Norm M

hit a couple bumps with Chicago teams lately .

looks like they do http://www.gapen.com/Gapen_Ugly_Bug_p/uglybug.htm

If the appendages give him more confidence , than I would think it will work better for him.

Reminds me of the Gapen Ugly Bug

update River is mow only flowing 10,000 cfs more than normal . Of course there is a chance of rain the rest of the week. Only critters digging more water are the skeeters. There are more skeeters out than there would be guys at a free all you can eat bacon affair . Visibilty extremely poor, still haven't bothered with temps . Just because I felt like it, I tossed some Rapala X Rap minnows from the current seam in . I caught some fish, maybe not as many as with something else, but it scratched an itch. Made me happy, which is all that matters. Fishing flooded water willows is an option again. For me a 9/16 oz tandem willow spinnerbait tickling the tops of the willows out produced the chatterbait. Well, at least for that trip, who knows next time.

https://soundcloud.com/quinfolk/sets/c1

The rain has stopped for a bit and the river is dropping. It's still about 8 times more than the normal flow but that is a huge improvement over 16 to 17 times it's normal flow. Still dirty water and still not bothering with water temps . One tactic that has been very productive is skipping a jig/pig into rock bluffs. If a fish decides to eat it, the jig won't make it to the bottom. Sometimes it gets blasted on the surface. Popping the jig/pig free from hangups is also a winner lately. Magnum flukes and sluggos in the slower water are catching fish . Buzzbaits and Chug Bugs are so so, catching a few, not real consistent . Drifting rattlebaits with the current on the seam while reeling just enough to maintain feel has produced quite nicely. I had one fish grab the lure just as it made the turn at the downward arc, put a serious bend in the rod. I never saw it and never stopped it, the line finally broke, felt like I got ran into submerged wood. It felt like the bull dogging of a channel cat . Singlespins have not done near as well as I thought. I played around with blade size, weight and trailers, just never found the right combination

Powerton Lake in Illinois, a cooling lake . It's either feast or famine with very little feasting . Strange thing is I do reasonably well on other cooling lakes I've fished.

I'm feeling like a broken record, river still flooded and it's raining. I'm not sure if I think it's still raining or it's raining again, but I am thinking I can do without rain for a good long while. I'm jonesing for low water and low water techniques. Knowing what to do in high water is one thing, getting to practice it continually is getting old . I'm not complaining about catching fish, I'd just like something completely different in conditions . Last few trips, I've been working on improving with the jig/pig . It's one technique I know that works in rivers but I'm not as good at it as I'd like to be. I've been concentrating on flooded cover both natural and manmade . I've also been fishing inflows, both natural and manmade. The inflows range from intermittent ditches to major creeks . Mostly smallmouth bass, decent numbers with some really nice ones . Some channel cats , mostly the 2-3 lb eaters, couple nicer ones . Regardless of species they like it dropped, lifted, dropped, lifted, dropped as close to the straight up and down as possible. Some have taken it when it breaks free from temporary snaggings. Using a heavier jig helps keep it vertical as possible and I suspect the extra thump doesn't hurt . I am primarily using football heads and tipping with plastic craws that have a thicker ridge on the outside of the claws . Buy bug spray in quantity and use liberally , the skeeters are horrible .

I can't control the weather so I try to learn how to deal with it's effects on my river I go out and fish while learning from success and failure, better than sitting at home griping about it and annoying my wife .

First trip the river was dropping under 6.0 height and around 26,000 cfs flow. No visibility, have not bothered with temps. I fished an area with a lot of flooded natural cover bordering an inflow. The water was about 75 feet beyond the bank of the river. The path that folks usually use was 3 ft deep in places. I used a weighted keeper hook rigged on a jig spinner and tipped with Power Pulse worms. Pitching the combo tight to flooded trees, letting it hit bottom and giving it a nice pop produced fish. Fishing any cuts in the flooded weeds where the water came in produced. Fishing the points and pockets on the edges of flooded weeds produced. Fishing thru the flooded weeds produced . Debris piles produced. Fishing the open areas produced but only gar . The biggest key to fishing the flooded weeds was making contact with the weeds . 11 smallmouth including three very large ones, 5 rock bass all above average size and 4 gar landed out of 9 hooked. Lost one lure to gar bite off . Second trip overnight rains thru the drainage area had the river rising again about 6.6 height and 33,000 cfs and still going up. No visibility, no temps taken . The water level was about 15 feet back further in the weeds from the river bank. Other than open areas not producing the same types of cover options produced . Three exceptions were shade mattered more than the first trip , the fish were extremely tight to cover and would not chase. and they wanted no part of the jig spinner, straight jig/plastic. For example dropping tight to trees, popping the lure was ignored, it had to sit and was a light pickup. In the flooded weeds a much slower retrieve was need as well. 9 smallmouth , a couple very large ones , 4 walleye, mid teens to low twenties, 4 above average rock bass, 2 small channel cats, 2 small gar and 1 carp. Day 2 saw me enjoying the company of a very large, angry beaver. It swam 6 circles out in front of me, slapping it's tail when it was right in front of me. After I ignored it, it moved downstream. When I moved downstream it only did the circle/ tail slap thing 4 times before moving upstream. I guess it got tired of the fugly thing quicker

I'm voting for Al Agnew, again .

