Sportsman Fishing Club

Transcription

1 Sportsman Fishing Club Enhancing the Environment and Fishing Experience at Shadow Lakes 20 YEARS July Officers President - Tom Lydon Cell (630) tlydon44@gmail.com Vice President - Mark Tullos Treasurer - Andy Kaminsky Secretary-Lisa Tullos IDNR - Michael Green Fund Raising - Betty Lydon The next meeting is Sunday July 20, 2014 Club meetings are held the third Sunday of each month at the Shadow Lakes Amenity Center. Meetings begin at 9:00 am Free coffee and donuts are provided Newsletter Peg McQuarters / Tom Lydon Website / Sue Kielnik Visit Us On The Web At: Club Mailing Address: Sportsman Fishing Club Shadow Lakes II W. Amenity Ctr. Dr. Wilmington, IL June 2014 Club Financial Report Beginning balance $ 5, Income $ 1, Expenses $ Club ending balance $ 7,490.62** Stocking costs $ 2, Association balance $ 11, TTL Club/Assoc. balance $ 18, **June was a cash positive month. REMINDER 2014 dues are overdue. Payments can be dropped off at the Association Office or mailed to the Club at the address on the back page of this newsletter. UPCOMING EVENTS July 20th, Club meeting. Aug 17th, Club meeting. Aug 31st, Kid's Fishing Derby at the rearing pond in Fisherman's Village. Sign-up on the Club bulletin board. Sept 21st, Club Meeting. Sept 27th, Cat/Carp Derby and Octoberfest outing. Sign-up on bulletin board. $5 to fish and eat or $3 for just food; Cat/Carp King & Queen to be crowned.

2 JUNE CLUB MEETING MINUTES The Club meeting was attended by about 50 members, family and friends. There were some SPECIAL raffle gifts for Father's Day, including a 60th anniversary Zebco 33 rod & reel and hat. Rearing Pond: obviously, our fish did not survive the very deep ice, snow cover and temps. We have started to clean up the bottom with Aquaclear treatments. We will restock for the children s derby August 31 st. Thanks to the helpers who spread the chemical pellets. Stocking updates; large breeder gills and large perch were stocked. Nothing else planned until the cooler temps in the fall. Brush pile shoreline efforts: four large brush piles were placed on common area shorelines. Beavers hit these piles pretty hard stripping bark from the exposed limbs. A good outcome, may be that fewer trees are being felled by these chewy critters, since we provided them with easy access to bark. We are reviewing a better concept for future brush pile planning. Membership: we currently have 135 members, and a large number of welcome kits are being distributed this month. Welcome to Robert Masek and Bryan Briones. Open House: the Club participated in the recent Open House to help sell our properties. Sales are up and growing each year with over 30 homes sold in the last 18 months. Pig roast-potluck, Kid's Seminar and Water Willow planting items are covered in other articles in this issue. Novy Road Fish Barrier: complaints of this fencing being blocked in recent weeks. We will rework the fencing, signage and flow in the coming weeks. The Club again thanked Peg McQuarters and Sue Kielnik for their work on the newsletter and website. A visitor questioned the weed control in our lakes. Explanations were made, even though the Fishing Club is not involved in the weed boat operations. Mary Kaminsky advised the Club of upcoming events to raise money for the Community Center: Sept 6th, Murder Mystery Dinner and on Oct 4th a scarecrow building contest and chili cook-off. Sign up sheets are on the counter outside the Activities Office. Father's Day raffle was held and meeting adjourned at 10 AM. FISHING ROUNDTABLE 2014 Largemouth Bass GREAT Early Season The month of June has seen some great LMBass fishing results. The club has logged 10 to 15 LMBass 16 inches or over. The largest fish was a whopping 24 inches, weighing in at about eight and a half pounds. There were eight fish between 16 and 17 inches, one 18 inch, three 20 inch and a 22 inch that should have weighed about in at about 6 and 1/2 pounds. The best "5 Fish Total Stringer" would be 106 inches and 30.2 pounds. Not a bad 5 fish catch for our Lakes. The majority of these fish were caught on 3 presentations: rubber worms, wacky worms and topwater lures such as Sara Spooks and

