Illinois River Mudhole

[Floater]

I was just wondering how many saps out there are coming to the chocolate flooded Illinois river next week to get skunked, Pray for more rain leave our fish alone! Hope you stooges have fun fishing in the slop?

[Juls_WI]

Mudhole? Cool..plays right into my "hands". I'm coming down to play with your fishies, but I will put them back when I'm done with them, OK?

Take a chill pill sweetie, life's too short..;-)

Juls

[Who's fish?]

Your fish? Did you hatch em? Do you own the river? I think not on all counts. The anglers going there all buy a license, I am assuming, same as you. ANYONE with a valid license has as much right to fish the "Mudhole" as you do. And while we are at it, let's talk about what the MWC has done to HELP that fishery. Every year the Illinois DNR takes the fish brought in to the MWC weigh in. They transport them to a hatchery. Strip these fish of their milt and eggs and raise millions of little saugerettes to realeas back into the river. These fish are very important to the health of the Illinois river as they are from there and are genettically imprinted to that environment. This practice saves the IDNR countless hours of labor and save anglers countless thousands of dollars by bringing the fish to the DNR. Don't believe me? Ask the DNR. Or better yet, go to the rules meeting and ask Bill from the Spring Valley Walleye Club and the DNR in person. As Juls said,lifes too short.

[Hookman]

MAN..I was comin up this weekend to try a little fishin but now I think I'll go to KY. Lake....Folks down there semm to cotton to people spening there money..I guess No. ILL. doesn't need it..Going South...HOOKMAN

[Fishbait]

You sound like a Democrat.

[IOWA]

Hey floater quit cring we pay alot for out of state license that may help YOUR FISH POPULATION.It sounds like your being out fished by us out of towners but I would like to thank you for the river conditions know I will wait a couple weeks before
I come catch YOUR FISH.BE HAPPY AND JUST GO FISHING MAYBE WE CAN TEATCH YOU SOMETHING.

[deadeye]

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Quit your cryin sissy

[Scott Richardson]

Welcome!

Come one and all to play on the Illinois River. It's a great place to fish.

Mud? Maybeso. But, it took over 31 pounds to win last weekends WAT tournament at Spring Valley over two days. Second place weighed just under 30 pounds. Raining now (Thursday night)and may snow overnight. But there's plenty of time for the river to clear again. It might be tough. So what? Everybody fishes the same river on tournament day.

Bring your money too. Officials estimate the MWC has brought about $1 million in tourism to the Illinois River Valley annually and it needs it. The Spring Valley Walleye Club puts more than $10,000 a year back into the fishery from the MWC funds and matching grants.

The saugers from MWC are indeed used for the hatchery. Parents and offspring are returned to the river. Sauger's natural spawn there far outpaces the 2 to 5 million fry from the stocking program each year. High water is good for the spawn.

The sauger from the MWC are also parents of saugeye that are stocked in three reservoirs in the state and are doing very well. DNR could not collect enough sauger on their own. THe MWC does it for them with very very little loss.

DNR thinks the sauger harvested by non-tournament anglers on the Illinois account for less than 5 percent of what lives there. Most die of old age.

I appreciate you out of staters coming to visit and bringing your fishing know-how here to share. That's why you are seeing more of us "locals" trolling leadcore. We are tired of getting beat by the guys and gals from Red Wing, Minn.

I also appreciate the fact I am welcome to fish in your states, Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota among them. Accept our hospitality as we will gratefully accept yours.

See you there,
Scott

[BarryM]

AMEN Scott! Couldn't say it any better.

BarryM

[cajuns]

Why all the doom and gloom floater we didnt get enough rain to make the river too bad. Anyone coming down to fish can call
815 667-4222 we will check it out today when the sun comes up.
Jerry

[john mannerino]

Nice job Scott.I fished the WAT tourney and did bad but I never have fished the river,didnt stay with the crowds,misteak!!! But anyway it was a learning experence for me.If people got a problem ,nobody is forceing anybody to be there,at least last time I checked. Stay home and play with your computer pal.
PS. 2nd place team was from Iowa.,,John Mannerino

[Fuzzy]

Careful on the roads driving down too folks. They are slick now and will probably be tonight too. Boat trailers and slick roads don't cooperate well.

[Hammerhead Herb]

You've got it exactly right Scott. Living in Morris (on the Marseilles Pool), I appreciate any improvement that we can get on the Illionis. and I believe that these tournaments do help. It would be great to get more tournament action further upriver if Floater is all bummed out about folks putting in down at Spring Valley.

[eagle eye]

thank you for calling it a mud hole but 35 years ago you could have seen soap suds floating down the river and not even seen a game fish,since 1970 to present this river has cleaned up because of people who use to fish the mighty muddy Ill.It has cleaned up so tremendously that in the early spring Salmon and trout are caught in this river by accident but mainly by excessively clean waters and one ##### of a lot less mud by many restrictive epa laws and more to come yet in the future.by all means yes it is muddy by some standards but by the same token we or alot of the fishermen and women do not buy our fish in the store to prove that we caught something when we are away from our spouses---comprendea

[Targa]

Juls, good luck to you and Marge, show those guys how its done! Hope you don't lose any rods this year!