Hi,
My name is Mike, & I started fishing at age two. Soon afterwards my brothers and I starting takeing care of fish in aqueriums. We had tropical fish to start with. Latter, each summer we would ceatch small bass or sunfish and keep them through the summer. We would collect bugs & worms to feed them Then we would release them back into the pond we caught them from in the fall.
It was a lot of fun, and I still enjoy both at the age of 40.
I have 14 tanks, 130 gal. - 10 gal. & 1 garden pond, & 1 natural pond. (my wife loves me)
I currently have 1 bluespotted sunfish, 7 chlids, 6 small goldfish, 1 oscar, 1 tiger musky, 2 shadow bass, 1 warmouth, 4 stonecats, 1 central longear sunfish, 3 black bullhead, 3 butterfly Koi, 6 koi, 4 large goldfish, 2 albino channel catfish, 1 blue fased channel catfish, & 7 golden orfe.

I am interested in fish collecting.

I am a elevator constructor in Chicago.

I belong to a number of clubs & conservation groups:
Lake County Fish & Game Protective Assn. (I was on the board of directors for years)
Trout Unlimited
Shedd Aquarium
National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame
International Game Fish Assn.
To name a fue.
This looks like a good organization, I am glad I joined.

Mike

Mike,

Welcome to the forum. I live just across the border in NE Illinois. Most of my time is spent in Lake/Newton counties.

Let me know if you want to go fishing soon. We're having a regional outing and you're welcome to come along!
http://forum.nanfa.o...?showtopic=1765

Let me know if you want to go fishing soon. We're having a regional outing and you're welcome to come along!



Thank you for the invatation, I would have liked to go on the regional outing but it looks like its in Augest.
My brother is getting married that weekend.

I will take you up on the fishing outing. When are you avalible?
I had a back fusion & I am still off. So I am a little limited, but I can go.

Mike

Thank you for the invitation, I would have liked to go on the regional outing but it looks like its in August.
My brother is getting married that weekend.

I will take you up on the fishing outing. When are you avalible?
I had a back fusion & I am still off. So I am a little limited, but I can go.

Mike

Keep your eye on the regional forum for outings. I happened to be in both counties over the weekend. I'll be back in a few weeks.

You are from my old home area: East Side/Hegewisch/Whiting/Hammond. I saw your post on the smelt fishing thread. I too used to smelt fish from the Stateline ComEd plant. My father and brother worked there for years. There are a surprising amount of aquatic collecting opportunities for such a urbanized/industrial area. I think a NANFA collecting outing on Wolf Lake would be lots of fun.

You are from my old home area: East Side/Hegewisch/Whiting/Hammond. I saw your post on the smelt fishing thread. I too used to smelt fish from the Stateline ComEd plant. My father and brother worked there for years. There are a surprising amount of aquatic collecting opportunities for such a urbanized/industrial area. I think a NANFA collecting outing on Wolf Lake would be lots of fun.

Wolf lake is a good spot, there are even rumors of lake sturgeon there.
One rumor even talks about a white sturgeon left over from the worlds fair.
I was going to scuba dive there with a camera, but I have not done it yet.
If it is true they would be hard to find.

Mike

Wolf lake is a good spot, there are even rumors of lake sturgeon there.
One rumor even talks about a white sturgeon left over from the worlds fair.
I was going to scuba dive there with a camera, but I have not done it yet.
If it is true they would be hard to find.

Mike

I have a friend who was telling me that some guy on the South Shore train was telling him that there were 12 foot long sturgeon in Wolf lake. I figured that there may be plain ol' lake sturgeon (it still connects to Lake Michigan, after all), which get nowhere near that size. I dismissed this as goofy rumor, but this white sturgeon story may at least explain the origins of the goofy rumor.

Wolf Lake would be fun to dive in as long as you avoided the dead bodies and old cars. (More Wolf Lake rumors!) It is supposedly very deep from being sand-mined.

The Field Museum held a "bio-blitz" a few years ago in the Calumet area. This is where they see how many species can be sampled in a day. This would be a great event for NANFA to participate in if they ever do it again. It looks like they "only" got about 30 species of fish. (Including 6 lepomis, a couple of suckers, and a darter, even.) http://www.fieldmuseum.org/bioblitz/