Norm M

I watched that replay multiple times and the only thing I can figure is that it was frayed and finally went. no reason to fail in the swing or stride that I could see. most definitely happy to see my Cubs winning and the way they are winning. other night scored all the runs with two outs. clutch hitting like that was noticeably absent for longer than I care to think about.

river crested, slight drop in height and flow rate. still no visibility to speak of, highest water temp about 52 degrees about 2PM . sun shining, fished in long sleeve shirt . a lot of surface activity and birds diving on bugs in one spot, tried surface, mid depth and just off bottom with topwaters, rattlebaits, chatterbaits, jerkbaits, sluggo and swim bait all to no avail. caught two really nice smallmouth on wacky rigged cigar type worms. Of course they were the last two I had, forgot to restock . I did some real early morning fishing before all the doctor stuff started, got several smallmouth on topwaters in slack areas behind waterwillow patches. these fish look to be a sustained warming trend away from spawning

I don't take pictures of fish for personal reasons. I quit measuring fish when another angler I respect pointed out that unless it's a record fish, it's just another really nice fish and in the long run it makes no difference how big it really was. I don't expect most folks to do as I do or as I say. It's your movie, dig it your way . Unless I really have trouble removing a hook I don't bring the fish out of water. Again that's what I do, not what you have to do. The less handling, the less stress on the fish .If you do handle the fish, please use proper care .

had an inch or two of visibility near shore in slackwater areas on my river today, did just fine .

today the river levels went from 2.1 to 2.7 and up about 3,000 cfs due to recent rains . visibility , maybe an inch or two near shore in slack water . water temps started out mid 40's last time I took it about noon was 50.1. sun was shining but I didn't shed the third layer until afternoon . carp rolling , minnow activity in multiple slack areas, snagged some suckers in pools below riffles. lot of bird and animal activity, seeing more flowering plants starting to bloom . turkey buzzards overhead just about everywhere I went, not sure what that means . wade fished a multitude of areas, started urban, worked down to wilder areas and finished up semi-urban. creekmouths, flats, slackwater from cover with a cast or three to huge, bluffs, riffles and adjacent pools. everything from silt covered bottoms to cobble to ledge rock to boulders, flooded trees, laydowns, waterwillow stubble and some flooded brush. crankbaits, rattlebaits, singlespins, jig/pig, weighted keeper/eire darter, swim baits and sluggos to match cover/current conditions/ algae . darn stuff still not blown out in downstream stretches, thru entire water column. in those areas made short cast to highest percentage spot on spot, figured anything after a few turns of the reel or short drift was fouled. actually that worked rather well, really made me concentrate on dissecting the spot . good day, multiple assortment of smallmouth sizes, many real pigs, chowing down . fishing during the rain the previous day, real short trip account weather and 30th wedding anniversary, couple pigs on cranks. day before that, real short trip account lots of commitments, one brute on magnum fluke .

shoot Sale tried to get into the royals clubhouse afterwards, out to earn a couple games just for stupidity .

Ventura will get a rep amongst umps and league officials that can only hurt him in the long run. Even if the ball slips and accidentally hits someone he is more likely to get tossed, which can only hurt the Royals. That same rep could lead to a longer suspension next time, again, hurts the Royals. I have no horse in this race, I'm a Cubs fan.

mud bugs, original bombers and hellbenders because they catch fish

Haikus Predawn Frigid Flow Suspending Rogue Twitch-Glide-Pause Gold Slashing Walleye! Spluttering Propbait Among Red, Gold Leaves Floating Bronze Eruption Joy! Wade- Stalk- Silently Stillness, Swiftly Beak Grabbing Heron's Lesson, Learn Winding, Gurgling Creek Dancing On Rocky Riffles Into Languid Pool Dawn's Glow, Mist Arises Light Mottled Thru Ancient Trees Peace, Serenity

