Knowing jack about skipjack herring turns into a pending Illinois record, plus the Stray Cast

Travis Strickland knew what he had.

I think many people wouldn’t.

Good factor he did since he caught the pending Illinois-record skipjack herring noon on Might 11 from the Illinois River.

“I used to be going for white bass and herring,” he stated.

He freezes the herring for catfish bait. Vince, his late older brother, used to ship tales of their catches of blue catfish.

“So, I used to be fairly positive what it was,” he stated.

He had considered fishing the Vermilion River however it was form of excessive, so he switched to the Illinois at Starved Rock State Park.

He caught a pair white bass on a spinner, then a skipjack that was over a pound, larger than those he caught final 12 months.

“They name them Tennessee tarpon,” Strickland stated.

That’s a cool new time period for me.

Then he determined to modify to a double-jig rig with a heavy jig beneath a Bobby Garland crappie jig, which caught the pending report.

“I knew it was larger than those I used to be catching, however I had no concept what the report was,” he stated. “Once I appeared it up on-line after I acquired residence and noticed it was 2 kilos, 8 ounces. I assumed, `Shoot, this one is larger than that.’ ‘’

James Chapman caught the present Illinois report skipjack Jan. 28, 2013 from the Des Plaines River in Will County. His fish was 18 3/4 inches.

Strickland’s measured 19 1/4 inches with a girth of 11 3/4, one purpose he was positive he had a state report.

So Strickland referred to as Henry’s Sports activities and Bait to arrange weighing his fish on their licensed scale the next day, Thursday, after he acquired off work on the Chicago Transit Authority.

His skipjack weighed 2.65 kilos on Henry’s licensed scale.

Ernest Blackman, who additionally witnessed the state-record smallmouth bass, and Brian Caunter witnessed the weighing. Illinois information require two witnesses for the weighing on a licensed scale and notification of the Illinois Division of Pure Sources. The report is official when the paperwork is signed by IDNR fisheries chief Mike McClelland.

IDNR streams specialist Tristan Widloe verified it was a skipjack, his first state report, at Henry’s Tuesday afternoon.

“I’m saying positive,” he stated as he examined the mouth. “[The keys] are the protruding decrease jaw and the tongue with 2-4 rows of tooth.”

The closest comparable fish, an Alabama shad, solely has one row of tooth.

He stated skipjacks like the large rivers in Illinois, such because the Mississippi, Illinois and Wabash.

After verification, Strickland, who has not had a fish mounted but, was unsure whether or not he would have it mounted or use it for catfish bait, one thing his brother Kurt had jokingly instructed earlier than verification.

WILD THINGS

Jay Damm, a severe morel mushroom hunter, summed up the compact season this spring in an e mail that included, “It’s weird how the shade was your enemy per week in the past, to being the morel hunters’ salvation this week following an unprecedented string of 90s. There’s a bottomland patch I knew would maintain sufficient moisture throughout even the most well liked of years, and positive sufficient, I discovered some good ones.”

STRAY CAST

I like operating waters as rippling as Warren Zevon’s line, “ Little previous girl acquired mutilated late final evening.”