All Dams Gone In Two Years!

[RonG]

Any thoughts?

Any thread with TheWoz is old enough to predate the internet.

[FloridaRigger]

Any thoughts?

Any thread with TheWoz is old enough to predate the internet.

Woz and BFA seemed to have disappeared after they bought their hobies

[Aux Pleins]

Total bummer about how our previous governor screwed up a ton of projects that were put in place by previous administrations. He held many projects hostage while being a complete disservice to the people by not producing a budget year after year. More specifically, on point to the O.P., dams #3 & #4 are still standing.

As for fishing, theres no secret the Des Plaines has steadily increased in diversity in the last 8 years since the dams started falling. This is not my thoughts, this is the science and many electroshocking samplings have taken place to support the findings.

Now here is my thoughts...

I hear some guys say the past year , 2020, was a tough, or not as productive year on the DPR and that things have gone downhill. I myself can relate to those sentiments this past fall as I didn't score a handful of memorable catches ive been accustomed to finding, probably because I didn't fish as much. Now is this the result of dam removal or is this the result of record flooding 5 out of the last 6 years and the tremendous amount of pollution run off and untreated sewage that goes into the river during those large rainfall events. Can we talk climate change or does that hurt the feelings of some Americans?

However, 1 year of results does not paint the whole picture. If your struggles continue over the next 5-10 years, then maybe you have a point. As for the guys who are complaining fishing stinks now, maybe its because they only fish a tennis court size section adjacent to a dam . Kidding.....

Good luck this spring boys. Hopefully we don't get record flooding.

[Aux Pleins]

Woz and BFA seemed to have disappeared after they bought their hobies

I know the both had young growing families. And we all know how that interferes with fishing.

[cyanatic]

10 and a half hour day with a few times crossing the dpr had me thinking about the river. so i spent a couple hours re-reading some old Dpr posts. (tend to do that in February, thinking about the up-coming season) Thought i'd bump this post back up for some retrospect. It's been long enough. Any thoughts?

Fooled me! I started reading the first post, thinking this was a new thread, when I came across the name of Governor Quinn. "Wait, what!?" Then I checked the date.

i labored to catch a handful of decent northerns this summer in spots i historically would wrangle gators blindfolded. not good.

I only recently started fishing the DPR in earnest. In late summer, went with the wife and daughter on a hike in the Glenview area close to the DPR. The water was low and very clear. Just downstream from a laydown I could see all manner of fish just hanging out. I didn't have my fishing gear with me, but headed back a week or two later and caught my first ever northern pike. The next 3 or 4 times I went back to that spot I would catch 1 or 2 pike. It totally spoiled me. From about November on, I've been back to that spot 5 or 6 times and couldn't raise much of anything.

Once I started paying attention to the DPR, I started looking for YouTube videos about people fishing it. There's quite a few as it turns out. In November or so I came across this particular video of some guy fishing one of the dams in late summer. Looks like he did pretty well. I didn't get around to checking it out until just after the first snowfall in December. I thought maybe it might produce some pike, but after trying both above the dam and below it I didn't catch anything. Not sure how soon they'll be removing the dam but I'd like to go back there and try for bass in the spring.

[Rambler]

For the record, I wasn't complaining. I haven't fished the stretch where the Armitage dam was for a couple years & considering where I live now probably won't again.

We have to take the long view on how dam removals will effect fishing. No doubt there can be serious short-term effects but to your point Aux, the overall benefits are worth it.

Can we talk climate change or does that hurt the feelings of some Americans?

As for this, if science hurts some folks feelings they should IMHO, stop driving & take up walking, get off their cell phone, stop watching TV, etc. all of which are the results of science.

[Aux Pleins]

For the record, I wasn't complaining. I haven't fished the stretch where the Armitage dam was for a couple years & considering where I live now probably won't again.

We have to take the long view on how dam removals will effect fishing. No doubt there can be serious short-term effects but to your point Aux, the overall benefits are worth it.

