Fishing NorthEast Illinois

[kschu 0]

Greetings,

 

I am an avid Smallmouth fisherman. I joined the Illinois Smallmouth Alliance (aka. ISA) in 2003. I've made lots of new friends there. Fishing with some of these folks has greatly improved my knowledge of and skills at fishing. I rarely caught fish on soft plastics, until I started hanging out with guys who make it look so easy. I'm now quite confident with Charlie Brewer "Slider" jigs and Berkley Powerbait grubs and other soft plastics. I made my first venture into river fishing (wading) in 2002. I took a class taught by a local Fox River expert I'm quickly becoming a fan of "moving water".

 

I took my first class in fly fishing back in 1976, before I even graduated from high school. I rarely pulled out the fly rod until 2001. I now fish with the fly rod more often than any other gear. I took my first fly tying class in Feb 2003, right after I joined the ISA. During 2003, I tied mostly Woolly Buggers and Clousers. This year I took a beginners level fly tying class through my local fly shop. I'm now tying about a dozen different flies and learning new ones all the time.

 

I work at Fermi National Accelerator Lab in Batavia, IL. It is a wonderful place to work since there are several ponds right on the property. My favorite pond (Casey's Pond) seems to have more Smallmouth than any other type of fish. Just last night, I fished Casey's with my friend Jamie and the Crappie were hitting very nicely. And I got a 16" smallmouth, on my 4wt fly rod, using a size 14 damselfly nymph. That was a whole lot of fun.

 

 

I love having a job where I can spend my lunch hour fishing. On really good days, I get an hour in before work and an hour in my lunch hour. About once a week, I go fishing after work with some friends from the ISA on a local lake, pond, river or stream. The ISA also holds regular river clean-up projects. One of my first such outings was a log jam removal project on the Kishwaukee River.

 

I know that Northern Illinois is not a trout fishermans dream like Wyoming or Montana. It does not offer saltwater opportunities like Florida or other gulf coast states. But it is just a few hours drive to the spring creeks of SW Wisconson. We have Lake Michigan right next door (although I have not tried the "big lake" yet). And some of our local rivers offer what I expect is some of the best Smallmouth fishing to be found anywhere.

 

I'm glad to have joined this forum. I look forward to getting to know everyone. Thanks in advance for all I hope to learn. I hope my own contributions are found to be helpful to others.

 

More later,

Ken S.

http://home.fnal.gov/~kschu/hobbies/fishing.html

[Guest]

Welcome to the forum!

 

I am always pleased to welcome another Smallmouth fisherman because these sissy trout guys think they are the greastest sometimes

 

Make yourself at home here and feel free to jump in anytime

[Guest]

Welcome Ken, even if you do spend a lot of time with fishing the 'lesser species'.

[Bryanfly15 0]

Welcome to the site. You and Will will become great friends. I'm sure of it I do like smallmouth fishing, but my first love is steelhead and trout; then smallies come in close third. Have fun with the site and the people that hang out here.

[Guest]

Welcome kschu

We all fish with flies that what brings us together.

Learning new fly patterns and exchanging ideas that’s what its all about.

Even though some of us have better fish we pursue that something we won't hold against you

 

We like to play the Bass vs Trout allot, but it's all in fun

 

 

 

OSD.

 

[kschu 0]

OKay, let's see if I can do this right. Here is an picture of a Sunset on Casey's Pond. This is one of my favorite fishing holes on the property where I work.