Gary Lange

My good friend and fishing partner Michael Taylor built this Flyrod Holder with tackle drawers for a giveaway prize at the Illinois Smallmouth Alliance Bronzeback Blowout which is the big fund raiser for this conservation, socialization, and educational organization. He does some beautiful work. It has six drawers that are 14" X 9.25" X 4".

Welcome Home JT and I look forward to some interesting reports.

This article says it al. Don't bite off more then you can chew. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/outdoo...ns/4562354.html

Silver Mallard I don't like to be to negative and start and bad feelings but you know absolutly nothing about Wolves or most likely animals at all. The Eskimoses (sp) learned to hunt from observing the Wolve and lived amoung them for many, many years. Check for the last 50 to 100 years and see how many wolves have attacked people. Then check on the Dog that is mans best friend. I think this whole discussion has gotten out of hand myself and people that don't have a clue are the ones that make things bad for all.

Having Backpacked in Wolf Country two separate times I would not be in fear at all to be in the woods with these animals. I would be in fear of wild dogs or even tame dogs that are running loose. I have heard more incidents of dogs mauling people or small children then a Wolf. I hope they get captured again before some unknowing fool kills them out of fear of the unknown. Also the Wolves were hunted to near extinction not out of fear so much as that they interfeared with the farm animals that were left running free on the range. People usually fear things out of ingnorance kinda like my fear of Snakes such as the Copperhead and Cottonmouth.

Welcome to OAF Sirhoops23! I think you will find plenty of Flyfishing information and a bunch of very helpful Flyfishers to assist you on this areas Streams and Lakes.

I was sitting right in front so I could hear. Gray haired guy tht been eatin to much. Here is a picture from Pickwick Lake at Iuka, MS.

I just had to put this beautiful photo up that was taken during a Winter Hike to the Apple River Canyon State Park near Stockton in Northern Illinois. Don and I had gone up to see what the River was like that Winter and he snapped this photograph of what we saw.

JJ, Give this place a call as that is what they deal in and have a ton of the older motors. Twin City Outboards, Shakopee, MN. 1-952-496-1951.

Glad you made it Dennis! I will tell you this when I moved down here in 2005 I was in the house just two days and had to head back to Illinois to help my younger brother haul is stuff down here. I went up early in the morning on a Wed. and was back by early morning on Friday. My wife had all the boxes unloaded, had the beds all ready for guests and had some food in the fridge. I called her about 5:00am that morning on my way up and she said she was at Wal-Mart picking up some stuff she needed. My wife is an early riser. You will get those boxes unloaded in good time and be on the water before you know it. Welcome to the Ozarks and good fishing. Look for a Black and Red Cobra on the water that will be me.

People don't use good sense when the weather gets bad for driving. I see another thing down this way that diturbs me too and that is the number of young people that don't wear seat belts and die because of it. I guess wearing a seat belt isn't cool but to die is?

Welcome to the Board I hope you find something useful as there is much to see and read here.

Welcome to OAF David! It seems you have some insight that will be helpful here and we like that.

Welcome to OAF Kory! I am sure you will find some much need information here for you quest of the Bass.

Wolves are not know to prey on humans. The avoid human contact whenever possible. We do have a bunch of trigger happy kill anything that moves people around that may shoot just to say they shot a wolf. It is a shame but that is the way life is. Don't get me wrong I am not against hunting I am just against killing for the sake of killing just because you can. They may end up just as Silver Mallard stated because they have been in captivity to long. Then again they may just go back to where they feel comfortable at Predetor World too.

I hope they never get captured. I alway felt that this area would be great for a Wolf Pack and not I may have my wish come true. I have camped in Wolf Country and the Howls at night at something to hear in the Wild. I also spend a weekend at Treehaven Field Station in Tomahawk, Wi. studying Wolfs. That was a great weekend and they furnished most everything including Lodgeing and Meals for one price.

Welcome to OAF! Tat time of year depending on how early Spring get here should be Prespawn to Spawn.

Welcome to OAF! It is a great site to say the least. I moved here from Bolingbrook, Il. in 2005 and have not regretted it at all.

Welcome to OAF Patrick! It is a great site with some great people.

Lets understand that my good friend Don R. is fishing downstream from a warm water discharge and that is why he is catching Smallies. The can be caught in other places as well but this is a very popular place along the rivers in Illinois. In other instances I have friends that have learned to fish the deeper holes in winter for Smallmouths and have done well at it also. It just takes a slower then slow presentation.

This is my Good friend Don R. from Illinois fsihing yesterday on the Fox River during a Blizzard. Note the ice in the water he is wading in. This from my ISA site my good friend Don went out yesterday in a Blizard and caught a Smallie. That is die hard Smallie fishing. They let us off work early yesterday. Knowing how excellent the driving conditions were, I quickly decided to head out to the Fox for some bronzeback blizzard action. With the strong wind, dropping temps and blowing snow this was the most rotten weather I've ever fished in. I should stress here that I do dress for the weather. I wouldn't want anyone trying this in a t-shirt and jeans. My upper half was layered with two long underwear tops, four fleece tops and a rain jacket. I wear a polar hood that covers my neck,head and most of my face. I could have used breathable glasses or goggles yesterday as the wind was feirce. My hands are covered with glove liners and neoprene gloves. Not the warmest of systems out there but I can cast and reel in just fine. The lower half is protected by long underwear and flannel lined jeans covered with rain pants. For footwear I use two pairs of wool socks with Baffin snow boots rated to -30 F. I've been pleasantly surprised at how well the rod,reel and line have performed in these extreme conditions. I spray the guides on the rod with W-D 40 and that seems to help keep the ice from building up. I've been using night crawlers instead of minnows to keep my gloves a bit dryer. At these temps if the glove gets wet it will stick to the metal on the reel. And speaking of sticking to the reel... there's nothing like scraping a crawler off your reel after it instantly sticks to it Not a banner day as far as catching goes...but heck, it was cold out there! Landed 5 carp (aka "toilet trout") and one channel cat on crawlers. The channel cats have been hitting very aggresively lately. This past Saturday I caught 9 out of the same hole. Managed to land one smallie on the Skitterprop and 3 more smallies on the large (3.5"?) Yum crawbug. The smallies weren't huge but this time of year I'll settle for "donks" or a small "dunk".

I have the same trouble with my Cobra. It also seems like the closer it gets to Friday the cooler it shows the temp to be. I just want Sunny and faily warm.

Have you ever thought of writing a book on your early days of fishing the Rock. I bet it would be interesting to say the least.

Now we have and Educational Admin. here so we will need to watch our Grammer and Spelling I guess. I can't get these things typed having to look up every other word. It is going to be 40 on Friday and my plan is to get out onto Indian Point area I think it is and look that over as I have never fished that before. I will be in a Black and Red Cobra 201D.

Welcome to OAF!