3 (continued) Sammys and all were in very good condition. A number of these fish were caught by our youngsters. A 16 inch, 2 and a half pound bass was caught by Isaiah (Zay) Gonzalez, 9 years old. He was selected as our Junior Fish of the Month winner for June. (see picture in this issue, notice he is wearing his life jacket). The Senior Fish of the Month winner was Victor Ruikis with his beautiful 22 inch, 6 3/4 pound LMBass caught and released in Dinosaur Lake. (see picture later in newsletter). Reports of Crappies being caught in good numbers, with some fish between 9 1/2 and 11 1/2 inches on Hawk Lake. Big bluegills are down at about 20 feet deep off the weed bed edges. Cats are in at night for some heavy-weight fun, and some big Carp have been seen in the shallows! CLUB'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION IS A FUN DAY FOR ALL! The Club's 20th anniversary was June 14th. A Pig-roast/Potluck luncheon was held in the pavilion, It was a great day and all went well. Close to 120 folks said the pulled pork was great. Thanks to The Cutting Edge Catering in Plainfield. The numerous side dishes were super. Over a dozen great free door prizes were given out and the grand prize 50/50 drawing was won by a Club member Mark Pawelski. The final amount raised was $2,060 and Mark walked away with $1,030. Or at least his wife Donna did. I hope she left him a few dollars for his fishing fund. Mark has a great year going. He and daughter Jennifer won the top two spots in our Bass Tourney this year. A "BIG" thank you goes out to over a dozen volunteers that helped make the day such a great success; my wife Betty, the Kopeckys, Tullos, Howensteins, McQuarters, Koenigs, Nancy Hollwedel, Paul Gardner, Sue Kielnik and our maintenance staff John and Joe and of course ALL of the great cooks and their favorite dishes. I hope I did not leave anyone out LARGEMOUTH BASS GROWTH EFFORTS For the past two years, we have tried to increase our average LMBass size, based on input from the IDNR and several Club members, who feel that adding more forage will help the growth rate of our LMBass. This appears to be working and we may want to continue this effort. The second part of this equation is the removal of larger numbers of our smaller LMBass. The DNR has suggested this for several years. Our local LMBass size limits suggests keeping LMBass twelve (12) inches and under. Many folks are serious about "Catch & Release" fishing and keeping smaller bass is hard for them (and me) to do. We have several easy recipes to offer to those who want to keep and eat smaller LMBass from our waters. Here they are: Fillet the bass for a skinless, boneless piece of meat. Wash them off and put them into plastic Ziploc bags, dividing them into meal size packages. After the fish go into the bag, put about a tablespoon of salt in the bag and fill it with water, squeezing out any air and sealing them. Sitting in the refrigerator for a day or so in the salt water seems to improve the flavor. When ready to cook the fish, rinse the salt off and prepare them in any of several different ways. For frying, pat them dry, roll the fillets in corn meal and drop them into a deep fat cooker. They brown in about five minutes and are ready to eat. Serve with cole slaw, French fries and a sliced tomato from the garden, this time of year. Another method is; to bake the fish by putting it in a baking dish, put dots of butter on it, cover it with a sliced onion and some garlic powder and cook it in the microwave for a few minutes. Or, put them in a small baking dish, cover them with Picante sauce and nuke them for five minutes. They were spicy and tasty with a baked potato and a salad. Cooking them in the microwave is very quick and easy - and

