Mark K
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Posts posted by Mark K
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1 hour ago, Tim A said:
Working at Henry's part-time since this Summer, I was lucky to work the day Joe brought this fish in and had the DNR document everything. I was also one of only 3 witnesses to the live release. The fish took some time to fully relax and rehabilitate in the tank at Henry's (cold water in the tank helped), but was easily in great shape at the time of release. Good to see this hunt have a good ending for the record fish
Henry's is so Chicago.
We love going there, when my kids were little they were fascinated with the big containers of "crabs" . You got to love the bait menu
http://www.henryssports.com/bait-menu.html
Great that were so prepared for this record.
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13 hours ago, Mike Clifford said:
The only club in the state devoted to smallmouth bass fishing. A new state record is caught and only 2 of us are discussing it on the club forum. I can't even begin to understand the reasoning for this, but maybe the idea of message boards has run it's course. This should be fun to talk about, right? Crickets.....yikes.
FB, Instagram, Twitter and even Tik Tok are blowing up over this. Something is definitely wrong with this picture.
Most of the fishing boards that I see have pretty low traffic. Most people go to Facebook and other anti-social media for their viewing of arms length fish pictures and other fake news. Did you catch the line in the article where the biologist says you don't need to hold that fish out. LOL
13 hours ago, Steve S. said:There's been talk of making Great Lakes warmwater species a separate record class, just like they separate inland trout from lake Michigan trout. Any thoughts on that?
The potential for growth is phenomenal in the Great Lakes. I believe that this will be a record shattered a few times. I have friends who were catching big smallmouth in LM well over 20 years ago. I'm surprised its taken this long, but perhaps the need to own a record is not as important to some anglers therefore goes unreported.
Personally, I prefer river to lake fishing. Still is very cool and very impressive.
I don't know how you would police something like that, seems like it would be easy to cheat.
I think there are bigger bass than this in the lake, they are just hard to catch and it's what makes this totally cool happening from shore, especially sweetened by it happening to a regular dude, not some body with a $60K boat. The fact that he a 7lb bass alive is freaking incredible. It's a great story, makes me want to start fishing the lakefrfront more.
I saw a photo- a DNR cop showed me of a smallmouth a guy had in a livewell about to release. This was on the lake. It was enormous, I think it was bigger than this one and the guy was not shoving it into the lens. The cop told him it was probably the state record and he was within his rights to keep it. He released it and was not interested. Which is fine, you don't really have anything to gain.
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Dale bowman did an excellent write up.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/10/15/20916246/joe-capilupo-catches-illinois-record-small
I saw a video of it being released today and it was in a cooler looking reasonably shit kicking.
Holy cow, a shore fisherman tageting bass, caught and released alive, the state record. What a great fish story.
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I have been pulling that or a similar pointy little !@#$ out of my shoes for a really long time. It's amazing how many can accumalete in your shoes.
if you wade in sneakers, which I do probably tend to notice them more. but good point about not transferring them.
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2 hours ago, Mike Clifford said:
It was fascinating to see developments during our Classic here, as the anglers could technically go as far as the Kankakee on the river system. On practice day, we witnessed the pros pulling their boats out of the Cal Sag in Alsip. Biggest fish of the tournament was just over 4 lbs, but it isn't as striking as a Classic in Pittsburgh a few years later where Big Bass weighed just over 2 lbs. Woo Daves' haul of 5 smallies at 13 lbs. on Day 2 was the biggest bag of the Chicago Classic. Kind of surprised me that they never really traveled to find some heavier green fish.
Woo Daves was the only one that targeted smallies exclusively as I remember. His bag was 14 fish at 27lbs. Under a 2 lb average.
You constantly hear about giant fish in Lake Michigan, yet you really don't see or at least I don't see many people catching them.
Here is Ike downtown
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1 hour ago, Mike Clifford said:
March 2004 it was changed.
The final weigh-ins at the Classic were fun to see, but we enjoyed the Trisha Yearwood concert in Soldier Field as well!
Okay so 15 years. That's my point. This was a hard fought battle and I am so glad to see this wasn't an "accident" fish. With all the talk over how big lake michigan SMB are, you would think it would not have taken this long.
Dale starts that 2019 article out.
I still think the Illinois-record smallmouth bass will be caught on the Chicago lakefront. But then I’ve thought that for nearly 20 years.
That second guy I know..sort of.. He is one of my nephew's friends and a good and very nice guy. I was pretty certain he was going to break the record since he works his ass off for it.
If you go out on the lake in a boat where the bottom is not coated in algae it's coated with sandpaper and razor blades so dragging a jig on the bottom means slowly cutting your line. It's really that bad, the bottom will cut 10 lb braid like butter.
