Darkstar72's Fishing Blog: COLD....8 degrees Fahrenheit on the Fox

More Pictures from our frosty wade! http://www.flickr.com/photos/fisherbyrne/sets/72157629276129821/

Darkstar72's Fishing Blog: COLD....8 degrees Fahrenheit on the Fox: Plans were made to wade today earlier in the week. Earlier in the week it was 40-50 degrees and downright warm by comparison. Today the Fo...

Fermilab Fishing: The Good Old Days

Not long after Close Encounters came out. My father woke up very excited one morning telling the family how he had a magnificent dream. I ate my Cocoa Pebbles as my father described a secret military base where aliens lived in colored houses and bred buffalo to eat. My father then drew a series of symbols and signs and a map with buffalo, strange lakes, scientists, and odds shaped buildings. My sisters and I just sat there an laughed at the crazy old fart.

I had forgotten about it the next week when he told us we were going out breakfast. We did not go out to eat often so all of us were in. After a nice meal at the Golden Bear Family Restaurant Dad decided that we were going for ride. As we drove he told us he kept having that dream and its was more and more vivid and he had to drive and find this place. My sisters and I teased him and my mother laughed nervously like the hillbilly had lost his mind. He had mom hold the map drawn on a worn piece of paper with pencil. The guy was a pretty good artist too and the map looked pretty freaking cool. We turn down a skinny road away from route 59 and my mother says “Marty I don’t think we are allowed to drive down here” as we went past a guard gate. When we hit a row of colored houses my family crapped their collective pants. Blue, Orange, Red, and Green houses! HOLY CRAP! Then a herd of buffalo! WTF! My sisters and I were now begging the old man to turn around and go home. Then we drove past weird shaped buildings and I saw guys in lab coats going to their cars. “Dad get us the hell out of here!” My mom “Daniel Patrick Byrne watch your mouth!” Then We came up to the Squished building and my father finally spilled the beans about what Fermilab really was.

A few years later dad told me to grab my best friend Ben and load up the wagon, we are going fishin! As we drove he told us that he found out that you could fish at Fermilab! We got there and all we had was worms. The place was pretty busy. There were bass fisherman and cat fishermen lining the shores. As we set up I asked the guy near us why the water was steaming he said it never freezes they use it to cool the accelerator. COOL! We had a bluegill contest that day. We filled or buckets that we sat on with water to act as live wells. The old man yelled 1,2,3 go! It was a whirlwind of bluegills and bobbers. The high score from my dad was over a hundred. (OF COURSE HE WON) Ben got 80 or so and myself only 76. We let them go as we counted.

A few years Later Ben pulls up to my house on a cold January day and asks if I have any cash. He says he has an idea.  I jump in his beater and we start driving. We stop at the local sports store. He tells me we are going open water fishing. I ask how and he says "Fermilab dude" in his California punker way. We buy two Daiwa micros (these were basically over grown ice rods not big enough to be ultra lights). We then stop by jewel and by beef liver. I asked him why beef liver and not chicken but he would not answer. So Ben’s plan was to use tiny cubes of beef liver to catch the baby channel cats the flourished at Fermilab. Man it was a blast! We caught dozens anywhere from 2-10 inches. We also got stung more times than I ever had. It was a GREAT time!

We fished there on and off after that but the older I got the less I liked the crowd. The last time I went as a young man I went to the weeds to mark my territory and when I got back both my ugly sticks were gone.

A few winter nights we sat freezing covered with snow soaking gills waiting for the giant flatheads that were mythic legends said to wonder the warm waters. I never did hook one.

Much later I took my niece there only to find out that they stopped pumping a long time ago and the water was now muddy and filled with carp. Some fisherman said if I worked for them there was still some nice bass. Broken hearted I never returned to fish.

The memories there however, are carved in my mind like a fine marble statue however and I am very happy my father scared the crap out of us that day.

