Even More Good Fishing!!

Chris Duffey sent me this picture of her children Noah and Bethany checking out a "big mouth" bass that Noah caught from the Prairie Highland south pond. It doesn't look like Bethany is too impressed with her brother's new found friend.

Mrs. Duffey says that five year old Noah is already a frustrated angler when he catches just pesky little sunfish. They are hardly worth his bother. He's ready to move on to bigger fish that really "strip the drag" when you reel them in. Noah also says we should stock some catfish here in Elburn. I don't know about that, Noah. Those catfish (click here) are mighty ugly and grow really big. I don't like taking those whiskered monsters off the hook myself.

The National Weather Service has upgraded Northern Illinois including our village to an extreme drought status. We can only hope that Hurricane Dennis downgrades and heads our way next week to deliver some much needed moisture to the midwest.

On Friday, Candy McCartney from our public works department picked up 15 dead fish around the Prairie Highland south pond, and 10 dead fish around the north pond. I am becoming concerned that the heat, the drought, and possibly even public drafting from the ponds may be having an adverse effect on our fish population.

I am not suggesting that public drafting is the only dyanamic at work here. But I am suggesting that we apply a little "common sense." Let's not draft these ponds down so far that we create a fish kill.

Most of the lawns in Prairie Highlands are established lawns. Experts say that they will go dormant, and then recover again when it rains.

This summer is setting up to be very hot and very dry. We need to start thinking about conserving our valuable water resources, including our village retention ponds, right now.