4 (continued) very low fat. You can also marinate the fillets in a little Italian salad dressing and bake them. By the time they had cooked through, the dressing had flavored them. Cooked that way, with a baked potato and salad makes an excellent meal. Other ways to cook bass fillets are also easy. For a very good baked fish, take some dry stuffing mix like Pepperidge Farms, crush it into a powder and coat the fillets with it. Put them into a baking dish, put a pat of butter on top of each and cook them in the microwave for about five minutes. They have a completely different taste than any other way to cook them, the stuffing mix gives them a very good flavor. Also you can fry fillets in a batter of half-andhalf flour and corn meal moistened with milk. Make a thick coating on the fillets and drop them into hot oil in deep fat fryer. The fillet inside the crust is moist and will put any fast food fish to shame. There are many ways to cook smaller LMBass fillets, these are just a few. There are also several good fish stews and chowders that are great on cold winter days - or any day, for that matter. Let most of your bass go, but keep a few smaller ones to eat. They make great meals, and it may help us grow our LMBass larger. Believe it or not! WATER WILLOW EXPANSION ADDRESSES TWO ISSUES: FORAGE BASE & SERIOUS EROSION For the second year in a row the Club expanded on the Water Willow Shoreline Project. Mike Green, who developed the "burrito" concept for planting, spent his long winter days developing a new planting process, which shows great potential for future use and appears to be an easier method for planting. There is interest in his planting efforts by "The Friends of the Fox" and the Water Willow grower for their programs, which are single planting at a time methods. On June 14th, Mike and Frank Seehoffer spent a Saturday afternoon planting several hundred more willow plants. THANK YOU BOTH FOR YOUR EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF OUR WATERS AND FISH! BOARD MEETING This month the meeting was held on June 28th, Major items included the Mayor of Braidwood, Bill Rulien, attending and announcing that the Hole In The Wall road issue was resolved. That road is now owned by Braidwood and will not be closed again. The group thanked the Mayor and applauded his year long effort to resolve this potential problem for our residents. The Board recognized the Fishing Club on it's 20th anniversary and thanked the Club for their years of support of our lakes, fish and community. You should try to attend these meeting to know what is happening in your community and provide your inputs. * * * * * * * * * * Association Board Election results: Congrats to Beth Chappell who was voted onto the board for a three year term.

5 A Happy Lake by Mark Tullos As residents of Shadow Lakes, we are fortunate to have such magnificent lakes for our recreation. We all appreciate the beauty the lakes provide. However, like many things they are easily taken for granted. Residents are the keepers, caregivers and custodians of our lakes. Similar to caring for a child, nature needs us to help keep things in check. As with all resources, we constantly evaluate if we are caring for our lakes the best way we can. Now that summer is here, a threat to our lakes lurks. It is what we use on our lawns, fertilizer. With the recent rain, the phosphorus and nitrogen in most commercially sold lawn fertilizer runs off into our lakes. These chemicals cause adverse effects to the health of our lake water. Nitrogen and phosphorus feeds our lawn as well as algae blooms, causing an imbalance in the ecosystem by depleting oxygen levels in the water, known as eutrophication. This depletion of oxygen kills fish and other aquatic creatures. We all love a green and healthy lawn, but there are many alternatives to popular store bought lawn fertilizer. These more environmentally friendly products are available commercially, too. Organic fertilizers are natural, friendlier to plants, the soil and our lake water. A search on the internet reveals several homemade lawn fertilizer recipes made with household ingredients such as a can of beer, cola, apple juice and ammonia. Years ago, an author named Jerry Baker, preached the benefits of these very easily made fertilizers. Whipping up one of these concoctions certainly is more cost effective as well. Try some of these alternative lawn fertilizers. The results may be surprising, a greener lawn and with it, the peace of mind knowing the lakes will not be harmed in the process. We have to ask ourselves, Do we really need to have the greenest lawn in Shadow Lakes when sacrificing the quality of the lake water is at stake. Let us all do our part keeping the water in top condition. The wildlife we share this wonderful resource with will thank you. YOUNG ANGLERS CONTINUE TO MAKE THEIR MARK! Another young angler wins "Fish of the Month" for June Isaiah (Zay) Gonzalez, age 9, caught a 16 inch LMBass. After only 2 weeks of fishing, this was his biggest fish and he is now "hooked" on Bass fishing. We need to keep encouraging more angling activities to get our kids away from the video world and into the real life world of sport fishing. This leads right into our next article...

