Bet if you joined his club and got to know his buddies they would be willing to help. 

 

You are correct sir. I do share all my spots with fellow club members, just not on open internet forums.

I'm new to the forum, mine went and died out on me. I'm out here in Elgin, 'bout ten minutes from the Fox. Gimmie a holler if anyone wants to hook up this year for some fishin'.

Your forum died? Wouldn't happen to be CLF?

You are correct sir. I do share all my spots with fellow club members, just not on open internet forums.

Your forum died? Wouldn't happen to be CLF?

it definitely was. I wasn't as active on there as I have been here though. Also Scott I plan on joining the club here later this year.

I'm from central il. Where are you from?

If I had information to go on I could give you a hand.  Northern ,Il could be from the north side of chicago to the boarder.  That being said I wouldnt ask Scott for spots, he doesnt even list his favorite lake lol. Bet if you joined his club and got to know his buddies they would be willing to help. 

No thank you

Well in other news. My club launched our HS tournament registration this past week. Already have 15 or so boats locked in, capping it at 75 again this year.  http://www.fightingillinibassclub.com/

you guys alive? Tried to make it out ice fishing but we got hit by that big storm. 

I'm new to the forum, mine went and died out on me. I'm out here in Elgin, 'bout ten minutes from the Fox. Gimmie a holler if anyone wants to hook up this year for some fishin'.

I'm from Elgin too. I'd be down to fish the Fox this year if you want. It's been kind of hit or miss with finding the smallies out there, so I wouldn't mind learning some stuff from you! 

Heard some decent shore reports from Braidwoods opener.

Found my truck today underneath all that roadsalt. Now that it's clean, I'm sure we're in for more snow 

Don't forget to buy your licenses. I went to Cableas today and got both IL and WI. I told the girl to add the Great Lakes trout stamp to both. So she does the WI first and says

 

"There is no trout stamp. There is a salmon and trout stamp. Is that ok?" 

"Yeah"

so now she does the IL and tells me "There is no trout stamp for IL"

"Huh? it's the same as the WI stamp"

"No, there is no trout stamp. Would you like a salmon stamp instead?

I have a lifetime IL license, had it since 1992 so all I need is a WI license, and I'm getting that tomorrow.

Fished Clinton on Sunday the 15th.  Wind out of the SSW blowing strong.  15-25 and pretty constant.  Fished deep, shallow, and inbetween and was a tough day.  Water temps at 48 bridge around 58, marina around 53.  With the wind in that direction the current is not really able to flow and is always the worst days on this lake in the winter/early spring.  A good north wind usually helps (not too much of course!).  Looks like there is again, a large overabundance of shad and while some of those should be taken care of naturally, still makes it tough with so many bait balls spread out literally everywhere.  Hard to tell crappie from shad, etc.  Anyhow, lake was a bit low and was somewhat clear even with all the wind whipping it.  Swimbaits, jigs, jerkbaits, rattle traps are all I threw.  only small fish off jerkbaits.  Only room for the year to improve from here...

 

 

 Rough day today. Got the club boat from the mechanic. Realized that the trailer wiring was wrong ( from club members not the mechanic) so I had to throw on an adapter and fix up the wiring. 20 minutes and $15 bucks later I was on the road. Got to Clinton, dunked the boat and couldnt get the big motor started. No problem just roll it out and work on shore. Deep cycle might not have gotten a full charge at his place and I left the master power on during the drive over. Problem number 2 was when the safety chain was too tight to release it. Normally you just winch up and get it off. Winch kept slipping up and wouldnt go that last 1/2 in. Boat slipped off the bunks. Had another guy try and start the motor to power it up and slip it off. Couldnt get it going at all. So basically we were stuck there. Only option was to either get a set of bolt cutters but we wouldnt be able to get it up on the bunks. Thank god my buddy had his waders in the car. I backed it up he slipped it on the bunks and we finally pulled it out. Man I thought I was going to go catch some pigs on some of my spots. Had to shore fish and thought it would blow.  Turns out that wasnt the case caught these two fish in the first five minutes.   Moral of the story, never go home because the boat wont start.

 

Things I might have screwed up. Battery could be dead or it could have not been completely in neutral. Also I might have bumped the kill switch loose. Going to check tomorrow. If anyone is looking for a partner this weekend/week on clinton message me asap. 

I may fish this weekend and will let you know. Got a new prop I need to put on and test out.  Also got a set of new chrome rims for the trailer- ordered 175's and they sent 185's.  Quick measurments is telling me they wont fit however I need to look into it more or may just send them back- not sure at this point.  

they will fit...but a good bump and those wells are hitting the hubs and will destroy my bearings.

sending them back...

they will fit...but a good bump and those wells are hitting the hubs and will destroy my bearings.

sending them back...

Yeah and it's not something you can easily fix or make work. let me know if you decide to go . Heading to work on the boat now might have it out tomorrow but it's a pos.lol

Yeah and it's not something you can easily fix or make work. let me know if you decide to go . Heading to work on the boat now might have it out tomorrow but it's a pos.lol

Put the new wheels on it- they look pretty good to me.  Aluminum boat, chrome wheels...lol

replaced a couple bunks, changed lower unit fluid, etc. so did not make it out this weekend but should have most pressing boat work done.  Now I will just need to fix things as they break of course though! 

wheel.jpg

Put the new wheels on it- they look pretty good to me.  Aluminum boat, chrome wheels...lol

replaced a couple bunks, changed lower unit fluid, etc. so did not make it out this weekend but should have most pressing boat work done.  Now I will just need to fix things as they break of course though! 

Nice, thats a perfect central . il boat. I need to rewire the batteries and I think I may just give up and take it to the mechanic. Too worried that Ill blow myself up.

it works well enough anyhow- 5 years I have owned it I cant complain too much.  I don't think trackers are great boats by any means, but it runs 45mph and I use it on waters as big as 55k acres with no issues. Although, on those waters I sometimes wished it ran 60....

Anyone on here from around the Carbondale area, if not I'm sure some of ya have fished down here.

Anyone on here from around the Carbondale area, if not I'm sure some of ya have fished down here.

lived down there for a while and wished I still did...

headed down there tomorrow actually for a couple days.   Fished a lot down there- worked at crab orchard refuge for a while as well so spent a lot of time on those area lakes as well as Kincaid. 

Any Il guys shore fish lake Michigan? Just looking for some info on when the bass move up. Im back at school but am willing to drive back up once they start to spawn.

any one been out on clinton lately, what are the water temps and bass doing?

 

boat is finally ready going out weds and thurs