des plaines river maps

I did some online searches for some Des Plaines River maps for my personal use so figured I would share them with everyone. Click on the map to enlarge and then copy and paste to your computer.

des plaines river from russell rd to 137

des plaines river from 137 to lake cook

des plaines river from lake cook to euclid

des plaines river from euclid to touhy

des plaines river from touhy to north ave

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Cape Cod is just like I pictured! Its like stepping back in time to when the pilgrims landed hundreds of years ago. Its also like a picture perfect old fishing town along the coast like something you would see on the Hallmark Channel. The house we are staying at was built in 1782 and is in the town of Sandwich, Massachusetts about half way down the Cape. Here are some pictures of the cottage and barn:





Justin and I arrived very early in the Monday morning from a late night flight from Chicago Midway to Boston. We then drove a rental car about an hour to the Cape. Upon arrival we decided to sleep for 2 hours and then up and out onto the Bay to look for some monster Bluefin Tunas with local Tuna guru Rocco. Here is Rocco on his Tuna Chaser:


We drove around and around for about 45 miles just looking for Tunas chasing bait on the surface. We were going to try and hook up with one of the beasts via rod and reel, and also stick one with a harpoon! The tunas in the area right now are running about 225 lbs, but Rocco's buddy stuck a 970 lb bluefin last week! Getting a tuna is a big deal, cause at the local fish market they sell for about $15 per lb live weight! Rocco, his brothers, and their 93 year old grandpa-pappy harpoon about 15-20 big tunas every summer!! They don't typically waste their time on potentially bad tuna fishing days, but we only had monday available, cause stripers are tues-thurs.

Unfortunately we didn't get the opportunity to hang out with some tunas up close and personal, the wind was blowing from the East and the sun never could shake off the clouds. Generally for chasing tunas in the bay you want it to be calm and sunny. Anyhow I snapped a photo just to break up the monotony and add some scenery to this story. The big hook in the picture is not the harpoon, it is just a gaff that we would have used to get the tuna into the boat.

We didn't catch any tunas, but we had an awesome time on the Bay just relaxing and not WORKING!!! When we got back it was time for dinner! The next door neighbors are commercial lobster fisherman and they hooked us up with 10 fresh lobsters for dinner!!

Justin ate 3 lobsters, Brett ate 2 lobsters, Katy ate 1 lobster, and Nate ate 4 lobsters! Oh yeah, we are staying with Katy and Brett. They are clients and good friends from back home. Brett is in the process of building the best Jumbo Yellow Perch lake in Illinois. They stay in the Cape for the month of July to commercial fish and they invited us out to help out! We hopped on a plane at the last minute and the rest is history....

The main fish we will be after are Striped Bass. Commercial fishing for them is a major deal around here and is only open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. You can keep 30 stripers per boat and they average about 15 lbs and bring in about $4 per lb live weight. You only have to go 1-2 miles offshore to fish for them with jigs and lures so you don't have much expenses in fuel or bait and you dont have to clean the fish when you get back to the dock. Just drop them off with the fish trucks lined up to take them to the market!

The lobster neighbor lady said she would love some striped bass fillets so we definitely are motivated to catch some fish tomorrow so we can feast again. Stripers and Lobster sounds pretty good eh?

NEWS FLASH !

ONLY 4" TO GO

Only 2899.2 Acre Feet Left

inflow = 1564.2 cfs

outflow = 1170.7 cfs

CLICK HERE FOR HEBGEN STATS

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.. It's true. The pool of Hebgen Reservoir is just 4" from being full.
.. Folks are skiing where they haven't skied in years. Fishers are fishing in wonderfully strange and unusual places. The weed beds are covered with more water than is usual for this time of year.
.. What's that mean for gulpers? Stay tuned.

Those Other Terrestrials

FORGET THE HOPPERS

For Now

use these

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.. You saw them here first.
.. The spruce moth and beetle invasion is on. All along the Madison River, and on the Gibbon River, and especially on the Gallatin River, it's time to use these other terrestrials.
.. They're here in numbers that the fish understand. Even the large fish. Even in bright sun.
.. These bugs are now on the diet of any self respecting trout. They are a bag of groceries just waiting to be ingested. Give the fish a chance with your best imitation. You will be rewarded.
.. Gulper Report and Gallatin River secrets tomorrow; if we can fit it in. Where's Nate?

Landed this beauty second cast during an afternoon session at the start of the last decent onshore blow, which seems like a long time ago now.

The brightly coloured shallow running Mommotti 180 in ARB was ideal for the wild but sunny conditions.

A few more fish followed before the weed, stirred up by the wave action, made further fishing impossible....

AND I THOUGHT IT WAS TOUGH

We are officially in our hurricane season. When there are reports of a storm heading this way it adds stress to our otherwise stress free lifestyle. Hurricane Dora with reported winds of 155 MPH did just that. We were spared as she moved to the West but not without causing a big swell and rough boat rides for a couple of days.

In my mind I thought fishing was tough this week until downloading the images we captured. Between the bumps marlin, sailfish and dorado provided plenty of action.

One highlight for Jim Durky was bagging his first sailfish after 12 years of trying. One frustration was finding only marlin in the Dorado Shoot Out only to have them show up later in the week.

Mark Rayor

www.thejenwren.com

www.vistaseasport.com
markrayor.blogspot.com

milwaukee river smallmouth bass redemption

Part 1-

Persistence pays off. Three trips have been devoted to learning a two mile stretch of the mighty Milwaukee River, each one has progressively gotten better. I finally got a good smallmouth bass and rocked the house catching fifteen total bass during the morning wade. No pike today and that was just fine by me. I was content catching smallies, and to be honest, they were the reason I started fishing here all along.

a familiar stretch on the milwaukee river

Familiar Water-

I started my morning at the deep pool, on the outside of that bend, the one with all that wood. You know, the one where Damien caught that smalllie from last weekend? Well lets just say I attacked this pool a little different than last time. No jig and twister this time… Crankbait was king. More specifically the Bass Pro Shop XPS Lazer Eye Nitro Extreme. The white one with the red eye. The floating clumps of moss sure were a pain in the ass. Almost every cast you were sure to snag a piece. But, on those casts that you don’t hang up here was the pay off.

my first smallie of the day

second fish was big bass of the day!

another milwaukee river smallmouth

and another

Man, that crank paid off huge. Bouncing it off the rocks and digging it in the gravel was sure to solicit a strike. This was all from my first few hours of fishing. Stay tuned to see the second half of my trip. It should be up in the next day or two…