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Just Jack

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Spent eight hours on the lake with dad. We caught two bass. Little 1.5 pounders. I would've pitched mine back, but it swallowed the hook and I would have killed it trying to remove the hook, so I brought it home and cooked it for myself. It wasn't big enough and I am not skilled enough so I decided against fileting it. Just scaled and gutted it, off with the fins and head, sprinkled on a bit of cajun seasoning, and pan fried slow and low in butter. It was spectacular!

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Locked a bunch of pleasure boats on a "Full Chicago Loop Cruise." They were pretty well behaved. Notice @ the end of the video... The two chicks hanging off the swim platform of the vessel in the middle background (out of the nav channel), they were using the river for you know what... Hope they don't get a nasty infection... I would have waited until Lake Michigan to go number one... LoL...

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post-1877-0-96169300-1434333466_thumb.jpg

 

Then I spotted this old guy (or gal) making its way from the esplanade to the river or back ponds (not sure which way it really wanted to go)... I should have put a ruler next to it to give it perspective. It's pretty big, the size of a small table.

 

Does anybody know what kind of turtle this is? One last week was laying eggs in center lawn.

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Spent eight hours on the lake with dad. We caught two bass. Little 1.5 pounders. I would've pitched mine back, but it swallowed the hook and I would have killed it trying to remove the hook, so I brought it home and cooked it for myself. It wasn't big enough and I am not skilled enough so I decided against fileting it. Just scaled and gutted it, off with the fins and head, sprinkled on a bit of cajun seasoning, and pan fried slow and low in butter. It was spectacular!

 

 

This is video of a bunch of bass boats locking back down river from Lake Michigan and Lake Calumet @ the end of the day... Last year.

 

We are quite a smallie heaven around the lock. The lock is not solid concrete and and is built on a metal structure (sheet piling cells)... Smallmouth simply LOVE the structure... AND they they love the invasive round goby... They gobble them up!

 

Also, with rising Lake Michigan elevations/water levels, this has been the highest water in almost 20 years. We are up about 3 feet or so... What was beach for 15 years and covered in reeds is now flooded... Quite the bass habitat in the flooded areas of growth!

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This is video of a bunch of bass boats locking back down river from Lake Michigan and Lake Calumet @ the end of the day... Last year.

 

We are quite a smallie heaven around the lock. The lock is not solid concrete and and is built on a metal structure (sheet piling cells)... Smallmouth simply LOVE the structure... AND they they love the invasive round goby... They gobble them up!

 

Also, with rising Lake Michigan elevations/water levels, this has been the highest water in almost 20 years. We are up about 3 feet or so... What was beach for 15 years and covered in reeds is now flooded... Quite the bass habitat in the flooded areas of growth!

 

Exiled,

 

I wanted to tell you this story yesterday, but its too long to type on my phone...

 

I mentioned in my previous post that we fished all day Sunday. We went to a very small lake near my house. Our original plan though was to go to the Verdigris channel Saturday evening to net some shad to take to a different lake on Sunday for hybred bass fishing.

I had never been to this particular location on the channel - Rogers Point recreational area, if you care to look it up. It is above all of the locks, about a mile below the entrance to the Port of Catoosa.

 

As soon as we put in (at around 5:00 PM), we knew right away that we would not be able to fish. The water was flowing way too fast for my trolling motor, and there was tons of debris. I mean, huge stumps and limbs. We even saw a couple of entire trees floating down the middle of the river. I found that if I stayed close to the bank that I was safe to run, so we shot up river to do some exploring.

 

There was not another soul on the river, until about 15 miles up river (@ hwy 20), we came across a group of kids, five dudes and two girls, all claiming to be 21, floating out in the middle of the channel among all the flotsam. They had a tiny (maybe 3x6 ft) one man fishing platform with a plastic lawn chair and an ice chest, a couple of swimming pool floating rings, a large nearly deflated air mattress, and another ice chest they rigged up with batteries, a car radio and a couple of 6x9 speakers, and ONE LIFE VEST!

 

They had put in something like 30 miles up-river, just below the Oolagah Lake dam at 10:00 AM. They were out of beer and out of drinking water. One of the girls was straddling a log. We threw them a rope and dragged them out of the center of the channel to get away from all of the wood. They all climbed in the boat with us and we dragged their flotilla back. I was worried I was going to get in trouble for overloading my 8-man boat and for not having life vests for everyone.

 

I couldn’t tow them any faster than idle speed because it was swamping their "vessels", so it took us a couple of hours to get back. When we did arrive, it was right at dark, it had started raining with a little lightening, and this particular ramp is not lit up at all. Even had they made it that far, they a) would have never seen it in the dark and b) had no chance of extracting themselves from the river current. Their next stop would have been the locks, and I imagine that would be a very, very dangerous place in these conditions.

 

Those kids got very lucky that we found them! As fast as the river was flowing, they would have been halfway to New Orleans before anyone started to look for their bodies!

Edited by SAMMY HANDWICH
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Exiled,

 

I wanted to tell you this story yesterday, but its too long to type on my phone...

 

I mentioned in my previous post that we fished all day Sunday. We went to a very small lake near my house. Our original plan though was to go to the Verdigris channel Saturday evening to net some shad to take to a different lake on Sunday for hybred bass fishing.

I had never been to this particular location on the channel - Rogers Point recreational area, if you care to look it up. It is above all of the locks, about a mile below the entrance to the Port of Catoosa.

 

As soon as we put in (at around 5:00 PM), we knew right away that we would not be able to fish. The water was flowing way too fast for my trolling motor, and there was tons of debris. I mean, huge stumps and limbs. We even saw a couple of entire trees floating down the middle of the river. I found that if I stayed close to the bank that I was safe to run, so we shot up river to do some exploring.

