Terry Dodge

Paul - Glad to hear you and your Pop did so well. You probably didn't see me because I wasn't there on Saturday. I hit a stretch early Friday morning, (I'm back to a 4 day work week so I have Fridays free.) didn't have much luck. I had a big fat spider crawling on the back of my arms and neck for about an hour, then I was fishing a pool and lost a popper, tripped on a rock wading, fell and split my knee open, jumped up so fast my camera never got wet, cursed the day and headed for home with nothing to show. Stayed home and did yard work and other neat stuff on Saturday. Sunday morning I had my 'toon in the water by 6am. and fished until 2pm. with only the one smallie to show. It was a tough weekend and it's been a tough year for me thus far. This-morning I woke and thought about my weekend of fishing, then I smiled. Looking back I think I can honestly say (and literally) that I hit rock-bottom on Friday. Things can only get better for me. I noticed Sunday that I had lost all confidence in my ability to catch fish. I'm standing in a river waving a stick. I'm looking foreward to this Saturday. Things are going to get better. I fish good water and I know the Kish well. I've just been have some bad "Jude" luck. Jude - Sorry to hear things didn't go so well for you. NOT! See you Saturday morning.

I spent about 8 hours on the Kish today. The water level for the Kish right now (6:30pm, 8/22) is 6.35 which I myself consider to be about 4 inches over the norm. The clarity is about two and a half feet with a swift current. I know Jude likes it to be a bit lower and with Tuesday being our only rain chance (20% pos.) and then the rest of the week in clear skies I'm sure the Kish will be in the best shape it's been in all year for this wade outing. I'm looking foreward to spending more time on Jude's river, When I was able to call it my river, I did more than just spend 8 hours on it. I caught fish. I guess Jude will have to teach me how to catch fish on his river.

That's too bad but understandable. What about just having your region added to your profile info such as......... terrydodge <LI class=title>Advanced Member Group: Registrants Region: Rockford Posts: 165 so when a member post you can see what region he/she belongs to?

Is it possible to have regional threads added to the web site? I for one am still not sure what members or even how many members are in my region. It just seems like there could be some advantages to doing this.

Yes you can put a canoe in Four Lakes. I had a talk with Tom Hartly at the Winnebago County F.P. last year and he said "Yes". I didn't go to the trout thing out there this year but I was told that there were a few canoes out there that weekend. Also Paul, this is not a private conversation I think we get a kick out of dissin' each other publicly. You or anyone else feel free to jump in any time. It's all for fun. Corey's a good guy and knows the Kish very well. Mr. Jones may remember this but I had thought about rigging up some kind of mounting bracket to my canoe so I could easily connect my toons from my inflatable pontoon boat to each side of my canoe. He didn't like the idea of standing up in a canoe so he didn't think it was a great idea. What would your thoughts be, or anyone else's?

Man! I think I just got dogged. You got me on that one. Well played Mr. Jones. You've got me speachless but not "emoticonless.............. Have a nice day.

No worries Jim J., I'm just poking a little fun at Mr. Jones. A year ago or so, we (Mr. Jones and I) were in a CPR tournament and my fly rod out did his Power Rangers rod and reel and it has never really set well with him. Sometimes in life you only get one chance to shine and at that time last year for Mr. Jones, well let's just say the light was very dim.

Welcome Paul. That fly fishing stuff is quite addicting. It has happened to many ISA members. Consider yourself lucky to be able to stand in your river everyday after work. I have not been able to stand in mine for over two weeks now due to high waters.

- I see you're still trying to do that "I'm a funny guy" thing. Still needs a little work.

Sweet! Now only if you could put a skirt on them. Then you might have something. I don't see a fly rod hanging off the back of that yak, so I take it you have yet to make the move to the "skilled" side of smallie chasing.

And just so you know............. You can't be yakin' down the Kilbuck with those rods sticking all up in the air like that. Also, were those fish caught on CJ's Plastic Creations?

Good thing you went with somebody who has a camera! Where's yours? I don't see it anywhere. Good thing I guess, looks like you needed both hands free for your pose. From the looks of that pic, I'm just curious; did you happen to do any trolling for that camera of yours? Glade to hear you did well.

I've always used a blood knot leader to fly line but I do like the sound of the 12" length of 15lb-20lb Maxima mono that is connected to the fly line with a needle knot (or nail knot) and then a perfection loop is tied on the other end of this 12" piece. This method would be better for me as it takes me 3 days to tie the blood knot. Here's a good site to help with knots. Click the speed you would like on the upper left hand corner or go step-by-step on the bottom left. List of knots on left hand side of page. http://www.animatedknots.com/bloodknot/index.php?Categ=fishing&LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com

Torrential.

The Kish topped out at 8.40ft and is on it's way down as you read this. Why is it when we do get rain it seems to come in the torrential downpour types? I hear the Apple River area got 8 inches of rain this morning.

Thank you K.D. That's a job well done. I'll through it out there and see if you're maybe interested but I just might be able to get you some plastic 55 gal drums for you barge if you would like? I could also cut them in half if you would like. Thanks again.

No 3's but I see rain is back into the 4cast. It looks like if I'm ever going to learn to fish high water then this is the year. I too don't get along with the stuff that grows along our river banks, that's why I like to stick too the wading thing. Any 4's? I could definitely use some 4's.

Oh, I'm sure I'll make my way to the creek and give 'er a good shot but it never seems to go the way I would like it to go. This is one of the many reasons I joined the ISA, to pick-up on little high water fishing tips and such. It'll take more water then we got right now to keep this smallie chaser at home. Any 5's? Would anyone happen to have any 5's?

I wish!

Does anyone have any 9's?

Jonn, Have you (or anybody else) ever fished or heard anything about the Baraboo River in WI? My brother has a place right on the river but has never fished it. He always makes the short drive to Lake Wisconsin. He's older than me so he don't listen when I tell him to stop wasting time on the lake and learn the river. I hate lakes! (thought I was the only one)

What?! Am I not allowed on the Shabbona? I don't plan on fishing for smallies, just a bit of gill action maybe. I leave my smallie chasing to creeks and rivers only.

Well, with all this wet stuff filling up my river every other day, I guess I'm going to have to start fishing area lakes for awhile. Anybody ever fish Lake Le-Aqua-Na?

They should get the harshest punishment. They should most definitely be made an example of.

I put mine in Kilbuck once just to see if I could paddle upstream. Nothin' doin'! I'll bet I paddled for 20 minutes in the same place. Man was I tired. I did this early in the morning so no-one would see me. I will say this.....I see a lot of yaks on the Kish but none of them are going upstream. I love my 'toon.