Are you tired of the algae fouling your lures or livebait rigs while fishing on the your river? If you are like me, it's a royal pain picking it off, especially in colder weather. It will never go away completely, but there are some things we can do to reduce its presence on the river bottom. One of the bigger contributors to the growth of algae is the phosphorus coming into the river. It's true that agriculture does contribute to the phosphorus load, but the quest for the perfect lawn contributes mightily to the process. You can help reduce the amount of phosphorus entering the river by reducing the amount you use on your lawn and being more careful in the application process. You can help the river while saving yourself some money, who wouldn't like that? Hopefully, you know that all of the storm sewers drain directly to the river. All of that extra fertilizer you sweep or hose off your driveway and sidewalk ends up in the storm sewer and ultimately the river. If you use less fertilizer on your lawn that will reduce the amount that is available to be washed into the storm sewer if it rains. Just think, with the money saved by using less fertilizer, you may be able to buy more fishing gear. Another way to reduce the amount of phosphorus is to buy fertilizer that has lower levels of, or no phosphorus at all. The middle number of the three on the package is the amount of phosphorus. The lower number, the better, with zero being the best of all. If we adopt these practices, it will help reduce the algae, by reducing the phosphorus that promotes its growth. Simple, practical, economical and beneficial

Paths of Precipitation to a Stream A stream is considered to be the downhill movement of water, dissolved substances and suspended particles. These components are mostly derived from the stream's watershed. The watershed is the total land area draining into a given stream channel. The hydrological, chemical and biological characteristics of a stream reflect the climate, geology and vegetational cover of it's watershed. Water from precipitation, i.e, rain and snow, can follow different paths while moving toward a stream it may first go to the vegetation, then into the litter on top of the soil and then into the soli. The water will only flow over the top of the ground to the stream after the soli reaches it's saturation point. However, most of the water that does soak into the soil remains there and never makes it to the stream. Different soil types can store water in differing amounts. Depth, structure and composition of the soil are the main factors in determining the storage capacity. The storage capacity is continually being lessened by the processes of evaporation and transpiration. These processes return the water to the atmoshere to continue the water cycle there. Only when the storage capacity of the soil is exceeded , is water released to help form a stream. Water moving through the soil to a stream can move through cracks in the soil, worm or animal burrows and root channels. The water moving downward into the soil can be halted by impermeable layers at which point it will move laterally over the impermeable layers toward the stream. The surface of the saturated zone of permeable soil is called the water table. Vadose water is the water in the soil above the water table. Ground water is the water in the soil below the water table. Ground water provides the relatively stable base flow component in a stream through seepage into the stream channel. Overland flow [ above ground water flow ] and excess water flowing through the soil [ vadose water ] to a stream channel after storms are the main components of peak flows and floods. The overland flow is the runoff that enters the stream directly while the vadoe water enters through seepage into the stream channel. None of this information will probably be of direct help to catching fish. It never hurts to have some background information on how streams are formed though. I learned this stuff while researching current and thought it would be of interest to some of you, so I'm passing it on.

frost on the ground and freeze warning in effect for farmers/gardeners this morning . Water temps when I started were at 45 degrees, a drop of 15 degrees from last week. water temps low 50's by the time I got off the water in a soft bottom, shallow, slack area. river crested , a bit clearer today. Today was much better fishing than yesterday. Started on a giant slacker flow flat adjacent to a much deeper and hard flowing main channel that has a small crick at the upstream end. Saw some surface activity under some over hanging trees not far from shore where there is a bit of a sharper drop than the surrounding area. Three smallmouth on a spook all had shad in the gullet . I picked up two more smallmouth on a crankbait before the fish stopped hitting. Tried a variety a lures there but either the shad moved or I put the fish down . I hit the seam where the creekmouth meet the river with a weighted keeper/eire darter, picked up two walleye . I did a lot of walking upstream and down flipping and pitching the same combo into laydowns. Mostly small to medium smallmouth with some decent rock bass in the mix. After that I hit a bunch of slower spots that abutted faster/deeper water and also the up and downstream side of rock bluffs. All the fish were on the seams in the slower areas, mostly rattlebaits, some swim baits. Around the bluffs jig/plastic, jig/pig and singlespin worked best. A couple really good smallmouth, mostly the usual assortment of sizes. Ended up with 7 walleye 3 really nice, the rest regular. About 9 or 10 rockbass, all average to above average

