eugene f collins

I am intrested in helping with this event. is there still room? wont be at the computer for more than another 2 hours. so if you do need me there please call me at (847)209 4629.

Ive been hitting all of my favorite holes in each stretch. castlerock to the damn 1smallie 12inch. (survivor) didnt see any snakes (saw 10-12 before fish kill) I had found a nesting area where we saw two of them doing the love squirm. looks like the nesting area is abandoned now. Saw the dnr out above catlerock. They are doing a mussel survey. Byron thru Grand detour. the gentleman i talked to didnt know if the state was going todo any EXTRA stocking on the river. I hope they do. Im glad to see them out on the river testing what they can. The river still has a little funk to it in the larger eddies. maybe wait tofind out if the water is healthy before doing anymore stocking. YOu really realize how lucky you are once its gone. had very high hopes for fishing Prophetstown. PaulT & I Fished it hard last saturday caught 5 fish by 3. Dropped Paul off at the dock & headed up river to see what i could see. such nice structure decent depths near shore, nice rock piles, nice rock wing damns. fished another 3 hours slowww drift back to the launch 1 -11inch smallie (survivor) Tough fishing is in our futures on the rock.

I added the pictures now, I got my son to help me out!

well, dad & I were out all day. deciding if we will fish the rock anymore. 10 hours on the water. Started out up at byron launch. Its been years since we launched up there, usually castlerock or lowell. tried to get up above FISH KILL ZONE. Fell short of kish, boat is too slow. old fiberglass boat with a9.9 slow slow slow .But the blue bath tub almost always gets rid of the skunk.Today= tough day 5 fish allday...... last time we were on this section we caught 10 times more fish. Today we tried top water, shallow cranks,mid cranks(2 lgm 22inch catfish 1smallie), spinnerbaits, 9 different crayfish, (big smallie) dropshot, fluke, lizards, jig&pig(almost a pike ) THE RIVERS POLLUTED! EH!!!! Decided not to fish the rock river kill zone anymore I will miss the variety you could catch on any given cast. my personnal biggest walleye (7.5#) came out of the rock. biggest catfish( 32#).. I really want to post this picture of a little bass. but my favorite pic of the day was dad snagging a little plastic sand box. He thought he finally kicked the skunk out, No dice. yet again this computer & me dont speek the same language.. some day I will figure it out then i will post a 100 pics. Im thinking of looking at the rock river near state line. any suggestions would be appreciated

personnaly i chose rivers. Ive been a river rat for more than twenty years. I personally feel i can read rivers better. I feel i can fish any river and find fish. I am not as good at reading lakes. I lived on the fox for years& learned to read rivers then. now i live on the rock & what i learned early still applies. went out on the rock today. see smallmouth report coming soon. I ve fished shabbona for 10 years, every time the rivers get to high. Usually takes a day or two to figure out shabbona or other lakes i fish. thankfully i have a friend who is good at lake fishing (real good at lake michigan) lake michigan smallies wow could get better than lake erie!

hey folks out there sad days are ahead for us rock river fisherman. Friday6/19/09 nights rain was BRUTAL 3 1/2 inches of rain in 5 hours. I watched a river running down north avenue toward the rock river. The Oregon damn rose 3feet. I stopped at my usual high water spot found NO FISH drove south to dixon saw a lot of dead carp. some cats some dead smallies up to 17 inch to many 3lb walleye stopped at TJ`s bait shop OREGON IL. she had the same sad stories. My thoughts on this are that the ethanol floated down river fast. killing all the carp sucking sudds at the top. with the farm field run off (fertilizers) taking out even morefish. sad sad sad On 6/7/09 I watched ILDNR release 25000 fingerling walleye at castlerock. going out driving friday, report more later. when the river calms down Ill get the boat out.

most thumper spinnerbaits use a single colorado blade. try different size blades as well as different weights. white chartreuse skirt 3/8 -5/8 oz. works well most of the time. If your wanting to work with lighter spinnerbaits try beetlespins. Easier to change weight & color of jig. Lot of fun in the rivers