My Crazy Buddy From Illinois!

[Gary Lange]

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".

[Leonard]

"I spray the guides on the rod with W-D 40 and that seems to help keep the ice from building up..."

HUMMM???

never tried that.. I know chap stick works..

I may have to try that!!

sounded like you know how to fish cold weather...

Leonard

[Randall]

a little trick i use is to open a hot hands when i get in my truck so they're warm when i get to where i'm going, then put them on the back of my hands when i put my gloves on... C L U T C H

of course i'm a little sissy boy when it comes to the cold.

oh yeah, the chapstick thing works... no idea why, but i was impressed

[Gary Lange]

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.