The other day Ken Crowne of Plainfield left a comment on one of my posts criticizing me for what he calls my detail laden blabbings.
Tell us, will you post some gps coordinates in your next bloggings?
When is the musky taste test?
My opinion of you is that you are a foolish angler and you’ll see the results of these detail-laden blabbings soon enough. While you may release 90% of what you catch, your careless musings will invite others who do not share the same ethics and will keep their limit or worse.
Actually, I release 99.9999% of what I catch, but why quibble.
Of course I had to come back with some kind of reply.
Ken,
You’ve obviously read things I’ve written over the years and came to a really stupid conclusion.Go read this, especially the comment Bob Long just left today. I have a feeling he was responding to your asinine comment:
18 years of writing like this. Guiding, fishing classes, speaking engagements, fishing reports for Dale Bowman in the Sun Times every week, radio shows, TV shows and I run into virtually no one out there.
You are obviously living with your head planted firmly up your ass and have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about. I gave hundreds of people my fishing spots over the years. I just cruised along the river for 7 miles on my way home today, past lots of good spots of mine. Not a single person out there.
Learn how to observe. At least make a fucking effort to come out to the Fox and go anywhere but near a dam. Then get back to me. Clueless, baseless bullshit comments like yours makes my blood boil.
Maybe my response is why Dale Bowman refers to me as irascible.
So that got me thinking and thinking while out fishing the last couple of weeks got me taking lame pictures of those hordes of fishermen keeping everything they catch. I just happened to fish a few of the stretches that I’ve shown to at least another 100 people, possibly more. Plus all those detail laden blabbings I’ve done over the years.
I don’t know, I don’t see anyone in these pictures, but you let me know if you spot one.
I will concede that I have run into the same person twice in the last two weeks while out there. But he’s in a jon boat with a mud puppy on the back. I can hear him coming a half mile away and it pretty much ruins the serenity of the river. Then as he motors past I have to wait for the wake to subside and it’s all just kind of annoying.
When I was out there this morning he motored by and I’m sure it was a coincidence that the bite pretty much died after he passed.
Till then I was doing all right and left a remark on Facebook when I got home.
The fish were all over the place in one stretch of the Fox this morning only, like a surly two year old, they just wanted to play with their food.
When I got back to my car I could hear him coming up stream. He was motoring through a shallow stretch of the river that I had already waded through. It’s a little over knee deep.
My Facebook comment is referring to the spot he’s in when I took that picture.
I’m assuming he didn’t catch anything and one of these times he’ll quit trying, disappear like all the others and I can have my peace and quiet back.
Howard Levett
3 Aug 2013I always suspect a would-be sportsman who needs something or someone to blame for his lack of skill in catching fish or making friends. Maybe he’ll take up golf to complain about next.
Ken G
3 Aug 2013Maybe he’ll take up golf and never come back to the river Howard. I think more should do that.
JM
4 Aug 2013Another blogger and I were talking about something similar last week. The worst fishermen are the quickest to place blame on just about anything : pollution , overfishing , WDJ fishing reports. The list goes on and on.
Reading through the rest of the comments , seems like you guys have good reason to argue against dam removal. If nothing else , those dams serve you well as a good place to attract wandering fishermen. Keeps them out of trouble , I suppose?
Ken G
4 Aug 2013JM, on the Fox I’m willing to keep two dams just for the reason you mention. It will be a bad fisherman magnet and the rest of the river will be empty of them. The only good fishing is at dams you know.
Barry
26 Aug 2013Which dams?
Ken G
26 Aug 2013Stratton to hold back the Fox Chain and Aurora. Even though Aurora should go, but that will never happen.
bob
3 Aug 2013I wish to thank you for photoshopping me out of these images. and my car. and the fish I have on my metal stringer. and my laptop as I fave these spots on google earth. No one here but us herons.
Oh, I find you quite rascible.
Ken G
3 Aug 2013Bob, plus I did a pretty good job Photoshopping out all those kids you bring out here from the city.
Herons out there screaming TENKARAAAAAA every time they get a fish…
bob
3 Aug 2013http://www.flickr.com/photos/bossbob50/8501218727/
100 yards downstream? Nobody.
