Don`t look now, but druggies are depleting tackle shops of those innovative Worm Blowers on the market. The plastic syringes, designed to enhance live bait fishing, apparently are being used to ingest strange and illegal powders. Jim Tstinic of Jim`s Bait on Fox Lake tells of one female customer who complained that her blowers were not sterile. ”Actually,” Jim tried to explain, ”the worm doesn`t care if they`re sterile or not.” He got a laugh when one sneaky fellow bought four blowers, then tried to justify the purchase by adding three dozen redworms–in the dead of winter. ”When he left, just as I figured, I found the worms beside my pop machine. I took `em in so they wouldn`t freeze and sold `em again.” Taking a page from the old days of circumspect pharmacists, Jim now keeps his Worm Blowers beneath the counter. They`re out of sight, but you still can ask for them. Discreetly, of course.
— The Fox River`s Dayton Dam long has been a wonderful secret for area fishermen. Walleyes and smallmouth bass hang around the rocky channels in the swift current at the last dam above the Illinois River near Ottawa. Anglers wade or bank fish, chiefly from the parking lot at Dayton Hydro, the power company that runs the dam. But unruly crowds threaten to kill the golden goose. Piles of littered garbage and illegal parking are testing tempers at the Hydro plant. ”If these people don`t clean up their act, the power company is going to close the area to fishermen,” warns Jerry Wheeler of W&W Bait Shop in Ottawa. Indeed, the Hydro people are serious. ”We have barrels out there for garbage and we expect people to use them,” said Bill Mix, the Hydro manager. ”We really don`t mind people coming out. We`re actually kind of lenient, as long as they don`t make a mess. But crowds of people barbecueing and leaving their litter just makes extra work for us. We want them to be a little more considerate. You know, it`s really a nice place here, especially for the handicapped and small kids. People should take care of it, or they`ll lose it.”
— When Leo Pachner died the other day at 78, friends rued the fact that he never had collected his memoirs. Pachner, of Momence, Ill., was a renowned fly fisherman who taught for years at the old Tribune Fishing Schools. He also was a tackle inventor, salesman and activist who helped found the Sports Fishing Institute and also fought to get line weights designated on fly rods. He was a member of the International Fishing Hall of Fame. His Farm Pond Harvest magazine achieved international circulation. For the last few years, Pachner was confined to a wheelchair. ”We often told Leo to make a bunch of cassettes about those days when the fishing business was really developing,” said his friend, Vic Johnson of Bradley, Ill. ”He said he would if someone would ask him the questions. No one ever got around to doing it, and now his treasure of memories is lost.”
— The state has not found enough lake trout and coho salmon fingerlings to meet its stocking quotas, so reduced numbers may result this year. Only 215,000 coho are at the Jake Wolf Hatchery following last year`s episode of enteric redmouth disease and no others apparently are available to meet the goal of 300,000, according to Department of Conservation hatcheries chief Kirby Cottrell. Also, only 100,000 lakers are on hand, compared to the 250,000 planned before an outbreak of an unknown viral disease at the Iron River Federal Fish Hatchery, where Illinois gets most of its lakers. Almost 3 million laker fingerlings died at Iron River last year. Although federal officials offered some fish to state ”clients” this year, none was accepted by Illinois so it could the mysterious disease from spreading here. ”We have enough problems of our own,” Cottrell observed. No changes are expected in stocking goals for other species, namely 450,000 chinook salmon, 100,000 rainbows and 100,000 brown trout.
— Springfield meanderings: Two bills in the General Assembly would prohibit so-called ”animal games” and raise violations to Class A misdemeanors. That sounds fine until you realize that this presumably would end Ducks Unlimited raffles on purebred retriever pups, goldfish prizes at fairs and carnivals and probably fish ponds that introduce kids to the mysteries of angling. Whether the ban would cover field trials and bass and walleye tournaments hasn`t been determined yet. . . . The Illinois National Rifle Association is lobbying for 30 public ranges to be built with Pittman-Robertson funds. Some elements would use these hunters` tax rebates to build a spiffy new police range–which would be fine, as long as it is also open to the public.
