Who's going out this weekend?
 

I see JohnnyB and Mark are headed out.

Slim told me he's going to go out.

K and I are thinking about hitting Clinton tomorrow or Saturday.

Anybody else?

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Mark and I are going out tomorrow night. We're not real optimistic, but it'll beat sitting home.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

I think we are going to skip out on the cold rain and hopefully get out next weekend.

Hmmmm......Champion of the world tourney at Dawson????????:D

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

I might go out but it will be during the day cause i have yet to get me lights on my boat. If i even take the boat out. I am gonna try to get my girlfriend to go with me hopefully.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Will see what the weather does. We were all pumped for tonight, the wind is still howling. Might as well went, suffered through watching Illinois getting beat AGAIN.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Clinton Lake tonight at 6 pm at Weldon access wwwith two newbies. 50 % chance of rain , 50% clear. I'll take the clear.

Bowfisher

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

The forecast for up here is looking okay so far. Higher temps all day so that should warm the water up a little. 5 to 10 mph winds out of the N.W. Perfect for the area we're going to.

We'll post pictures of anything we get. It'll be so good to finally get out with the bow!

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Any of you guys heard about the wind meter that this guy downloaded on his I phone? Crazy !
They say it actually works. I think he paid 3 bucks for it.
Rob

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Rodiller, never heard of it. I wonder how it works.

Dave is Weldon ramp open yet? I thought it didn't open until April 1st.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

SPAM BOY!!! 7-posts all over the forum and they're all exactly the same.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Parnell Ramp on the East end where the big 'ens hang out. Just checked the weather and its a go! No rain till after midnight. Leaving now. See Ya.

Dave R

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

I'm out the door to kill a few. Hopefully Bowman can keep up, he's been missing a lot the last couple of years. ;)

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

We're on the road right now. Boat is following us. We're going to shoot techno hunt and then, if the weather holds, we'll be going to Clinton Lake. We'll be launching from Mascoutin.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Well i didn't get out to shoot any fish tonight but i did go buy a new trolling motor. So i am gonna rig that up tomorrow along with my lights and i will be on the water next weekend for sure. On my venture north on I-55 i saw someone out bowfishing the des plaines river. So at least someone is getting out.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

I have way to much stuff going on this weekend to go.... plus I only need to do a few things to the deck to finish it. I will be working on the deck. Next weekend will be a no go for me also. I have 2 blues games to go to. I will mostlikely be done with the deck next weekend. I think the first lake we are going to hit up is washington county lake. They have a pretty bad carp problem and its a really nice place if you have never been there. Only 1 bad thing about that lake is I can only use my big motor to load the boat. 10 hp limit sucks but the lake isnt all that big so it doesnt take to long to get on fish with a troller.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Mark and I got on the water at about 7:00 or so. Right off the bat, we had problems. The generator wouldn't run, so we had to take the float apart and clean it off a little. Actually, Mark did it. I just hang close for moral-support.

Next, when we got the genny to run, we found we had no power coming from it. I had replaced the outlet and wired it wrong, so as soon as it started it fried itself. No power for the halogens. I remembered I had a 1,000,000 candlepower spotlight in the van I had won at one of our shoots last year. I cut the plug off one end and wired it to the spare trolling battery and we took turns shining for each other. We ended up with 13 commons and Mark shot a small mouth buff. I think we both lost 2 each and missed a few more (but less than we missed last year). Mark has his bow dialed in and I'm getting mine dialed. I took the No-Gloves and putty rest off and put the Fishook on. I did alot better than I did last year. My arrows were hitting where I wanted, but I didn't always want them to hit in the right place. [:@] Alot of too-lows and too-highs, but it was the first trip of the year. I think we're going to be something for you all to worry about this year. ;)

Anyways, here's the fish of the night. I didn't weigh or measure it, but you can see by the bend in the arrowhow heavy it was. The water was so cold we didn't get alot of fighting-fish, but this one had the arrow slicing through the water so fast you could hear it. That was pretty cool.






All in all it was a good night for a first trip. Hopefully I didn't hurt anything in the genny that'll keep me from fixing it. I can't afford another one.

