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West Branch smallie

4K views 9 replies 9 participants last post by  Rambler 
#1 ·
Headed out to DuPage cty yesterday. First stop was Herrick Lake. Walked around the lake with my UL setup throwing a variety of lures. Started with a buzzbait & tried a couple different jig/twisters. Water was high and really cloudy. While I was there the staff drove around putting up signs warning of an algae bloom. Figured I'd be OK as long as I limited my exposure to the nasty stuff. Got a couple of hits but missed on both.

After a couple hours I headed out to the Winfield Dam site. Put on my Wellies so I could get a little into the river. Started out throwing a red 3/8 oz jig with a 3.5" green twister & safetypin spinner. On about the 20th cast just below the rapids I landed what's probably the biggest smallie I've caught in a few years. Measured it against my rod & later measured the rod. 19". Pretty fish.

Didn't get any more hits on that lure so I switched to a tube & lost it on the 1st cast. So I tied on a KVD 2.5 just for shits & giggles. Caught a real monster - maybe 3" longer than the lure. Bled all over the place while I disengaged the hooks. Nothing else on that one so I finished up throwing a white buzzbait in the flat water below the rapids. No takers.

I started to pack up - it was getting late - and got into a conversation with a guy who was scoping out the river for a kayak trip he & his wife are doing this weekend. Funny how you get on different subjects. Turned out he was retired & just finished rebuilding a 1959 TR3 which was my first car. Actually for all I know his car was my car. He'd taken it all the way down to the nuts & bolts. Showed me a picture - absolutely beautiful. And since he replaced the original Lucas (the prince of darkness) ignition with something modern the car actually runs in the rain. :D

All in all a great day.
 

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#6 ·
That's a real nice smallie Scott, well done. My first car was a Triumph, though a much later TR7. I did have a TR4 IRS for a short while before switching to race prepped MGB's and Midgets along with a stunningly fast Paeco modified Healy Bugeyed Sprite. That was my Malibu & Topanga canyon racer. Loved leaving every conceivable iteration of Porsche in the dust and keeping up with sport bikes he he. First pic my HS GF sent me this screen shot. I'm the unhappy person she's referring too and one of the old Bugeye
 

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#9 ·
Anudder one and done eh? At least it was a nice one!

Knew a girl that had a an MG Midget... wouldn't start or run when the temperature dropped below about 45*. Phuckin British cars. :roll: :lol:

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#10 ·
HEDDONFROG said:
That's a real nice smallie Scott, well done. My first car was a Triumph, though a much later TR7. I did have a TR4 IRS for a short while before switching to race prepped MGB's and Midgets along with a stunningly fast Paeco modified Healy Bugeyed Sprite. That was my Malibu & Topanga canyon racer. Loved leaving every conceivable iteration of Porsche in the dust and keeping up with sport bikes he he. First pic my HS GF sent me this screen shot. I'm the unhappy person she's referring too and one of the old Bugeye
Dave: A buddy (unfortunately gone from the scene) had a TR4 IRS but I always thought that of that body style the TR250 was the bomb. Another buddy had a bugeye and yet another used to race a GT6 - another great Triumph of times gone by.

But I feel compelled to tell a Triumph story I'm sure you'll appreciate. In '95 we took our kids to Scotland for 2 weeks. On our way down from Skye we stopped at Eilean Donan castle - guarantee you've seen pictures of it. When we were done with the tour & walking back across the bridge to the parking lot there were 7 or 8 Triumph Stags parked. It was a Stag club.

I got to talking with one of the guys & had to ask him how they dealt with the car's habit of over heating & blowing head gaskets. He explained in a wonderful brogue, "It's really no problem. What you do is you take the Stag engine out and throw it away. Then you put in a small block Ford or Chevy V8. So this one (pointing at one of them) has a 289, that one has a 327...". Brilliant fix for a car that had everything except a reliable motor.
 
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