Can we talk climate change or does that hurt the feelings of some Americans?

As for this, if science hurts some folks feelings they should IMHO, stop driving & take up walking, get off their cell phone, stop watching TV, etc. all of which are the results of science.

Totally understood your point, and Urbs. Rereading that, I came off too snotty, was just trying razz, mostly razz Skifish1 who will chime in shortly with evidence that a new YouTube video showing a recipe for pickeled pike is the reasoning for an off 2020 for us regulars.

Is it ice out yet?

[Skifish1]

Aux is poking me to chime in. Yes pike fishing has declined notably as far as Im concerned but there are less pike chowing on bass so there is a lot more small bass. Northern cook and lake county DPR is a low volume river. Unmanaged. Increased fishing pressure has taken a toll to some degree.

IDNR is not progressive or insightful enough to make DPR pike fishing catch and release only for awhile. I wish they would.

[Rambler]

I started looking for YouTube videos about people fishing it. There's quite a few as it turns out. In November or so I came across this particular video of some guy fishing one of the dams in late summer.

Oops - missed this before. Yep - lots of youtubers fish the DPR. One of the best was WCF's own Zenfish who seems to have left us. Too bad - I always enjoyed his posts. He always knew what he was talking about.

But gotta ask, what's with all the "let's go" in this video? Sorry - I don't get it.

[Brett]

Didn't get out as much this year on the DPR, handful of mid-late summer top water outings from Chicago Ave. to Cermak. Less than prior years in terms of quantity and quality, that is before you adjust for encountering WCF characters on the banks.

[Rambler]

Less than prior years in terms of quantity and quality, that is before you adjust for encountering WCF characters on the banks.

Hmm... not quite sure how to take that.

[Brett]

You were a positive lol. Offset the drunk homeless guy who laughed at me struggling to get out of the river by Cermak and then some. Guy was posted up in a lawn chair in the bushes giving me hell. It was hilarious after I got home and chilled out a little. Still planning to check out some of those spots up north you mentioned this summer.

[Rambler]

Offset the drunk homeless guy who laughed at me struggling to get out of the river by Cermak and then some. Guy was posted up in a lawn chair in the bushes giving me hell.

Last summer I was bushwhacking around a small lake & ran into a couple of homeless folks in lawn chairs - all their crap spread out all over the place. When I arrived they got up in a huff, packed up their crap and split. I felt like saying, "Hey - I'm only passing through - don't bother leaving" but they didn't wait around long enough. Weird.

[cyanatic]

I started looking for YouTube videos about people fishing it. There's quite a few as it turns out. In November or so I came across this particular video of some guy fishing one of the dams in late summer.

Oops - missed this before. Yep - lots of youtubers fish the DPR. One of the best was WCF's own Zenfish who seems to have left us. Too bad - I always enjoyed his posts. He always knew what he was talking about.

But gotta ask, what's with all the "let's go" in this video? Sorry - I don't get it.

I don't either! I guess it's just his "style" if you want to call it that. I was mainly interested in what he was catching. There's another young guy who does a lot of vids about the DPR named Suburban Angler. Based on his vids I think he's somewhere on the south side of the DPR, maybe near your neck of the woods.

[FishinMatt]

Let's Goooooo! The battle cry of the young generation. Sitting through youth basketball games and gymastics meets the last few years I have heard this said a few thousand times. When offering another encouragement, "you got this" seems to be a popular saying as well. Very limited vocabulary these days it seems.

[joetrain]

The battle cry of the young generation.


Don’t forget to throw in the word “like” every 8 words.
~JOE~

[Rambler]

Sort of reminds me of the kid who posted a vid showing him catching smallies on the DuPage a couple years ago. Every time he hooked one he yelled, "Fish on!" about 5 times. He was fishing alone. I and - I think - a couple others made fun of him for it. He never posted again. Shame on me.