Thanks guys for the help. I’m thinking these will be what I need for what I have in mind. Again, thanks for the thoughts.

Hey Owen, I told them you were on the way up and they said they were about to go to some new programs that entailed cavity searches.

I hope you guys have as good a seasom up that way as we are seeing down here. I’ve been a shroom hunter for about 40 years and I can’t remember a better year! I think the drought we had last year killed a lot of our elm trees and the mushrooms are going crazy. We’ve been picking for the last 10 days and are already over 30 lbs. We are just getting to the stage where really large finds will be possible. There are quite a few people in this area that eat the half free morels and love them. I thought at one time that these were the false morels but they’re not. Good luck to all and remember to stock up on tp if you eat too many.

I have eaten spoonbill before and they are very good smoked. They used to sell smoked spoonbill at the fish markets down in this area. I’m not sure what the rules are down here now, but there are people snagging for them below the dams every day we are chasing walleyes. I think they can keep one fish but I don’t know if thats a daily limit or seasom limit or what. The fish markets used to have plenty of the fish for sale but I don’t think they are allowed to keep them commercially anymore. As was stated above they have no bones in their body only cartiledge.

There is a certain unnamed lake up “around” Lac Seuol in Ontario that we go to every year and catch a few like the one pictured above. I don’t think these are the true fish called the blue pike as these fish are supposed to be extinct. If you do a google search on blue walleyes there is quite a bit of info out there.

I think we’re about a week to 10 days away. I’m located 20 miles noth of the Quad cities. Can’t wait. We had a really bad year here last year. No rain after it got warm. We heard the hunting was really good up around Prairie du Chien.

Spring Lake is not open to duck hunters, they hunt around the outside of the refuge. I believe Spring Lake is closed to everyone during the duck season including fisherman.

We spent around 8 hours out there yesterday and had 9 saugers for the dinner table. It was a really slow bite with the water going up so fast. At times a rattle on the jig seemed to help the fish find the jigs we were using. All in all it was a good day to be out on the water. It was still better than working,which is what I’m doing today

I have cleaned and eaten quite a few catfish in the last 30 or so years and firmly beleive any fish over 1 lb is too big to eat. The bigger the fish is, the softer the texture of that fish is going to be. Also, cleaning the smaller fish is a lot easier than cleaning the bigger fish. You can hold them in your hand for the skinning process. Personally, I feel the need for selective harvest in catfish the same as we have for walleyes. I fish mainly in pool #14 and have observed first hand what commercial fishing and overharvest have done to this fishery. I do enjoy catching large catfish, but I also enjoy releasing them, to bend someone elses pole in the future. Just my .02.