Water levels still climbing, water temps and visibility still dropping. over night air temps in the 30's the last few nights have really put a hit on water temps. winds during the day have been heavy lately, slacked off a bit today. It took a little while to finally figure out what the fish wanted and where but once I did it was some semi-fast action. darn good thing as I was running out of time . A chatterbait at a creekmouth finally turned the trick . One pike , two largemouth and two smallmouth in about 35- 40 minutes , all decent fish, no giants. Just a steady retrieve as close to the bottom as I could manage. All hit hard enough that there was no mistaking it for anything else . As far as what didn't work and where, everything and everywhere

Rapala X Rap minnow and Husky jerk. Suspending rogues. Wouldn't venture out without the J-9 floating Rapalas though. Year round, adjust speed/cadence as the fish dictate .

I just kept on fishing from winter into spring for smallmouth on my river up in Illinois. Came home to tend to a couple things, then plan on checking another crick for rock bass. still waiting for the sucker fishing to pick up .

some folks prefer to fish with aggressive tactics, others prefer much more subtle. there is a guy I fish with on occasion on my river that prefers and is very skilled at low and slow. I prefer fast and aggressive. For the most part when we fish together we both catch fish. on the days we fish the river by ourselves in different locations but similar current conditions we catch fish. fish the way you enjoy as long as it's legal and ethical .

weather varied from cold and sleet to warm shirtsleeve weather and just about anything in between, but that's spring in the Midwest. Latest water temp was 43.5 degrees, fluctuated in that neighborhood. Water levels have been dropping, very heavy green stain upstream in urban area, diminishing as you got downstream. too much algae on the bottom as you got downstream to fish a crankbait . Some downstream slack spots had 12-15 inches of visibility, greatly reduced visibility in the heavier flows. still a lot of snowpack on the southerly banks but negotiable . lots of insect activity, geese getting bitchy about territory. seeing a lot more deer moving, hearing turkeys back in the trees early on. redwings , robins, turkey vultures all over. saw some eagles. smallmouth on the current seams taking rattlebaits worked up against the current. swimming jigs with swimbaits on the seams also a good choice. downstream of bridge pilings producing better than the front or sides. singlespins over and around water willow stubble with a least a foot of water over them another option that was producing. in the downstream areas with algae issues a 5 inch kalins twister on a weighted keeper swam slowly above the bottom produced. hard jerk baits and rattlebaits around inflows got some bass. no fish on flukes or cigar type worms. chatterbait zeroed out as well. jig/pig, nada . walleyes and channel cats on rattlebaits and rogues at inflows, flats and current seams, no sign of spawn starting yet though it's prolly not far off. got a couple of nice drum on rattlebaits behind some larger rocks near shore kissed by the current Peace

shoot that's what the teenage years are for, rejecting the bs pounded in our heads as kids

*I've gotten away from them altogether .

I'll read the article later when time permits. The guy that mentored me on fishing jigs/plastic in rivers only used a spiltshot placed as tight as possible to the knot on a size 4 hook with the back 4 inches of a nick crene worm. He saw no point on spending extra money on a regular jig when he had that "jig" mastered. So simple but so effective, I sometimes wonder if I really need any of the "improvements" that have come done the pike .

A lot of open water in the river, still many places with large amounts of snow/ice pack along the shore. As of Monday some of those places were not safe to walk on, extreme care is necessary . USGS gauge not functioning properly, most likely due to ice. I did not get into the water so I have no water temps. There were some nice sized chunks of ice pack floating in various places in the river. Two successful trips in the last few days so I guess it's time for a report. First successful trip was bouncing a 2/0 weighted keeper hook with a paddle tail fluke on the outer seam of an eddy. that got two decent sized smallmouth bass. The second trip I used a chatterbait tipped with a twin tail grub. I got two decent sized smallmouth bass working it slowly over the waterwillow stubble in an eddy. I got the best northern pike I've got in a while from the inside seam of an eddy. Peace

3 different groups of the natives in my makeup, wonder if I get a discount or something

Suckers, buffalo, gar and bowfin are all native fish that are fun to catch . Some of these species have survived on this orb much longer than man has .

I like catching carp and they are ok to eat .

use a rope, you can use it again for the next one .