Bluegill Madness Video

PB & DS Angling Feb 5th Video

Darkstar72's Fishing Blog: First Wade of 2012

Darkstar72's Fishing Blog: First Wade of 2012: 5:30 AM and my phone's alarm is going off in the ring-tone I selected for my fishing alarm.  It is a happy-sounding group of tones that remi...

A Look Back: Older Posts from the DuPage River

2003-2005 DuPage River Reports:

I Decided I needed to wet a line so I went to the DuPage around lunch time in the Naperville area. I caught about 11 small mouth 8 dinks one 12in, one 14in, and one over 15in.
I had a hog up to the shore one last jump and gone! I was drifting crawlers in eddies and casting a rebel craw in small pools. Almost half of the fish I got on the craw. The water is low fish are stacked up, it was a lot of fun.

Sep 10,03 

I got out again today fished a different stretch of water again in Naperville landed about 10 fish one was 14.5in and the rest were dinks, but I’m fine with that. Also caught 2 more, I got one channel cat and a nice rock bass. i was using a rebel craw and drifting crawlers again. All my fish came out of one large pool behind a small shallow rapid area with a steady current. Almost all were along current breaks. 2 or 3 came out of slack water in the back end of the pool. Good luck to anyone going out

Sep 15,03 

The water came up some with the rain and put a little stain to the water. The fish are still biting but with higher water they have spread more. I tried some new and old familiar water in the Naperville area for my usual hour and a half. I ended up with 3 caught and lost 3 smallies. I also got one rock bass. The three I landed came on crawlers under a float drifted into pools at the bottom of ripple areas with fast current. With higher water and faster current the drift was a little to quick for my liking but it still produced. I lost one fish on a pumpkinseed helgie. iIf I had more tIme to explore and get more serious, I think I would have done better. Good luck out there.

Sep 16,03

Went to Plainfield today and the water was up there further than I expected. With the fast current I couldn't get a decent drift so I moved under a bridge with deep holes along the walls. I managed to land 2 small mouth and a crappie. I lost a couple big fish one I think was a carp the other I’m not sure. I felt a solid head shake before she told me where I should put my pole.

Sep 25,03 

Made it out for about 1.5 hrs today, while ducking storm clouds and down pours I managed to get the best of half a dozen bronze bullets in pools below shallow rapid areas. 2 fell prey to helgies rigged with a split shot drifted harmlessly among the current, 2 were tricked into attacking crappie spiders reeled at a medium pace, and 2 snacked on the wrong crawler drifted slowly under a balsa float. About 4 of the little tyrants escaped my well laid traps. It was muddy and wet but still fun in Naperville today.

April 18th 04 The 3 hours I had on the water was great. I landed 16 or so smallmouth. Out of the 16 fish caught, 2 bigger fish; one about 1.5lbs and the other a solid 2lbs. They fell to rebel craws, blue fox spinners, case helgies, and a tiny crank bait from some company that starts with an M. It was fun to get out again.

May 4, 05 

I ventured out in the cold this week and did pretty well. I fished in the Naperville area and scored about 10 fish and missed about 4. I even caught a largemouth. Some of the small mouths were pretty nice between 14&18 inches! I drifted live bait mostly minnows in eddies and pools also along walls. It was a lot of fun to get out for a whole day, my first real excursion this year. Good luck out there.

Birthday Ice Fishing With The Fish TV

Birthday Ice Fishing With The Fish TV

On January 26^th I took the day off work as I always do to go Icefishing. I call up Rocknfish and we are ready to roll! We get to the frozen playground and start drilling. Five feet nothing, six nothing, 8 one or two, and SEVEN Jackpot. The fish were holding in seven feet of water not 6 or 8, it had to seven.

Presentation didn’t seem to matter as much. We got fish on plastics(micro nuggies), jigs n spikes, and jig and waxies. The bait had to be moving though. Almost all the fish were suspended as you can see in the photo above.We must of caught 20 or 30 birthday fish. We were using the FishTV and after taking a while to set-up, it was a real pleasure to fish with! From now on I will always have one in my line-up during ice season. We had one great outing during "The Winter That Wasn't"