Ken G
3 Aug 2013Years ago I was fishing just west of the Route 47 bridge in Yorkville, had it all to myself and was going pretty good fishing wise. On the other side of the bridge it’s about 200 yards to the Yorkville dam. I counted 36 people milling about in that little stretch.
So every time I caught a fish I would hold it up and wave it around figuring one of those dolts would notice.
They never did.
bob
3 Aug 2013The last image.
Piano wire? Sorry, I’ve been watching WWII documentaries about the Germans fighting the invasion of France again. Sorry.
nat lawrence
4 Aug 2013if you want to learn where to catch fish on the fox or its feeder creeks, you must get out and actually fish the areas. No one can tell you where you can always catch fish.
Ken G
4 Aug 2013Nat, at the very top is a tab called Where to Fish. All the sites I’ve relied on all these years to find the places I fish are all up there. Not step by step directions, but they will get you to my spots. Plus I think I did a pretty good job of describing the hell I put my Gazetteer through.
https://waterdogjournal.com/2012/02/26/a-fishing-life-plan/
One of the reasons I feel confident about giving things away is that experience shows nobody will bother showing up.
Mark D
4 Aug 2013Bravo on the thoughtful and witty retort.
I agree with you 100%, fishing pressure drops exponentially with every step away from a dam or bridge crossing. The solitude of the river and creeks is the reason I go fishing.
Ken G
5 Aug 2013Thanks Mark. You’ve seen what I go through to get where I want to go.
We’re going to follow that? It’s a rodent path…
Well, yeah, but I know it’s heading for water.
Richard Velders
5 Aug 2013As noted previously, I’ve lived on the Fox River for 13 years and have yet to seriously attach myself to this waterway. When I have fished it, it was with some success as I followed Ken G’s recommendations in Bowman’s columns. When I recently connected with Waterdog Journal I had an AHA! moment and berated myself for not doing it sooner. I have traveled away from Illinois to go fishing on weeklong trips and regret that I haven’t stayed local as I too appreciate the beauty of nearby streams as so greatly expressed in the photos shared in the journal. It’s not just about the fishing advice, it’s the thoughts about the land and water that are equally important especially when the water is free of too many of us humans. Dick
Ken G
5 Aug 2013And where you live Dick, other than a canoe floating by now and then, you shouldn’t see a soul out there. The couple of times I was down there a few years ago a few fish were caught. With this cooler weather things may change sooner than September. Besides, the water has yet to come down to normal and even at 1000 cfs, you have to be careful in some spots. Especially when exploring new areas.
Your stretch should also be stunning when the leaves start changing. I say we get the exploring done in the next couple of weeks so we know what to avoid, then come fall we don’t have to worry. Just enjoy the scenery and stroll down the river.
Richard Velders
6 Aug 2013Call me to explore any time. Text me or email your address & phone number if you want to share and also where I should unload the Asian Big Head Carp.
Richard Velders
7 Aug 2013Headed to the Courthouse the other day. Picked out your home. Trilevel with sunflowers and grille out front. Guess right? Waded the river with my granddaughters other day. Had to hang on as flow was pretty good. Dick
Ken G
7 Aug 2013You got it Dick, think I got yours nailed down to two choices.
One of the hazards of our stretch of the river are the deep spots with all the current. Upstream there are small pockets like it, but down here they’re everywhere. Like below my house. There is no way I am going to walk across the river to get to or from the mouth of Blackberry Creek with the water hovering at 1000. I could go across further up, but once I’m down there it gets really tricky. You want an adventure, try going between the two islands just down from my house. Nice stretch, lily pads on the left side as you go and I will probably never do it again.
You got to go around to the left. Follow the south shore and as you get past that island, then head for the middle. Really nice looking water.
Richard Velders
8 Aug 2013Thanks for the tips about wading near you. Just walking in the Fox with my family and friends, we’ve hit rare holes and just see a steady increase in depth about 100 yds down stream from my place up to chest. I’ve got to do more explore. Dick
Barry
26 Aug 2013Airboats and hovercraft are noisier, and I have seen both on the Fox river. I am always in a paddle craft of some sort.
Ken G
26 Aug 2013I’ve been below my house when the guy that lives way downstream starts coming up in his airboat. I can hear him coming over a mile away. Once he tried to spook me by cutting close. I won when I lifted my rod to cast into his fan.