Salmon Unlimited Inc

04/17/2025

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04/11/2025

One of the club's primary goals is helping YOU become a better fisherman. We have many videos posted to our Members Only page from our monthly meeting presentations and tournament weigh-ins.

We decided to post this video from our April Pizza Party to our public FB page to show non-members what they are missing. In the video we present awards to last year's top club tournament boats, and the captains of those boats then discuss what they did to be successful.

If you like what you see here, we encourage you to come out to one of our monthly meetings or attend the weigh-in and cook out after one of our club tournaments. Both are a great place to network with other fisherman. All our meetings are FREE and open to the public. If you are interested in participating in one of our tournaments, more information may be found on our website. The first tournament is just a month away, on May 10th.

04/09/2025

We had a great turnout for last night’s pizza party (well over a hundred people). We hope everyone had fun, won some raffle prizes, got the gear they needed for the upcoming season from the vendors, and learned some new techniques from the top tournament boats.

Photos of our award winners will be appearing in the next newsletter. If you missed the meeting last night, a video of the top boat presentation will be uploaded to the Members Only page in a day or two.

Thank you all for your support and participation.

04/07/2025

Looking forward to seeing you all at the pizza party tomorrow night. Starts at 6:30pm. 400 Devon Ave, Elk Grove Village, IL.

04/06/2025

Below is a condensed version of the information provided in our April newsletter regarding our annual fin clip event. Thank you again to all the volunteers who make this such a great event. A special thank you goes to John Ohl who put in a tremendous amount of work organizing this event. John is a past president and 50 year member of the club.

S/U FIN CLIP 2025
On Monday March 17th Salmon Unlimited completed fin clipping about 90,000 brown trout at the Illinois Jake Wolf Memorial fish hatchery. The SU volunteers are a critical part of the Lake Michigan fishery since they provide the bulk of the manpower to clip target species like brown trout as part of the Illinois share of fish going into Lake Michigan.

A mobile automatic clipping facility from the US Fish and Wildlife service is currently used to clip all Chinook and Coho salmon being planted in Lakes Michigan and Huron. The clipping system fits inside a trailer and three of these units move through the hatcheries in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. Illinois is usually the first stop on the list and the unit had completed clipping the Illinois plant of Chinook fingerlings prior to our arrival. Coho will be processed next. The machines clip the adipose fin of every fish and install a coded micro tag strip inside the nose of the target species which currently are Coho. Currently the micro tag program is targeting Coho. This is the first year of a five year program targeting Coho. The previous 5 years targeted Steelhead.

The state of Illinois has a program to hand clip species not covered by the automated program. Prior to this year, Illinois was clipping Coho salmon. This year all Coho are part of the automated program so the Illinois DNR is designating brown trout for manual fin clipping. The DNR started planting a new Crawford strain of brown trout last year in hopes of obtaining better returns and larger fish.

This year 46 S/U volunteers along with over 12 DNR staff clipped both ventral fins of about 90,000 brown trout. The next day the DNR staff finished the remaining browns to bring the total to 110,000 for the 2025 target plant. Most of the browns were 3 to 5 inches in length and very healthy. These fish will start showing up in the fall as 8 to 10 inch juveniles. In addition, the 2024 Coho plant will be full size adults with a right pectoral fin clip. Keep an eye out for clips when you land a Coho or brown this year. The browns along with all the salmon and rainbows are scheduled to be planted by the first of May this year.

04/01/2025

We are a week away from our April Pizza Party meeting. Never been to a Salmon Unlimited meeting? This is the one you don’t want to miss! Please note that because of its size, this meeting is not at our usual time and meeting place. The meeting will start at 6:30pm at the VFW Hall located at 400 Devon Ave, Elk Grove Village, IL.

It is awards night for our top tournament boats, and they will be sharing all their secrets to help you catch more fish.

There will be multiple vendors and a huge raffle.

Hope to see you all there!

03/22/2025

03/18/2025

Thank you to all our members who volunteered today at the Jake Wolf Hatchery, fin clipping 110,000 Crawford strain brown trout that will be planted the beginning of May. Really a neat experience. These fish will be a catchable size next year, and can be identified by the two clipped ventral fins. More details will be published in next month’s newsletter.

03/13/2025

Here is a recap from Tuesday's meeting:
1) Dan O'Connell from the Coast Guard Auxiliary gave the presentation. A video of that presentation is available on the Salmon Unlimited Members Only page.
2) The next meeting is our APRIL PIZZA PARTY. This is our largest meeting of the year. As such, PLEASE NOTE that the meeting will start early at 6:30pm, and will be held at the VFW Hall located at 400 Devon Ave, Elk Grove Village, 60007. More detailed information regarding the meeting will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.
3) Membership is off to a really strong start. We currently have 330 members, with 64 new members who will be invited to participate in the New Members Outing on May 18th. Second renewal notices have recently gone out in the mail. If you have not renewed yet, what are you waiting for? Come to the pizza party and renew or join there. Otherwise, you can renew/join on our website.
4) We are also off to a strong start getting sponsors for our upcoming events. If you and/or your business would like to be a sponsor, please contact one of our board members, or send us an email at [email protected].