I hope this email finds everyone having a wonderful summer.  Today, the Illinois Wheelin' Sportsmen were invited to participate in a family fishing day at the Hooked on Fishing Park in East Peoria, Illinois.  Hooked on Fishing (www.hookedonfishingpark.org) is a non-profit organization that owns a series of spring fed, professionally managed ponds right on the Illinois River.  The park provides educational classes to youths and special needs individuals to teach them the basics of fishing, and then these individuals are able to come fish at the park for free Monday-Friday from 8:00 to 5:00.  Today, the Wheelin' Sportsmen and their families had exclusive run of the 3 ponds at the park.  This was a special treat for our participants due to the fact that the entire perimeter of all three ponds is accessible for wheel chair bound people. 

We arrived at the park at 10:00 and as soon as the first jig hit the water, the bite was on!  The fishing action was fast and furious for the duration of our time.  Our participants landed large mouth and small mouth bass, bullhead catfish, feisty bluegill, and a very special treat, rainbow trout.  Due to the extremely large amount of spring water that feed the ponds, the water temperature never exceeds ~56 degrees.  This allows this central Illinois waterway to hold trophy class rainbows.  A small pond was set aside to raise young rainbows until they are of an age and size that is trophy class, at which time they are transferred to the fishing ponds.  One of our fishermen tied on a bead headed black wooley bugger to his fly rod, and on his first cast he landed a ~20" rainbow that looked like he came from a mountain river in Alaska!  Our hosts were nice enough to allow us to keep three rainbow trout to add to our bar-be-que lunch and our friend Chef Todd grilled up an amazing plate of trout with a sweet chili glaze.  Delicious! 

The bass and blue gill fisheries were just as impressive.  Large mouth bass up to 3 lbs were caught consistantly throughout the day and the bluegill fishing was incredible.  The day was certainly highlighted by our participant, Randy Green, seeing his 3 year old daughter Anna catch her first fish, a small bluegill.  This was quickly followed by her catching her biggest fish ever, a 3 lbs large mouth all by herself!  

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day with some wonderful people.  Thank you to our hosts and to our volunteers that made this event a success.  We are looking forward to coming back to the Hooked on Fishing Park next summer!