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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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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 …

  • 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 …Read More

  • 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 …Read More

  • 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 …

    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 …Read More

  • Capt. Bob White, early lakefront charter captain and prolific fisherman, dies at 78

    Capt. Bob White planned to go fishing Saturday morning, like usual, in the western suburbs. But one of the early charter captains on the Chicago lakefront died unexpectedly late Friday night at home in Montgomery. Mr. White, 78, grew up in Detroit and maintained life-long …Read More

    • First day of fishing at LaSalle Lake sure sign of spring

    Winter can kiss my arse goodbye. That’s the true meaning of the reopening of LaSalle Lake to fishing in mid-March. LaSalle, the cooling lake south of Seneca, reopens to fishing Friday. Things look promising. It escaped any major fish kills during the historic heat wave …

    BOWMAN: Taxidermy is all in the details

    SPRINGFIELD — Dave Emken was shining a small flashlight up the nostril of a mounted deer head when Frank Williams introduced us. Details. I roamed Friday with Emken during the setup for the 33rd Illinois Taxidermist Association Convention and Competition at Northfield Inn in Springfield. …

  • OUTDOORS: This Millennium Park could be big

    The Calumet region is the most bizarre urban wild area, mishmashed with the remnants of an industrial past, I have ever seen. Yet, that area is primed for innovative solutions. In terms of conservation, few things illustrate that better than the Millennium Reserve, what Gov. …Read More

  • OUTDOORS: White-nose syndrome found in Illinois bats

    The inevitable arrival of white-nose syndrome in Illinois bats was confirmed in February in four Illinois counties. On a broader level, WNS shows how connected much of nature and our world are. Illinois makes the 20th state where WNS, a disease fatal to several bat …Read More

  • BOWMAN: Hunters in northeast Illinois struggled during waterfowl season

    What hunters saw of ducks and geese around Chicago during the recent  waterfowl seasons offer a blurred snapshot of the effect of the drought and heat of 2012. On one hand, the three daily-draw sites in northeast Illinois — Braidwood Lake, Heidecke Lake near Morris …Read More

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