9-16-03 - Ya know what? Being out fihsing shoulder-to-shoulder can be fun when you bring a camera and make new friends! Bob nailed this Male Chinny!

Bart landed a respectable brown, just a touch of "mold" or "crust" on her pectoral fin.

Finally over a month later I've got the picture, scanned it in, and here's Jacek with his King!!!

9-16-03 - If you listen closely, you can hear the chinooks in the huddle, getting ready to make their final attack...

Waters Fished: Kenosha Harbor
Fish Caught: Several, in our party 2
Outing Date: 9-16-03
Weather: NIGHT :)
Air Temp: 70's dropping drastically
Water Temp: Didn't take it
Water Level: Normal
Water Color: It was NIGHT folks...how could I tell?!
Fish Species: Brown Trout, Chinook Salmon
Pattern Fished: Mostly Kastmasters
Pattern Color: Mostly silver variations
Fishing Quality: Slow simmer

Alright, there's no need to go into great detail on this one...you guys by now, perhaps, know "how" we do it, so let's get right down to it.

Got to the Harbor just before total darkness, ran into MS2, Mrs. MS2 and MS2 Jr. who had decided to come out and see what it was all about. Got down to Chromeseeker and M who already had the spare rod out for me (I'm tellin' ya, my new spin rod is on the way from Justin...mail from Alaska takes FOREVER!).

"Polish Style", that is jig-retrieving, worked like a charm. Folks around us were also having good luck with crankbaits too. I ended up 0/2, while Bart went 1/?. Bob on my right pulled out a great Chinook. Jacek showed up later and also managed a huge female Chinook, easily 20 lbs. + in my opinion. She took Jacek for quite a ride...several hundred YARDS of line were out in the harbor at one point. When she got in close she ran and ran; actually pulled Jacek who tried to run after her...not an easy task on those huge limestone bolders. Well..he tripped, whacked his ankle good (it was swollen like a baseball) but he managed to land her with Bart's help. Only after the fish was safely up on the sidewalk did the pain set in!

Well, as you can see at right, there is no picture of this magnificent fish...yet. The camera's batteries were done, but I did have an "emergency" disposable camera. Heck I think we blew the hole role right there on that one fish. When they get developed, I'll scan and post. She definitely gave Jacek some bruises, but Jacek won the war.

Now for something interesting; if you have any comments or ideas by all means email me. So the story goes like this, a guy sidles in between M and myself and starts casting. M is clearly ticked, I really wasn't all that bothered. Anyway, as the evening progressed, he hooks into a large fish and eventually brings it in. I netted it for him (he was totally unprepared to be fishing for fish of this size); a nice male chinook. Got it up on the sidewalk to learn that it was foul-hooked on the underside throat. As I brought this fish up to get it out of the net, two conservation officers saw the fish, shined a light on it directly where it was hooked, clearly saw it was foul, and then kept walking. OK...? Now look, I understand that this isn't the Root, this snag was unintentional IMHO. However, the guy kept it. Conservation officers who were butterflying in the area had already seen it...didn't say a word to the angler. I was hesitant myself to chase down and say something to the officers as well, they had already seen it and already had asked me for my license (which was unfortunately sitting in CHICAGO). However, I do not know if these officers realized he kept the fish. To top it off, I suspect this angler did not speak a lick of English, Russian, OR Polish, which would have made it difficult for me to say anything to the angler either. What would you have done? In the end, totally conflicted, I opted not to get involved, I was tired enough already. I figured the officers would see this on their next round and decided what to do then (because honestly, this fish was toast by the time we got it to shore).

Anyway, I packed it up and headed out around 10:45 pm; I know CS, J and M stayed longer. Rumors of small numbers of Chinooks in the Pike are circulating but so are rumors of cars with IL plates having their tires slashed. Scout at your own risk folks!

  MP