Posted by Kevin Dells from spider-mtc-tg073.proxy.aol.com on February 17, 2002 at 14:55:23:
Went down to Wilmington Illinois yesterday for the Blowout,Man what a blast!
I spent 20 bucks on raffle tickets and got skunked on a prize which i cant beleive since there were so many given away,But hey i have BAD luck and wasnt expecting to win anyway.However i did win two silent auctions which my bids held most of the night till the last ten minutes,then i had to up them each a buck.The first prize was a box of Bob Long smallmouth flies which are really nice fly's they went for 12.00$,one of them the dragon fly went right on my lucky fishing hat.The second item was a box of Tim Holsclags fly's titled the Dirty Dozen These also are tyed with smallies in mind,they went for 15.00$.But to get Tim's flys can be a challenge since he ties way up in Ely,Minnesota.Since Tim writes for the Boundary Waters Magazine i know they helped contribute to that Cause,which if you love camping and canoeing you wont find a better Magazine.You can find the Magazine at Gander Mountain,Check it out you just might like it,Iv'e been a subscriber for years and love the stories and photography.The Turn out at the Blowout was AWESOME! Total for the night was about 140,they brought in a guest speaker a smallie stream fisherman named Bill Schultz.I was thinking this guy's speach was about stuff i already new which his presentations i did.Then he asked if anyone was from Rockford,i was the only one from Rockford with my hand up,Then he started talking about streams he fishes just across the wisconsin Border and showed slides of these streams.Instantly i had goosebumps,these slides were great!The rivers he showed were an hour to a hour and a half away form here and some of the rock outcoppings and pools looked like something straight out of a smallie textbook.He gave some exact locations and i cant wait till it warms up a little more,i know im buying a Wisconsin fishing liscence this year!Tune up the car baby im out of here!If your interested i did grab all the literature i could im going to make copy's and i may share at the Alliance meeting at Gander Mountain on the 10th.