Pretty cool though, that while it would be perfectly legal and reasonable to keep that fish weigh it, mount it, eat it.... whatever that both guys went thru pretty great lengths to keep it alive and release it... just out of effin' respect and nuthin' else.
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35 minutes ago, Mike Clifford said:
It is or has already been released back into the lake as well. This record was only possible because they changed the regulation for Smallmouth in Lake Michigan from Catch and Release only to one trophy Bass. Guys in tournies caught records for decades previously.
I don't remember it being catch and release but I could be wrong. it's at least been since 2012 (the last reg guide I could find on line), 1 over 21". Which was 7 years ago. Fishing Lake Michigan for smallies is hard.
When they had the Classic here in '01 , I don't think there were any really big fish caught.
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There is a pic of it on a certified scale. Cool.
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This goes back to 2015. I don't know how this panned out.
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2 hours ago, Mike Clifford said:
Not a whole lot to go on in the article, but are they assuming that introducing more devil crayfish will create more burrows, hence more dragonflies?
Part of it. The thing is that they take 5 years to reach adulthood from larva. so their survival rate is not so good. They are raising the larva in the lab then releasing them in addition they are raising the crawdads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekX5ZNbAytI
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I am posting this in the Conservation section because even though this doesn't have any real direct SMB cnnection.....
This area in question is the exact site of, in the Chicago area- documented- physical contribution to some sort of conservation event.
So this was just east of Lemont Road.
It was where I learned about Water Willow and I met Bob Rung. Only 7 guys showed up, Mike Quigley who brought a boat with and was pretty much more useful than anybody, Norm came out and chipped in but he worked 2nd shift and had to understandably split and..... Me. The budget was pretty low at the time we provided a cooler of beverages. I never got to know Bob all that well, and he always refered to me as... one of the seven and was really, really skeptical about fishing clubs etc.
if you don't already know this, there is a federal and state protected dragonfly. It only occurs in 4 states and it's rare in all of them. Here in Illinois it only is found in the DesPlaines river. Right there.
I knew about the dragonfly. There was a big stink put up about the I355 extension (south of I55) which pretty much sits right in the middle of the territory.
What I did not know about the dragonfly was this relationship to a crawdad, pointed out to me in this article by a co-worker:
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/October-2019/Crayfish-Saving-Dragonflies/
I believe the Urban Stream Research Center would be the people who raised the clams a couple years ago on the Dupe- the Mack Road planting/ clam release.
So I am throwing out a few ideas (short of hypothesis)
As I understand it, the worst thing about rusty crayfish is that they are big crawdads with humungous claws, they displace native species and because they are such a badass crawdad are less likely to be eaten natives, that the latter is more likely to be eaten
Certain snakes, I knew winter in crayfish burrows one is the massasauga, the marsh rattlesnake. Non existent here anymore.
Kirklands snake. I never saw one.
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On 9/24/2019 at 7:57 AM, Eric said:
Here we go again! Interesting that September *used to be such a reliable month with mild, stable weather and relatively “normal” water levels — affording anglers some of the best smallmouth fishing of the year.
This current round of high water is sure to last into October and much cooler temps. Before we know it, the Chain ‘O Lakes drawdown will be happening (early November) and bump the level once again.
Yikes! So much for great fall fishing, at least on the Fox River. 😕
I am not sure about the Fox, but along the I55...what do they call it, Illinois Heritage Corridor crazy huge-ass-warehouses are going up at an insane rate. I hope there are some checks in place to deal with all that water that will be displaced. When I see just how much water comes off my house, which size-wise is like comparing a paramecium to whatever Eric caught today, it has to be a colossal amount of water and it's hard to imagine how.
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Was this public property ?
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Very cool soft plastic. Much larger than any real live helgie I've ever seen (and I fished with them a lot). By the time a hellgramite gets anywhere near the 3" mark they are making their way out of the water. By the third year they crawl up on a bank and burrow under rocks, form sort of a cuccoon and then transform into a Dobsonfly.
The head/thorax portion is thicker than the abdomen and it is almost as if this bait were designed to use with a 1/8 oz keeper hook. It's very durable. I caught 8 smallies, foot long ones, with the same one and it's still good. The bait with the keeper hook looks specatacular on the bottom. I got the olive flavor and it blends with the bottom so perfect that the shine from hook sticks out like a sore thumb. I think this might be a good one to whacky rig too. I am not convinced that fish think it's a hellgramite but it looks very natural on the bottom. However I caught everything with a fast twitchy retrieve so much for that
https://www.tacklehd.com/products/hd-hellgrammite
If there is any disappointment, I saw this video and was expecting more action. The ones I have are stiffer than this.