Anyone have one sitting around not running? Maybe I can scavenge some parts.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Way to go guys.....Steve..I only have one question for ya......













What is that that crawled up on your face and died!!

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

You couldcall it a ****-eatin' grin...

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

HeyTeam Carp-Enders:

Where do you guys put in on the DesPlaines River?
By the way......nice hat.

Bowfisher

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

I just got that hat last yearI think.

We put in just down-stream from Big Basin marina,about half a milewest of the I-55 bridge. It's a little primitive launch, but I think you can get some bigger boats in there if you tried. It's a shallow-angled-launch, but it's free. The marina wants $6.00 or $7.00 to launch and another $6.00 or $7.00 to retrieve your boat.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

i went out with the shot in the dark boys. the wind had rend pretty muddy. driving a airboat in the wind sucks!! the back end is lots bigger than the front and it acts like a parachute. not to bad shootin into the wind but aweful any other way. ya gota stay in the gas to over correct. the waves had it muddy and not to many were up. seenmainly buffalo bustin out. seen 4 gar but we were pretty rusty... :eek:ended the night with 12. 4 commons rest buffs.
i will say that not having to get out and push a boat all night was awesome!!!! covering the dead water is not slow, boring, wasted time anymore either. nuthin like doin 30mph while standin on the front deck[:-]

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Slim, I took the liberty of posting your fish for you, on the fish count. Did you get my address? Still no post on the IB9C.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

thanks. yeah i mailed it out wensday.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

I got some good news yesterday; the generator is fine. I changed the outlet a couple more times and finally got it right. Apparently it's important to know which of those metal tabs on the terminals you remove and which you don't...

At least it didn't get fried.

Glad to hear you're finally getting that boat out Slim.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Slim;

Only 12!!! :( Eric Giles who is starting the Southern Illinois Bowfishing Club went to Rend last night and walked the bank below the spillway and got 20!!!!;) Maybe it is time to sell the air boat and start walking the bank. Eric says he never used a dimes worth of gas walking the spillway. Way to go Eric.

Dave R

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

I have never heard of anyone charging to launch a boat and charge again to take it back out. Wow, But then again this is still America or should I Say Illinois

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Me neither John and I've been fishing all over up here for years now. I should say that I don't know this for a person-certainty. But thats what I was told by our V.P. Bulzeye. He talked to them about their launch for that fun-shoot he wanted to do last summer. I think it's ridiculous, but it's their launch. I think they charge to take it out too because sometimes folks will launch upstream and float down and have their trailer there waiting for them. I've done that myself a few times. But you'd think they could give us a sticker or something. We'd be parking right there. Either way, if we ever have a shoot up here, we'd be using the primitive one and I think we'd be just fine.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Steve, I think that we used that launch when we took Carptracker out bowfishing after the Bass Pro Shops Asian Carp Day that we had a booth at.

It was a flat $6 to launch. No fee or anything to leave.

Guy running the place was real nice too. [:-]

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

That's another launch altogether. I was with that night. We broke the prop on the troller. Chris and Judd launched at the primitive launch. We were by the DesPlaines Conservation Area that night. It's close to 2 miles down stream from I-55. I liked that place alotand the guy there was very nice. He had the little golf cart. The one I'm talking about is right next to the highway.

That would be a great place to have a shoot. He's had them there before and he had no problems. Plenty of parking and a big grassy area right on the water to eat and do the prize-thing. It's a little ways from the area that I like so well, but there's other areas close. It's the DesPlaines River.

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

Ahh... okay.

I remembered that you were there but I can't remember if you launched with us or not. I'm sick as dog right now so half my brain is fried from fever right about now. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. ;);)

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

It was a pretty good night even though we didn't have the genny working! I bet we could have put 40-50 fish in the boat if we'd had lights. Did you notice how we started to see more silt clouds later in the night Steve? Do ya suppose it's because the troller started vibrating more? You thinking about hitting the DesPlaines Uncle Dave?

RE: Who's going out this weekend?
 

I don't know. Probably. But we sure could have fiilled that little barrel if the genny was working. We saw alot of fish. Even with the spotlight we could see 2, 3 or more ata time every once in a while.