— Duck lovers will have a whole day to paw their favorite equipment at a 12-hour Ducks Unlimited Midwest Fest March 28 at Lake County Fairgrounds in Crown Point, Ind. Doors open at 9 a.m. for calling contests, dog exhibits, movies, auctions and taxidermy and art displays. Call 219-663-5462. . . . Look for the Shabbona Lake fishing seminar at Moraine Valley Community College hosted by Jim Drury and Dennis Sands on March 22. They`ll show photos of reservoir structure before the flooding. Call 371-8300 or 974-2110. . . . The West Suburban Ducks Unlimited chapter will issue eight shotguns in door prizes over a two-hour period at its annual fundraiser March 26 at the Lexington House in Hickory Hills. Call 586-1133 or 246-1234 for details. . . . The Windy City DU banquet is April 9 on the Northwest Side. Call 745-8084. . . . And Du Page Valley`s DU chapter has slated its banquet for April 30 in Wheaton. Call 469-1513 or 969-1990.
— Our cold snap halted the early stages of a walleye run on Midwestern rivers, chasing fish from the spawning beds back into channels. Any warming trend accompanied by two or three inches of rain will raise the rivers and signal the spring run to begin. Within a day or two after any rain, look out! . . . Meanwhile, those hard-to-feel walleyes and sauger on the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers can be had by drifting leadhead jigs with the current. Avoid floating jigs for a while. . . . Steelhead still are doing well in Trail Creek, Burns Ditch and the Little Calumet, not to mention the St. Joseph River at Berrien Springs. Spawn still seems to be the way to go. . . . The Wolf River walleye run still may be a week or two away. . . . Don`t believe those Department of Conservation doomsayers who say they cannot open La Salle County Lake next month because of a lack of personnel. The DOC will find people somehow or risk the wrath of an awaiting public. The toilets may not be cleaned at state parks elsewhere, but that is another problem.
— Minnesota`s Lake Superior Steelhead Association has a problem–too much gambling profit. The Duluth outfit`s pull-tab operation is earning so much money that it has looked even into Wisconsin for helpful projects. Minnesota law allows charitable gambling, as long as all the money is spent within the year. With anticipated monthly profits of $8,000, the stunned LSSA is facing a budget of $100,000.
— Canadian biologists think they`ve had the best breeding season yet for whooping cranes. Ernie Kuyt of the Canadian Wildlife Service in Edmonton said 20 new birds have survived the summer at Wood Buffalo National Park, nesting site, which contains the only known flock of wild whooping cranes in existence. ”This is the largest number of young birds that have survived in one year,” Kuyt said. The park is North America`s largest and home to the biggest population of free-roaming animals and birds on the continent. Only a dozen chicks survived two years ago. Allowing for a few deaths from fever or other natural causes, the whoopers` wild flock population now stands at about 112, up from 72 in 1982. In 1941, only 15 wild whooping cranes were known to exist. Whoopers are the tallest birds in North America, averaging 5 feet in height at maturity.
— Wisconsin scientists have discovered occasional toxic algae blooms in lakes that can harm people and kill livestock and wildlife. Wyatt Repavich of the State Laboratory of Hygiene said several animals died in two incidents last year after drinking water from algae-filled lakes. In one case, nine head of cattle died near Monroe. In the other, three dogs died after swimming in a northern Wisconsin lake. The lakes were not named. Repavich said four scientists from the hygiene lab and the Department of Natural Resources now are working with him to study how widespread the toxic algae are in state lakes. He said that toxic algae were found in about 25 percent of the lakes studied last year, but added that samples were taken only where the scientists saw algae. He said the toxins are produced only when the algae bloom in warm weather, adding that problems arise mostly when the wind concentrates the algae against one shore. The toxins are a threat that might last ”only a couple of minutes, or it may be a couple of days,” he said. But Repavich added it is a hazard to ”livestock, pets, wildfowl, people and fish.” He said that human exposure often results in skin rashes and that people likely would not drink enough of the poisonous water to pose a health threat
”because it smells and looks repulsive.” The poisons affect the nervous system and the liver. Tests on mice showed the poisons act quickly to overwhelm the animal`s body defenses. Repavich said there is some evidence that chronic exposure to the toxins can cause cancer, but those studies are incomplete. The toxins are likely to be found in any Midwestern lake and are not limited to Wisconsin.
