Terry Dodge

I had nothing to do with this last wave of attention to the 'buck. Steve Larsen, of Larsen's Landing in New Milford, is upset about it and contacted me. http://www.canoethekish.com

Jesse - Thanks for the report and congrats again on the 19 3/4". How can you two be talking of a repeat trip if YOU are no longer allowed to fish the Kish? If you do decide to return feel free to let us know and maybe a couple of us will join you and do a different stretch. By the way....Do you happen to know the total numbers you and Katy ended up with?

First of we had a pretty good turn out. We had Jude, Jim, Tim, Paul and his wife, and Jesse and his wife. Paul Sr. joined us at the breakfast table and also kept an eye on our gear as we shuttled vehicles around. Jude and myself did a full day float, if you want to call it that. I don't think I'll ever be able to figure out how people can keep their kayaks pointed in one direction, I was getting blown all over the place. every time I got the Cossa positioned a big wind would come up and spin me around. I'm a failure. I landed 3. Jude on the other hand kept his yak floating true and landed 30 smallies. Show off. Paul can fill us in on how him and his wife did in their canoe, and Jesse can fill you all in on how him and his wife did. Rumor is Jesse nailed a monster. Could this be Brutus? Tim will also have to let us know how things went with him. The high winds were burtal. Still had a good time. Nice to see some new faces. Jesse is not allowed on the Kish anymore. Group pic... [/url]">http:// Jude.... [/url]">http://

I took the night off work and took the Coosa to Atwood and paddled upstream to the I-39 corridor. It wasn't bad! Landed 3 smallies, all about 12 inches in size, and probably missed twice as many. I had a couple stirs with the top water but all fish caught were with a tube and a some what fast retrieve. Ran across a kayak guy I know and he told me that yesterday he could see schools (about 30) of big smallies in the shallows. He said he was use to seeing schools of small smallies, but these were BIG. Fall feed bag? Tomorrow could be awesome. It won't rain. Have never heard from Jude on this outing. We should be good.

I'm late on the news I guess. The second lawsuit is the one I got rolling....... http://rockrivertimes.com/2013/09/04/local-residents-iepa-challenge-winnebago-landfill/

Sweet.

Would anybody have a problem if we were to bump up the breakfast time to 8am instead of 8:30am ? Let me know. It's suppose to be a nice day with highs in the low 80's and a 60% chance of rain showers late Saturday night and into Sunday. For all your latest weather info watch WISA Weather Network every day through Friday during the noon hour.

I'm not real happy with how far local agencies have gotten with this. If anybody has any other advice on how to tackle this problem, let me know. Steve Stadelman is an Illinois State Senator from Rockford, for those who may not know. It's a start.

There's that Tim kid. No, it is not going to rain until late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. Are you going or what? Last I heard you said that you had hoped to make it.

I'm with Jonn, I hate waders, It's just that around this time of year I start worrying about my fella's getting a chill. Glad to hear that Paul is still wet wading up hear this time of year.

Anybody still wet wading?

We could pull out at the half way point which would be Kish F.P. I was wondering if maybe an all day float this time of year might not be such a good idea. Anybody elses thoughts?

I'm thinking we'll just float from Cherry Valley's Bauman Park to New Milford's Atwood Park. That's an all dayer. Jesse - Thanks for the transport offer.

less than a week away from the Kish float. Who's in?

I have often wondered about skunk tail. Hook us up.

Would like to have cars shuttled around and begin the float at 10am. Of course we'll be meeting for breakfast beforehand at the Cherry Valley Cafe. [/url]">http://http://s655.photobucket.com/user/terrydodge/media/528a7ee1-5bd5-47c0-adce-59b3c078901e_zpsd628ab1b.jpg.html'>

That thing is waaaaaay too big. I'll try and see if Jim S can snap a shot of my rig while we're out on the search.

Dress warm?

I use one of those kind of plastic tape measures you can find in your wife's or mother's sewing box. I cut it off at 25 inches and have 25" mark attached to a lanyard that is attached to the outside of my chest pack and dangles off to my side with the beginning of the tape in the water. When I catch a nice sized smallie, I simply lip the bass placing the beginning end of the tape on the outside edge of the lower jaw between my finger, run the tape along the smooth soft body ( ) ( ) ( ! ) (TMI) (start over........) .....run the tape down along the body to the end of the tail fin for a measurement. I'm sure every catch and release fisherman tries to do what's right. You have to be able to be inventive with your CPR technique to find ways to help you in your own unique ways in a safe and fast release. I made a camera mount stainless steal rod that I can stick into the the rivers bank or even the bottom of the river itself depending on how deep of water is that I'm in. This allows me to take fast pics while usually holding the massive fish in the water during the quick set up. This works well for me but may not work well for others. Develop a technique that best fits your abilities.

Shhhhh. That statement is a secret. Welcome.

Maybe Jude could join us on Saturday? Frankly I'm surprised he could even respond to your offer being that it's only 2 days after the Screw City Beer Fest. The man can recover quickly.

You're good. No issues missed. If you can recall I believe in the Spring Spectacular issue, Jim mentioned that there were only going to be 5 issues per year now that were are switching to full color. There will be more pages per issue. The drop in issues is to help with cost of going full color. Also we are picking up paid advertisers to help off set the cost. If you happen to know of a company that might like to advertise is the best smallmouth magazine in the nation then let us know and we'll send them out an advertising package. Now that we have switch to 5 issue I believe we are going to focus on seasonal tactics for each issue. I'm not a 100% sure on that but I do know it's in the plan. For example: If you're one of those guys who like to hike through snow in the freezing cold weather to catch a smallmouth then you should be able to read up on some good cold water tactics in the ISA Bronzeback Bulletin Winter Issue. Get out and do some fishin'!

(he gets me) Not sure why you would direct your above comment towards Jude when the man has yet to even post on this topic, but what's done is done and now we have to deal with it. In fairness to the Colonel (Jude) he kicked my butt from bank to bank last Sunday because he had the magic cadence with his Chug Bug. Here's a statement by me that I'm sure will take some focus off the Colonel and probably outrage some members...... There is no water column in the Kish. The "gals" are either on top or they're on the bottom. That's it. There's no "mid-depth". Top or bottom.

I don't need to make up my mind. My mind is made up. I wade kind of fast, that's just the way it is. I was just wondering what pace other members like to wade at.

Maybe we should start putting that on the cover. Bronzeback BULLETIN .... The magazine of the Illinois Smallmouth Alliance