6 KID S FISHING SEMINAR As part of our Club s 20 Anniversary; Andy and Mary Kaminski sponsored a How-to fishing seminar on June 28 th, run by Bob Sadowski. (See picture in this issue). Bob is a former SLKS resident and an instructor for the City of Chicago kids fishing programs. Bob was recently seen on a Channel 9 news show. Fourteen kids were signed up for this event and had a great time. Each got to catch a fish and received a new rod and reel. I think many of the adults enjoyed Bob's presentation as much as the kids. Many thanks to Mary and Andy for sponsoring this fun event, and Bob Sadowski for his great presentation. DO LITTLE THINGS MAKE A "BIG" DIFFERENCE IN LIVE BAIT ANGLING? BOBBERS: Recently, we had focused on hooks: circle hooks for higher hook rates and fewer injured Bass. We talked about Tru-Turn hooks for much higher hook ratios. So, now, let's look at another "LITTLE THING" in your terminal tackle...the BOBBER! Sometimes, I see anglers fishing with a very large round bobbers. These larger bobbers are difficult to pull under the water and many early bites go un-noticed. We suggest using a much thinner, pencil-type bobber, they are easier to move or pull down by a fish. One of the most successful bobbers are slip bobbers, which can easily adjust to different depths. This is a major key to finding and catching fish. Slip bobber rigs have a bobber stop on the line that easily moves up and down as needed. Your weights drop the line and raise the bobber to stand up. There are 100's of different slip bobber set-ups available. In an upcoming issue, we will focus in much more detail on slip-bobbers. BOBBER LANGUAGE: What do we mean by this. Over time, you should be able to know exactly what species of fish is biting. Some examples are: LMBass, the bobber will zip off very fast as bass grab a bait and rapidly move off. Crappie, the bobber may actually come up or float on it's side as a crappie comes up to take the bait. The other crappie take will be a very slow movement away with the bobber going down slowly. Bluegill: the bobber will bounce around a little and move sideways before going down and may pop back up several times, these are smaller gills. A larger gill will take the bobber down faster. Catfish will normally move the bobber off very fast and to the side as it goes down. They feed on the run, as Bass do. Walleye will generally take a bobber straight down, and pull down on the line as they try to go deeper.

7 BEST BOBBERS: Many folks have their favorite type of bobber. The "THILL" series of bobbers are very popular. Some are made of balsa and are very sensitive to spot the first bites. Personally, I like the "ROD N BOBB"S" line of bobbers. They make a 1 and 3/4 inch weighted slip bobber that I use a lot. By using a weighted bobber, you will cast farther, require less split shot to pull the hook down and it will make for a more natural presentation of your baits. "ROD N BOBB'S" have added a very fine wire spring on the top portion of their bobber. When weighted properly, even the smallest bite will begin to lower the bobber post signaling a bite. I also like to take a black marker and draw one or two lines on the plastic top. This makes it very easy to see the actual bite and set the hook. Again, the two main things to look for in bobbers are; the thinner the better and weight them (split-shots) down properly, so they sink with very little pull by a fish. This change can increase your catch ratio. Little things do matter! JUNE 2014 FISH OF THE MONTH SUMMER LARGEMOUTH BASS FISHING ON SHADOW LAKES In LMBass fishing, there is no such a thing as a standard summer pattern, because no two lakes are alike. Over the years you have heard that it is hard to catch bass, not just in the summer, but all year long. Some folks claim that the bass are just gone from our lakes and others talk about how bass are smart enough to know the difference between an artificial lure and live bait. We're not biologists, but like many other anglers, we have our own ideas about why it seems tougher now to catch bass now than in the past. If you stop and think about the last few years, they have not been what could be called average years. Starting from in the fall of 1997 through the fall of 2000, we had warm winters, low-water conditions and when it did rain, the ground gobbled it up. We never had consistent, steady spring or fall rains to fill the lakes, like we would on a normal year. This fall and winter has been the opposite, steady constant rain, heavy ice and snow covers, with much colder than normal days. These cooler temperatures stretched into May.

