binding problem Jonn desribes. They also both required a new clutch and from the very get go I had problems with the bail snapping shut on the cast. Pain in the ass reels. $220 bucks down the drain.

I have friends that have owned them too with similar problems and I've read stuff on the web too.

Yeah, I think river anglers are harder on reels. Though I try not to, they get occasionally dunked and your typical river gunk.

I also own these and now they have way more mile than the Shimanos ever got (mainly because the sucked so much, I hate using them)

Daiwa SS zero problems.

Daiwa SS 2 zero problems.

49.99 daiwa Regal Z zero problems.

I like Shimano baitcasters. Calcutta and Citica. Fine reels no problems, but this is one river angler that just wouldn't take chance on another spinning reel of theirs.

I know a few of you are herp geeks. I went to this show today with my kid:

http://www.chicagoherp.org/fest/main.htm

Second year in a row. It is totally cool. They have awesome displays of every friggin' frog, salamander, snake, lizard found in Illinois as well as the est of the world. Big snakes, gators, igaunas and etc. Kids will LOVE it! Nobody's selling anything. They just do it to raise awareness.

It's run by the Chicago Herpatological Society. I was so pleased, I got a family membership. Still going on tomorrow.

Eric and Steve, you would sooo dig this.

Just my 2 cents, but the product shouldn't require customer service, other than regular maintenance.

I'm not trying to convince you to get a calcutta or round reel. But if you have relatively small hands (like me) pay attention to how recessed the reel seat is and I would pay some consideration to the reel seat on the rod (Loomis reel seats are sweet!).

I should have explained that better.

Regarding durability:

I got to wonder how much you expect out of a reel today. The drive seems to be to make them as smooth and tight as possible with spools that float light light enough to cast a #0 Mepps. Fine, they've accomplished that. But maybe it's too much to ask of a hunk of metal and plastic to have all those properties AND be durable.

As far as those really high speed gear ratios go too. That might be too much for the bearings and gears too hold up to especially when your throwing something heavy or with a lot of resistance.