That is still hacking . If he took intellectual property a civil lawsuit is the proper way to handle it . They are idiots because even if they found he did steal their property in would be inadmissible as it was obtained illegally.. That would have sunk any legal case the Cards had. Upper management should fire those involved for that alone .

if the Cards thought he took their property improperly when he left, they should have filed a civil lawsuit. Hacking to attempt to prove it or for revenge moves it to a criminal level. once in and not stopping at the " intended purpose" but going on to take Astro's property escalates the matter seriously. The Cards could be sued by players for violating their privacy if they took medical records. There are both state and federal statutes that apply to both criminal prosecution and the possibility of civil lawsuits against the Cards from the Feds and the Astros. If it went beyond just a few guys at the Cards being idiots and hacking to more in the organization , look out. Another question is how will MLB respond ?

http://www.in-fisherman.com/rigged-ready/mw/wind-factors/

37,800 cfs and rising, more rain forecast . I combined a couple set lines with casting for smallmouth today, both produced in this turbid mess. I targeted two breaks in the flooded shoreline cover that allow access to the flooded grassy areas teeming with worms. I used crawlers in one spot and stink bait in the other. It didn't take long to switch both to crawlers. Catfish, carp and freshwater drum were interested in eating the worms. Why not, plentiful and easy to catch. I started with a tandem spin with a twister trailer, worked ok . I switched to weighted keeper hook with a paddle tail fluke rigged sideways, worked much better. Smallmouth off flooded picnic tables, grills and parking blocks. Smallmouth off trees, weed beds and debris piles stay on shore, no need to even think about getting in the water .

Is your river well out of it's banks, thinking about hitting a pond ? You will be missing out on possibly the easiest catfishing there will be all year. No need for a boat, no need to get in the water, fish from shore. How about seeing double digit cats so shallow that their backs are out of the water and tossing your bait ahead of them . You better have your drag set right and take your heart meds before hand. Big cats on short line in skinny water, heart thumping , arm throbbing action. All you need are some hooks, some split shots and crawlers or mud leeches. Your favorite dip or punch bait works as well . Simply fish the flooded grassy areas where the cats are dining on crawlers with one rod and set another out a little further to intercept cats that are moving in or out . If they are not up in the grass, simply drop back a little deeper in the slack area, many staging there . How much easier can it get ? cats fried in cast iron skillet, fried taters, corn bread and a cold drink, heavenly good

sinus infection head has been lost in the fog show me state keeps on also hot catfish catch and clean fry and eat them sure you understand

I wish I could have put all that into a haiku, my head started hurting trying .

If color gives you more confidence then it matters to you . River fish have a extremely short period of time to decide to eat it or not. The decision comes down to can it be caught and eaten without expending more energy than it's worth and that's instinct at work. I doubt fish are intelligent enough to think that lure is blue, I'm not eating blue today, only green or red . Food comes in so many different colors or color combinations that I doubt the fish would pass on anything that is vulnerable and can be eaten .

clear, no color at all

color overblown location depth speed control priorities set

After the water started receding from the last high water episode the fish started pulling away from shore as they usually do. the levels got down to about 8,000 cfs and the visibility never improved. Despite trying a multitude of lures a rattlebait out on the seam was the only success I had. Numbers were not all that impressive, 11 fish was the best day, the rest none to single digits. The rains returned in a big way, over the entire drainage area of the river. It currently is at 20,000 cfs and still rising. The water was past the top of one boat ramp I fished around. the visibility was nil. Ma was rearranging the furniture again, all sorts of stuff huge and little flowing along. Rattlebaits over the tops of waterwillows got some fish, but they were better on a seam when I could find one that wasn't inches off the flooded shorelines. The rattlebaits did get a couple fish off the flooded boat ramp. Today the chatterbait was ignored, I had to go in and dig the fish out of the waterwillows for the most part. To do this I used a Berkley Heavyweight worm t-rigged . The way this thing sinks makes a senko look likes it floating .I get the worm hit the tops of the willows and moved it slowly with the rod tip, just like worming largemouth in a lake . For the most part the hits were not heavy, just a change in the feel of the rig. At a creekmouth I fished there was no mudline. The creek was muddy and way out of it's banks. Twixt the junction of the creek flow, the river flow and the shore a nice sized slack area had set up. The most productive spot was a band of slick topped flow between the two converging flows . It really got going whenever the wind put a chop on the surface. I had to use a squarebill crank designed to work 8-10 ft to get bit. The 5 biggest bass of the day came from this area. Just shy of 30 smallmouth, no other species cooperating with the program

I work 3-11 , 5 days a week. Most of those days, I'm off the water by 12:30 . On my days off , I fish as long as my body holds out . I can't say that I could point to any time slot being better on a regular basis. Local climatic and/or current conditions can play a role. The "luck" of fishing can take a hand . Stuff I most likely do not comprehend may take a hand. I just fish and try my best to adapt to conditions while enjoying the experience .