8 (continued) In Shadow Lakes we have seen some very big bass caught this June as the waters warmed up again. This is in a year after our worst winter ice cover in years. So, there are many other big bass out there waiting for us to find them. In it's hey-days, our lakes produced many of these very large bass. Before "Catch & Release" many were removed and are fish mounts in our homes or around our buildings. We also had a large shad population that fed these monster bass in those years. Then the shad had a major die-off with rapidly changing air and water temps. We also had about occupied homes in those days, today, we have closer to 1,000, with an influx of additional anglers every weekend all summer long. These lakes, themselves, have not changed that much. But, the fishing pressure has. The DNR studies say we have some of the BEST aquatic vegetation they have seen in the Northern Illinois area. We also know we have oxygen-rich waters, with our deeper holes and natural spring-feeding. This has been proven as our fish have survived both 100 degree plus and minus 30 degrees with almost 30 inches of ice and snow covers in the past few years. Our bass have adapted to a different way of life, but I think most of anglers haven't made the adjustment to meet the new conditions. We all tend to get into a rut of fishing the same spots, the same lures, and same patterns. We need to re-evaluate our lakes and adapt, or change, our style of fishing, as the bass have made the change to their environment. Recently, many nice bass were caught with top-water lures. Not too many folks fish these baits. The "Wacky Worm" is still doing well...but, some folks are now fishing them much deeper, with better results. Try something different. I think the weather the last few years has had a major effect on our lakes, their makeup, and the way the bass have reacted to those environmental changes. We need to look at our lakes and see what changes have occurred and what you may need to change in your fishing style or selected areas. Along with the other anglers I do think that bass get acclimated to a style of lure, presentation or color, especially in highly pressured lakes. Lakes with lily pads, bull-rushes and cattails give you possible spots to find bass all day. The vegetation gives bass a cool hangout during the midday heat as well as an excellent ambush spot early and late in the day while feeding. Fish the area between the vegetation and the bank early and late in the day with topwaters, buzzbaits, trick worms and twitch baits as well as the weed beds themselves. As it gets closer to noon and during the day, use jigs, wacky worms or Texas rigs on the deeper areas. Midday fishing of deep weeds can produce some nice bass. In quarry lakes, such as ours, with minimal vegetation and timber it gets a little tougher. The bass in these type lakes tend to use ditches, creek channels, ledges, rock piles, or humps as their hangouts and ambush spots. You need to spend some time scouting these areas. Some may take some time to find, but a map can help, or your depth finder. Look for any subtle bottom changes that may hold fish. When fishing our waters, use a smaller line size, smaller baits and stick to the baitfish or crawfish colors. The more lifelike the better when fishing open water or areas with very little structure or cover. A 1/8- or 1/4-ounce spinnerbait, small bodied crankbaits, tube baits, small worms, and craws may be good, dark colored jig & pig combos can be hot. Summer can be a tough time of the year, so watch for schooling bass and work those areas.

9 FLUFFY CHEESECAKE PIE A quick, great, no-bake summer-time Cheesecake Pie recipe from Sue Kielnik Ingredients: 1 eight ounce cram cheese, 1/2 cup sugar or sweetener (Splenda), 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 of an 8 ounce Coolwhip, 2 tbls real lemon juice (optional), 1 tbls vanilla, 1 pre-made graham cracker or chocolate pie crust. Mix softened cream cheese until creamy, add sugar and mix until smooth, add sour cream again, blending until smooth, add lemon and vanilla, blend until smooth, fold in Cool-whip until blended, pour into pie crust, chill for 2-3 hours and top with your favorite fruit pie filling...cherry, strawberry, etc. SPORTSMAN FISHING CLUB SWAP-MEET & GABFEST CORNER We opened up this new column last month. This is an area where members can offer to buy, sell or trade items that may or may not relate to angling. Or, folks may just want to share that "PRIVATE" spot or presentation that works for you...ha-ha!! Really, many of our members have a lot of secret knowledge and some may want to offer it freely. Let us know what you think about this column in the months ahead. A small 2 person bass boat is still for sale in Fisherman's Village, FV58, for $400. It is out front if you want to look it over. Several members have reported very good pan-fish catches using the Grizzly Jigs handed out at the Father's Day meeting. One angler caught over 30 bluegills in one outing. Some of our new Club members may be interested in our underwater videos. If you are not aware, we have a diver in the Club, who had taken hours of underwater video. We made two videos (Northern Lakes and Hawk Lake), we are having some reproduced, contact me if you would like to order one. They are $10 each and are great entertainment and family fun to watch. Cell (630) or tlydon44@gmail.com. If you want to have a family fish fry, the Club has two smaller propane fryers that you can borrow for your event. We only ask that you return them clean. Contact me at the above mentioned cell or to arrange to borrow one. Ladies, send in your favorite summer recipes to Peg McQuarters or me for our summer issues. And Club members send in your "Fish Tails" and stories.

10 Sportsman Fishing Club W. Amenity Center Drive Wilmington IL Sportsman Fishing Club Membership Application for 2014 $35.00 for Individual or Family Please provide the following information for Club records and newsletter mailing purposes: Date: Renew: New Member : Name(s): Lot #:: Home Address: City: State: Zip: Home Phone: ( ) Shadow Lakes Phone: ( ) address (only needed if you wish to receive the Club Newsletter by ) I will view Newsletter on Web Site Please mail newsletter Membership dues cover the calendar year 2014 Bring this form to the next meeting and make check payable to: The Sportsman Fishing Club Mail to: Sportsman Fishing Club, W. Amenity Center Drive, Wilmington, IL Drop off the application and payment in the Association office