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Dale Bowman biography

Outdoors columnist Dale Bowman began his reporting career as a correspondent covering state government for WTAJ-TV in 1982. While in graduate school in 1984, he …

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  • Decoy ducks bring in big bucks

    The bidding battle came down to former Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson and one of the top collectors in the country, who won and bought the canvasback drake decoy by Henry Ruggles for $74,750. That was one of 12 world auction records for maker last month …Read More

  • BOWMAN: In fishing, size does matter

    Back then, Vietnamese  potbellied pigs were something of a rage. So looking at Deva Vranek’s freak brown trout in 1997 in the parking lot of Henry’s Sports and Bait, I thought, ‘‘That thing looks like a potbellied pig.’’ Vranek caught the 36-pound, 11.5-ounce brown on …Read More

    • Jumbo perch make Gary Light real hot spot

    We joined the flotilla of boats at midmorning Monday off Gary Light for the hot bite around Chicago fishing: deep-water jumbo perch. ‘‘It looks like Japan, all drop-shotting on top of each other,’’ Pat Renwick joked. The bass-obsessed host of the Region Bass Buzz (Saturday …

    Floodplain to see: We need solutions

    CANTON, Ill. — As I drove home, I swerved by American coots swimming between red cones marking the top of backed-up Duck Creek, which spilled onto the blacktop of Route 24. All kinds of oddities showed as a historic flood rolled down the Illinois River. …

  • OUTDOORS: It’s fair to ask about effects flooding has on outdoors

    Like many, Carl Wanzung of South Leavitt wondered what the record flood did to fish populations and to fishing in general. I wondered about the broader wildlife issues, too. The biggest impact might be on waterfowl. Or in damage to the dozens of public sites …Read More

  • Chicago River offers both beauty and ugliness

    Ken Schneider punched a jig through the rubbish piled in the corner of Ogden Slip to catch an idiot fish, then a bluegill. So began the fishing side of a post-flood survey Wednesday of the Chicago River main stem and South Branch. We had a …Read More

    • There’s lots to see on the Illinois River Road National Scenic Byway

    CANTON, Ill. — I left off last month leaving Peoria. And I don’t mean in a symbolic sense. Just that I separated out a two-day trip on the Illinois River Road National Scenic Byway into columns on the lower and upper ends. I pick up …

  • BOWMAN: Spring can’t come fast enough

    We put the fish smell in Andy Mikos’ new cooler Sunday. ‘‘I didn’t sleep much last night,’’ said Mikos, who was giving his 22-foot Thompson, Bismarck, its shakedown cruise. Mikos, Dave ‘‘Stan’’ Stamer and I met at the Diversey launch. Mikos floated the Bismarck off …Read More

  • IHSA bass-fishing championship enters fifth year

    A thunderstorm, complete with lightning and wind, rolled rapidly across Carlyle Lake on May 8, 2009. That was a fear — that weather or water  conditions would threaten young lives — when Illinois became the first state to hold a state championship for high school …Read More

  • BOWMAN: Batavia teenager bags second tom turkey in as many springs

    Morgan Kunert is turning bagging big toms in spring  turkey hunting into a  spectator sport. The Batavia teen followed up her success last spring with a 25-pound tom shot Saturday, the opening day of the youth-hunt weekend for Illinois’ north zone. ‘‘We had to work …Read More

  • Happy 10-year anniversary, Northerly Island

    Ralph Grasso had the right idea to call the annual perch derby on Northerly Island the ‘‘Harrison Ford Fishing Derby.’’ Even a decade later, Northerly Island makes me feel alive like few other stories I have covered. It mixes love and hate. That sacred space …Read More

    • Smelt netting on Chicago lakefront still lures diehards

    The battered smelt had a kick. Dave Parker pan-fried them in olive oil over an open fire in the fresh, cold air Monday night at Montrose Harbor. The fish morsels connected smelt netting with its fading tradition on the Chicago lakefront. Slap Ya Mama mix …

    Launching right into two openers

    I have two words for boaters fishing the opener Monday at Heidecke Lake: Be patient. And two words for those checking smelt nets on the Chicago lakefront on opening night Monday: Be social. Heidecke First about the launches at Heidecke, the former cooling lake near …

  • BOWMAN: No such thing as typical spring

    Ed Hansen perfectly described this spring. ‘‘Not a typical year, never is,’’ said Hansen, the manager at the LaSalle Fish Hatchery. ‘‘Last year, we got spent fish. This year, we are a  week off.’’ He meant sauger caught during the Masters Walleye Circuit tournament last …Read More

  • Along the Illinois River, life is a byway

    ILLINOIS RIVER — I took the road I didn’t know. For some reason, at the intersection of Pine Bluff Road and Route 47, instead of going north to take Interstate 80, I went straight and wandered back roads, some dirt, by the southern bluffs along …Read More

    • Excitement of opening day isn’t just for baseball

    MARSEILLES, Ill. — Anthony and Roxie Tate were swinging bluegill up into the rocks Friday afternoon when I finally reached the east bank of LaSalle Lake. On my first cast, I pulled a 71/2-inch bluegill out. That was my goal: Catch big bluegill on opening …

    Still looking for the scoop on scaup

    LEWISTOWN, Ill. — In camo neoprene waders, a dozen biologists and researchers waded out at Emiquon Preserve on Thursday morning to a trap filled with scaup (bluebills). One sealed the funnel on the trap with PVC pipe. Others opened the back wire; two netters scooped …

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