 

There was not another soul on the river, until about 15 miles up river (@ hwy 20), we came across a group of kids, five dudes and two girls, all claiming to be 21, floating out in the middle of the channel among all the flotsam. They had a tiny (maybe 3x6 ft) one man fishing platform with a plastic lawn chair and an ice chest, a couple of swimming pool floating rings, a large nearly deflated air mattress, and another ice chest they rigged up with batteries, a car radio and a couple of 6x9 speakers, and ONE LIFE VEST!

 

They had put in something like 30 miles up-river, just below the Oolagah Lake dam at 10:00 AM. They were out of beer and out of drinking water. One of the girls was straddling a log. We threw them a rope and dragged them out of the center of the channel to get away from all of the wood. They all climbed in the boat with us and we dragged their flotilla back. I was worried I was going to get in trouble for overloading my 8-man boat and for not having life vests for everyone.

 

I couldnt tow them any faster than idle speed because it was swamping their "vessels", so it took us a couple of hours to get back. When we did arrive, it was right at dark, it had started raining with a little lightening, and this particular ramp is not lit up at all. Even had they made it that far, they a) would have never seen it in the dark and b) had no chance of extracting themselves from the river current. Their next stop would have been the locks, and I imagine that would be a very, very dangerous place in these conditions.

 

Those kids got very lucky that we found them! As fast as the river was flowing, they would have been halfway to New Orleans before anyone started to look for their bodies!

WOW! Best story about what you did in a day! That has to be their lucky day! Sorry I missed your screen name change... I forgot... Kiko is Philly. KikoMonster was your other name right... Tulsa/Catossa... OK, right?

 

It has been raining cats and dogs her too... This is the highest level to Lake Michigan in almost 20 years. The good thing here is everything is downstream from Chicago.... Hope the levees don't break. On the upper Illinpis river, Starved Rock Lock closed... Two barges broke free and got stuck under the tainters of the dam... NOT good, the water will pile up further upstream. The next lock up is having problems... @ Marseilles... Wow... Bad luck and then rain. Terrible outdrafts and flows, they are advising people to avoid the river milles upstream and downstream of Starved Rock. Not good because Starved Rock is the first dam on the Upper Illinois, it keeps the Upper in check. We don't have to worry too much since we are the controlling works and supply the water to the system. We'd be able to draw the lower pool down to help out. It's locks 2-6 (Lockport, Brandon, Dresden Island, and Marseilles) that will see the issues if this rain keeps pounding in bursts from the Gulf Moisture! Like I said, Marseilles is starting to get into deep doo-doo . It's like a sick twist on Scotty from Star Trek: "Sorry Cap... I keep sending you everything I have and can't stop it!" :-( :-(

 

Be safe out there!

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I just cracked a funny with a yacht heading from The Gulf of Mexico north and back to Boston/New England via The Great Lakes.

 

He chimes in on VHF-16 with a "Thank You" and then proceeds to say: "How about them Blackhawks." It was too much for me to handle!!! I reply back: "My partner is from Tampa and I am from Buffalo." He replies: "I am from Bruins country." I gasped and walked outside as he was passing. We are most likely dealing w/a Pats** fan here... So please understand. I shout back: "Bruins? (w/a yucky tone)... If I would have know, I should have deflated your sails." I know lame, douchebag move... He didn't actually have sails, he was a motor yacht... I had to think fast an incorporate a Pats** DeflateGate joke... ;-) But yuck! Bruins!

 

The DeflateGate jokes will NEVER get old no matter how lame.

 

As I hang my head in shame... Odds he bypasses BFLO by to the west @ Welland. Who needs the money he would bring into the area as he travels. ;-)

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fished in a river full of smallies and red eyes (rock bass) but also full of mercury from long mothballed chlorine cells, originally designed in niagara falls at hooker chemical. caught some nice ones. my friends grandson caught the most on hellgrammites ("grampus") that he seined for all of us. saw a majestic bald eagle soar 20 feet above us, fishing just like us. hoping he/she isn't poisoned by the mercury. threw all of ours back.

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fished in a river full of smallies and red eyes (rock bass) but also full of mercury from long mothballed chlorine cells, originally designed in niagara falls at hooker chemical. caught some nice ones. my friends grandson caught the most on hellgrammites ("grampus") that he seined for all of us. saw a majestic bald eagle soar 20 feet above us, fishing just like us. hoping he/she isn't poisoned by the mercury. threw all of ours back.

 

 

If you don't mind me asking, which river? You don't have to say if you don't want to. Gotta be up north a ways if you are seeing bald eagles this time of the year. Last August we seen them up @ The Apostle Islands on Lake Superior... A golden too. Down here in South Chicago, the bald eagles roost and are around in January and February... Move north for the summer.

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If you don't mind me asking, which river? You don't have to say if you don't want to. Gotta be up north a ways if you are seeing bald eagles this time of the year. Last August we seen them up @ The Apostle Islands on Lake Superior... A golden too. Down here in South Chicago, the bald eagles roost and are around in January and February... Move north for the summer.

it's a river in appalachia. my friend did a tv cable video on smallie fishing here. we almost disowned him. some rednecks from nc were spotted a week ago. said they saw his video and wanted to check it out. anyway, the bald eagles are reportedly flourishing. this one looked plenty strong.

 

cool loosely related story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/26/bald-eagles-james-river_n_3656883.html. i've fished the james (it's not far) and it's awesome but not today and have never seen eagles there. you must know that fisherman don't give up there spots!

Edited by birdog1960
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