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On 9/7/2019 at 6:15 PM, Rob G said:
This is a simple two piece foam fly. The top 2 mm thick foam is tan, and the bottom piece is yellow with the hook sandwiched between. I have some foam pattern cutters that create the perfect shape each time. I use black thread to highlight body segmentation and leave the pattern a little longer than a Mustad 33903 size 4 popper hook, so as when cinched down in the front over the eye of the hook, you get a small cupped area that produces a nice subtle pop and gurgle when you give it a quick twitch.
As to the long walk, I keep telling myself that just around the next bend is an area that doesn't get hit very hard and a 20"er has surely made his home there. I know that one day not too far in the distant future, that I won't be able to trek miles upstream, but darn it, I hope to be that old guy who can no longer stray far from the bridge but is still giving them hell. Ha
I am going to try it Saturday or Sunday.
I also tied one the 6th one down in the link below. My son and I were catching enormous bluegills with it in this really clear pond in Wisconsin.
http://www.bigriverfly.com/p/fly-bin.html
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11 hours ago, Rob G said:
Mark, you bring up some good points but, eventually all fish die and do decay within the water. When I used to bowfish a lot, one night on the Tennessee River, I and my friend shot exactly 100 Asian Big head carp with the average fish weighing in easily at 20-25 lbs, and the largest at 42 lbs. Do the math, that's 2500 lbs of fish that evening and when we started to haul them back up the ramp, the Kentucky DNR stopped us cold and told us that we must go right back out there and dump them (all dead by now) right back into the river. We were not allowed to haul any of them out as they didn't want to take any chance that they could end up in an;y other waterway. Other fishermen had dumped their catch on the far side bank and you could smell the stench several hundred yards away.
The mental picture is revolting.
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On 8/14/2019 at 11:24 AM, Rob G said:
you bring up a very good point that I have not considered. I released the couple that I landed, probably would have been better for the water and the nearby eagles and critters if I had not. What's surprising to me is the number of large grassies that are present, since I don't ever remember seeing this many in the past. Interestingly, I'm not seeing the numbers of gar that were present here, specifically the large long nose. Maybe related, maybe not. The water is about as low as it gets and I'm sure they're more concentrated than usual.
I don't think it's a good idea to just dump an enormous fish carcass on the bank, or in the water if you are to feed anything it would likely be rats or racoons and you would probably unleash a ton of bacteria that normally wouldn't be there. It's also depending on how you interpret the rules in a lot of states to be illegal.
Imagine if a grocery store decided to dump it's expired meat in the water most people would be outraged.
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1 hour ago, Paul Trybul said:
Well done Bill. That sums the 2019 ISA roadtrip. Scott does deserve a big thank you for handling all of the little details that go into making this happen and making it a success. There is pretty good value there considering the cost versus the quality of the cabin and its location.
+1
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2 hours ago, WILLIAM C. said:
The pictures from our group are almost misleading, granted everyone caught at least one quality fish but the numbers are few. Having fished this river for the past 10 years
and approximately 30 trips this was the toughest fishing I have ever come across. Nobody could come up with a pattern and everyone was skunked at least once if not more.
That's true and the river dropped probably close to a foot- easy 10" from when we got there.
I found 4 big hellgramites flipping a few rocks. Did not have a float and stuff to rig them. If they did not catch fish nothing would.
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Chris' 20"
Chris 20” Smallmouth. by Mark Kasick, on Flickr
Chris 20” Smallmouth by Mark Kasick, on Flickr
me
Mennominie River smallmouth. by Mark Kasick, on Flickr
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11 hours ago, Steve S. said:
It’s amazing how effective they still are for smallmouth.
Been meaning to dig out a bunch of old lures like them and jointed Rapalas which for what ever reason, you don't see people fishing a lot anymore. Or maybe they are just not talked about much on the web etc.
I was pleasantly suprised last year at what a good job the old Rebel craw was doing. There is another you don't hear about.
Good Lord I have so many lures that I don't use.
Tenkara Two Fer
in BassBuggers
Posted
I got a chance to fish exactly this way, with all this stuff, but not with Bob. You would be suprised how close you can catch a fish, I was shocked.
Caught a fish with the Tenkara rod, which was fun at first but for me it took seemingly forever to get the fish in, which was like...12", but if you do it often I think there is probably a technique to it. My friend let me use his 5wt which was a hell of a nice rod and rigged with a that little Keitech jig, I like that rod a lot more.
20 something years ago Bob told me about how he liked to fish soft plastics on a flyrod. Which I thought made sense but was odd, since he tied such really amazing flies. That little Keitech on a tiny jig looks so incredible I doubt that it is possible to tie anything with better action. No BS a couple times I had to take a double take...is that a real minnow?