This is an entry from my journal I keep on my fishing trip last night:

Well tonight I went fishing! It was going to be a great night, had a great spot and things were falling into place. I got done everything I need to get done and headed out of town about a half an hour earlier then planned, cooler full of beer, hot dogs, cheeto's and peannut butter cookies, feeling good!!!

A quick stop to stock on nightcrawlers, set out my garlic shrimp to thaw while I drive and I'm off! A quick stop and I had a dozen nice bluegills and one bullfrog for bait and I was at my catfish hole!

The night was perfect, I forgot my camera at home, so I figured it was going to be some hot fishing! Then realized I had left the heavy duty rod holders that 25 express had made for me on my garage floor (where I had put them so I wouldnt forget them) So I spent most of my time worrying I would loose a pole, but set up and started fishing anyway. Built a nice fire, roasted up some hot dogs ((I'm an idiot for swearing)(I'm an idiot for swearing)(I'm an idiot for swearing)(I'm an idiot for swearing), I love fire roasted hot dogs!) sat back on my tailgate munching on some cheeto's and waited for the fish to bite.

8:30pm Hot dang a strike on my Garlic Shrimp, set the hook felt like a decent fish..... then he wrapped himself around the irrigation tube that was near and it was over...crap!

8:35pm wife calls from Carbondale, so spent about 25-30 minutes talking to my lovely bride, sipping on some budlight, and munching PB cookies

9:15 Another set of Garlic Shrimp is ready and in the water!

10:10 wind starts blowing, and a big cloud starts bearing down, rumbling and flashing like the wrath of god was on its way

10:15 Crap!!, better go, this looks bad, reel in, unload bluegills and bullfrog to live on, and reel in, jump in truck fire it up

10:25 Cloud goes to the west

10:26 Crack open a beer and go home Just my Luck, if I would have tried to stay that cloud would have got me for sure!

Going back on Saturday the weather!!!!!!!

oh my your trips sound sooo much like mine....right down to the cheetos...

Great log... Now next time remember the camera, and make it a photo journal...

Yep, got the camera and the rod holders in the truck already for Saturday night!

I was finally able to get out on Saturday night also. My boat is in the shop so I was fishing from shore at Carlyle below the spillway. Not as many people as I had expected. Caught quite a few catfish with two of them about ten pounds. No flatheads though. I had pretty consistent action on cut or whole shad. The only problem was the snaggers who kept crossing my line. I had to tell the same guy three times to quit casting over my line. I am not sure if he didn't understand English or just didn't care. I am going back down to southern MO this weekend to pick up my boat and do some fishing down there for cats and walleye. I have still only been fly fishing once this year.

I fished Carlyle spillway last week. Its pretty dirty down there. People were tossing those asain carp on the shore so it stunk pretty bad. Trash and beer cans too. And talk about the asain carp, infested with them. Wasnt to pleased. Maybe give it another try some other day....

Fortunately some folks take the Asian carp home to eat them instead of throwing them on the bank. That river is infested bad with them. I saw a heron swoop in low over the river about 1/3 of the way from the dam to the bridge a couple weeks ago and it spooked several bigheads and caused them to jump out of the water.

I had a little hissy fit down at Johnson Creek on Monday because there was so much trash left laying along side the creek...empty beer bottles, bait containers...you name it....why the hell can't folks pick up after themselves??? You could tell everywhere that someone had fished over the weekend...

I fished Carlyle spillway last week. Its pretty dirty down there. People were tossing those asain carp on the shore so it stunk pretty bad. Trash and beer cans too. And talk about the asain carp, infested with them. Wasnt to pleased. Maybe give it another try some other day....
Man we went Monday night and walked up to the wall on the west side it stunk so bad you could not take a breath, must have been 100 dead carp and looked like the trash truck back up top the bank and dumped the load out! What a shame, it's gonna take a flood to clean that stinkin dump out.

We usually fish about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way from the dam to the suspension bridge. We don't catch quite as big of fish, but there's not quite as much trash usually. There are still some pigs though...people who leave their trash on the bank along with any fish they caught that they don't intend to keep.

The amount of trash that people leave is very disconcerting. I always clean up the trash that is left where I am fishing. I hate all the fishing line that people leave lying around. They have trash cans in the parking lot so you can throw it away when you get back to your car. I was also catching a lot of the asian carp. It is difficult to fish for whites with all the carp. Most of the people that I saw fishing with jigs were catching carp. I decided to concentrate on catfish and did pretty well.

A lot of the fishing line is people's lines that got snagged when the water was higher. Still, it needs to be put in the dumpsters. Like you said, that's what they're there for. Too bad they don't have some place to throw the Asian carp if you catch them and don't want them. There are often people fishing there who do, but not near as many as the number of Asian carp in that section of river.

To bad the dnr can't just drag a large seine through there catching everything, then trow everything but the Asian carp back in the water.

I have no idea if they can do anything about the carp. I do know that I had a tough time netting any shad. If the overabundance of carp are affecting the shad then it will be detrimental to the game fish.

i would volenteer to help the dnr seperate the good fish from the bad fish u know hell that would get alot out but then you have all the cover down there huge logs rocks and whatever else is down there so the sane would get tore up

Since the bigheads tend to be near the surface a lot of the time you wouldn't have to drag deep with it.

I think Purina should open a catfood factory there, maybe thats a business idea for an aspiring entrepenuer. Gourmet catfood, made from the finest Asian Carp Southern Illinois has to offer! those dingy cat lovers would probally pay top dollar for something like that marketed the right way.

Good idea. My daughter lives near Lake Okoboji in Iowa. There's a company there that cans the carp and calls it Okoboji Salmon. Purina could use the bigheads and call them Carlyle trout or something like that.;)

I had a little hissy fit down at Johnson Creek on Monday because there was so much trash left laying along side the creek...empty beer bottles, bait containers...you name it....why the hell can't folks pick up after themselves??? You could tell everywhere that someone had fished over the weekend...
I don't get it either. The stuff they leave behind is lighter than when they brought it!!!!:mad:

I usually wad up an empty wal mart sack in my pocket...then I'll cart out what I come across...but this time I filled the sack and there was still boatloads of it...