5-26-08 Fox River

[Ken G]

This was going to be a lot longer, but I'm out of time.
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The conditions of the Fox were perfect on Saturday and Sunday and I hear the fishing wasn’t bad. Had my daughter those days so I didn’t get to go. We walked over to the Yorkville dam and there were over 20 anglers between the dam and the 47 bridge. Then we drove and walked along a good 4 miles of the river and didn’t see another angler.

Go figure. You know, the river is getting ruined by all my detailed reports over the years.

Did get out Monday sunrise. Didn’t realize how much it had rained. Got to Saw-wee-kee Park and knew I should have gone home. The south half of the river was pure mud, which meant that Waubansie creek three miles up stream was flowing mud. One inch visibility. The north side of the river was a little better, 3 inch visibility, but I almost got knocked over a couple of times criss crossing the river and almost filled my waders trying to get to one of the better spots.

Got one smallie for all the work it took. Had agonized all weekend whether to use my fly rod or spinning gear. Took the spinning gear. Should have taken the fly rod. The carp were stacked up in the shore eddies, there pig snouts sucking up everything on the surface. Would have been great to sight fish for them with some caddis flies.

Checked the river guages when I got home. The river had spiked from 1300 to 2000 cfs in less than a half hour. I was out when it was 2000, the worst possible time to be fishing. Always give it 24 hours when it does stuff like that.

SO, things should be good when it all settles down again.

I think next time I use the fly rod. Gives me more options if the carp are surface feeding.

Hope this no-fish fishing report helps. Makes me wonder if I have a clue anymore. One thing for sure, I may not be able to catch fish, but I know long stretches of this river like the back of my hand. Makes for nice mornings out.

Oh yeah, once beautiful Fox vistas are being ruined by bright yellow signs telling people people how long it takes for a smallmouth bass to get to 12 inches. And please don’t eat them. Useless info.

[Darth]

Oh yeah, once beautiful Fox vistas are being ruined by bright yellow signs telling people people how long it takes for a smallmouth bass to get to 12 inches. And please don’t eat them. Useless info.

Just another example of the elitist attitude completely lacking in common sense.

The vast majority of anglers (and I use that term loosely) that will bother to stop and actually read the signs...already know.

The people the signs are targeting could care less in regards to the sentiment behind the sign.
Do they honestly think someone out there with the intention to "keep" will read that and be overcome with remorse for their actions? Give me a friggin' break!
I don't mean this to sound racist but they should have them in languages other than English as well....just saying=)


These are the same fishermen that advocate for abstinence in regards to fishing during the spawning period by chastising any angler that puts up a fish pic.
I guess they don't realize the only anglers that argument MIGHT appeal to are the "ethical" ones who have no clue about spawning behavior for smallmouth.
So once they convince and chase all the anglers who "care" off the water...what are you left with?
Idiots.
Expecting people not to fish after a long cold winter is unrealistic in my opinion.
Teaching them to fish fast heavy current where fish are more likely to be feeding rather than spawning just seems to make more sense.

Sorry for the rant Ken but this type of ignorance really pisses me off...don't even get me started on the goofballs that color out the background in their fish photos=)

[Ken G]

Darth,
Saw your photos on Windy City.
Glad someone still knows how to go get them.
Want my guiding?

I like to poke fun at them even though I promised I wouldn't anymore. When I was on their board I would always push for more important issues . . . dam removal, overall water quality . . .

Their won't be any fish to protect it you don't protect the place they live first.

As you well know, the river has a pretty strong population of smallies. The places I see the signs I never see anyone fishing. And if I do, they're fishing from shore, which is pretty useless anyway.

A friend of mine with a Mexican wife was going to translate that stuff into Spanish for me. Then I was going to have it translated to Polish and Russian.

Never did get to it, but I still think it's a good idea.

And you are correct, they're attitude has chased away some really good people. They left when I got booted. That was a real shame. Some great people will no longer have anything to do with them.

Great organization, wrong people running it at the moment.

[Darth]

I absolutely agree.

I was intrigued by the ideals behind some of the organizations initially...but after seeing the mentality of a few select individuals I found myself completely turned off.

I won't get into specifics.


I love being able to share adventures on the water but over the years I've gotten quite a bit a grief for it. The more I read of your posts... I see you've been experiencing a lot of the same thing.
It's just an observation but I hope you continue to say what's on your mind despite whose toes it might be stepping on.

[Ken G]

II love being able to share adventures on the water but over the years I've gotten quite a bit a grief for it. The more I read of your posts... I see you've been experiencing a lot of the same thing.
It's just an observation but I hope you continue to say what's on your mind despite whose toes it might be stepping on.

Long story behind all of that, will fill you in on details when out on the water.

End result is the restart of my own website. Now I just have to get the energy and interest back. Slowly but surely.

Dale Bowman told me a long time ago, the hell with the naysayers, you're doing the right thing.

You should take the same advice.