Back in 1998 I had heard about this lake called Heidecke Lake that was supposed to have some big fish. There was little information available on the internet at the time but I was able gather some. Well after getting horribly lost within the grounds of the power plant facility near Heidecke, I finally found my way to the shore fishing area and it was completely different than anyplace I'd ever fished before. I really needed some more information on what to expect for my first time there. Maybe I could be the one to provide such information to others.
Later that year I decided to try out a new web page builder that was hosted by AOL. It was very simple to do and I was able to create a rudimentary web page with an AOL address. I tinkered around with it and was able to get some pictures, information, and reports about my fishing trips posted for visitors to see. The page would officially be called “Jason's Chicago Area Outdoors and Fishing Page”. A couple of years later I moved the site to a “geocities” hosted site and again made some additions and changes.
In December of 2003 I officially registered the name “windycityfishing.com” and the site was re-launched in February of 2004. After about a year I started getting feedback from visitors of the site who told me how much they enjoyed reading about my fishing excursions to many of the places they also fished. I thought it would be a good idea for people to interact with the site so I added off-site message boards. That allowed people to post reports, ask questions, etc. The early boards were crude and not the popular PHPBB message boards most people are used to. So in October of 2005 I learned how to setup and use the PHPBB software, thus launching the boards you see today (with a several modifications added along the way).
All the while, there were a couple of other Chicago area fishing websites, but most were only message boards with people who had huge egos and were only interested in tournament fishing, fishing with the fanciest gear, being in a fishing club, or fishing waters that were the most popular. I, on the other hand, was just the average guy who liked to escape life for a few hours and go fishing at nearby forest preserve lakes, or go exploring on the weekends to try new waters.
If you're all about showing off nothing but big fish, fishing just for competition, or keeping everything you do top secret, then windycityfishing.com is probably not the place for you.
If you like to learn, share information (you never have to give up your private fishing spots of course), and get excited about all the great fishing throughout the Chicago area, then WCF is definitely the place for you.
From the novice or first time fisherman, to the advanced angler, there is something here for EVERYONE. That's what it's all about and will ALWAYS be about.
Hope you enjoy the site!
Jason W. Norris – Site Owner