Fishing trip, trout, tornado

Early days on the farm faded into college days in Macomb. My roommate, Bob, was an avid outdoors person. Duck hunting was his favorite, but he also loved to fish. You may recall I knew nothing worthwhile about fishing.

My freshman year, Bob invited several of us to travel to his home for the opening of trout season. The Coleta trout ponds were described by him as the best fishing circus one could experience. The ponds were stocked by the state of Illinois for opening day in April. He said the trout were hatchery raised, dumb, and easy to catch. He said one only needed a small gold number 18 hook and a ball of Velveeta cheese and they would bite. The cheese balls imitated the salmon eggs that trout love.

Since I didn’t own a fishing rod, and had no idea how to cast with one, he advised me on a purchase. My first rod and reel was a combination Shakespeare closed face reel (spin cast) and fiberglass rod. This was the push button reel little kids used. While on the trip, we purchased some flies so we could strip the wrapping off the hooks, and bought some salmon eggs.

Four of us drove to Sterling on Friday afternoon. We spent the night at Bob’s parents’ home. We made cheese balls and rigged our equipment for an early start. The small hook could not be cast with my push button reel, so Bob added a small bobber so I could throw it.

We arrived at the ponds before 5:30 am. No one was allowed to fish until the appointed hour. By the time we arrived, the banks were already beginning to fill with fishermen.

The trout stocking program is primarily aimed at kids. This first day had many kids along the banks. Unfortunately kids and fishing in a crowded area can be a bit of challenge.

There are three rectangular ponds at Coleta. They provide plenty of area for bank fishing, and that was the intent. The rectangular shape also worked well as long as everyone respected the fishing area of others.

We were aligned with others along the banks. Some of us were along the end of a pond, others along the sides. This left some open bank in the corner between us.

At 6:00 am a police siren was sounded , and all of the lines were cast. As soon as our hooks hit the water, we had rainbow trout. Every one of our group caught fish. People fishing with night crawlers were not so lucky.

In less than ten minutes we were approaching our limits of seven each. Others immediately noticed our success. Fishermen tend to move where others are catching fish. Some asked about borrowing some cheese baits, but the kids took a different approach. Thus was revealed the difficulty with rectangular ponds.

A kid seeing the open bank space near us, stepped into the corner of the bank. He cast his heavy line and night crawler out from the corner, as he reeled in he snagged every line in the water from both banks.

Our fishing ended, as it took quite a while to untangle all those lines. When we finally untangled, all the dumbest trout had been caught. Those remaining had grabbed bait and escaped. By late morning, the fishing died down.

After untangling our lines, we cast more cheese balls into the pond, but the trout were not so eager. As everyone in our group was near our limit for the day, we left the ponds. We cleaned our fish, but left on the scales and heads. Bob said the scales were tiny and could be eaten. Leaving the heads on was a tradition for trout fishing.

We returned the next day, but the circus was over. Cheese balls were no longer effective. We threw some of the salmon eggs, and caught a few more. We wrapped up early and headed back to college. On the way we stopped by my parent’s farm.

I presented my Mom with the trout. She couldn’t believe they still had their heads, but put them in the freezer anyway. Later that spring when she cooked them, she had my Dad take off the heads. The trout tasted terrible. They had a mossy taste, probably from being pond fed at the hatchery. They ended up as food for the pigs.

Coleta Trout Ponds trip 2

Having experienced a good time, we planned another trout pond trip in April 1967. This year was unusually warm. We had been playing intramural softball during the first three weeks of April. We had done well in softball, and when we announced four of us we were going to miss a week-end for fishing, my RA and buddy, Gordy, was not pleased. We went anyway.

That Friday, a cold front moved through Illinois. We could see the dark sky as we headed north. That Saturday it dumped several inches of snow on Macomb, thus cancelling any softball games. What happened near our fishing trip was more dramatic.

Belvidere is a town outside of Rockford, about 70 miles north and east of where we were to fish. At school dismissal, all of the buses picked up the elementary and junior high kids from their respective schools. The 16 buses then all arrived fully loaded at the high school, where the kids were to change buses for the ride home. This was the same practice I experienced every school day in my home town.

The sky was black as the buses left from the elementary schools. The high school dismissed as the buses arrived. In 1967 there were weather watches, but no weather sirens. With every bus student and all of the high school students at the site, an F4 tornado ripped into the school with 240 mph winds, flipping over the buses and killing or injuring most of the students. We heard of the story that evening. It was the worst school disaster up to that time, and still remains in the top ten of dead and injured from weather.

Years later, while an elementary school principal, I faced threatening skies and a tornado warning at dismissal time. Rather than load the buses, I brought in the drivers and held the kids in shelter. As parents called we said were not dismissing until the system passed. We waited almost an hour.  I took a lot of grief as other schools dismissed. We were spared a tornado that day, but I have no regrets.

We had another successful fishing trip that Saturday, but it was cold and snowing so we didn’t stay. We returned to school sobered by what had happened in Belvidere. We never returned.

The state no longer stocks the ponds at Coleta.