ROCK BASS RALLY: There's plenty of nice rock bass at Northerly Island, as Elijah, Ryan and Brad Wooten showed at the perch derby last month. There will be celebration of the rock bass at Northerly Island from 6-9 a.m. Saturday. Registration begins at 5:30 a.m.. Call (312) 225-8538 or go to henryssports.com.

STEELHEAD ON INDIANA STREAMS: Lee Sczepanski texted that there are lot of people putting pressure on Trail Creek, but he managed to pull a limit on Thursday.

WATERFOWL BLIND DRAWS: On Saturday, most of the area public waterfowl blinds are drawn: Chain O' Lakes SP and Redwing Slough/Deer Lake NA, Des Plaines CA, Kankakee River SP and Momence Wetlands, Mazonia SFWA, Shabbona Lake SRA, Sinnissippi Lake, William Powers SFWA,

Then on Sunday, its most of the Illinois River Valley ones: Anderson Lake CA, Clear Lake, Lake DePue SFWA, Marshall SFWA, Meredosia Bay, Rice Lake SFWA, Sanganois CA, Spring Lake SFWA and Pekin Lake SFWA, Starved Rock SP, Woodford SFWA.

FAMILY ANIMALS: The Morton Arboretum in Lisle has Animal Adventure Weekend, which includes a live wolf and coyote, this from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. this weekend. Go to www.mortonarb.org

MIDEWIN FAMILY STUFF: Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington has a good family day on Saturday with a Butterfly and Spider Walk (10 a.m.), and Twilight Bike Ride (6:30 p.m.), Go to fs.fed.us/mntp

ARCHERY: On Sunday: there's a Lake of the Woods (round targets) tournament at Lincoln Park Archery Club. Go to lincolnparkarcheryclub.org/events.html

KIDS AND A COUNTY FAIR: Through Sunday at the DuPage County Fair in Wheaton, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County has a bunch of stuff going, including ``Aquatic DuPage.'' This is one of those chances to get up close and personal with wild things with kids.

WADING: Area rivers are in perfect shape for wading, barring major storms. And we haven't had many weekends like that in a long time. Ken Gortowski put it well, talking about the Fox:

The last time it came down to this was in August of 2008 and it was brief. Not sure if I can get out but I highly recommend that anyone that wants to fish the Fox go anywhere they want to fish, finally.

This may be short lived.

PERSONAL PICKS: Fo the first time, I hope to watch or maybe enter one of the local draws for a public waterfowl blind on Saturday. Just haven't decided which one yet. . . . And I think I will get only my third wading trip of the summer in on the mighty Kankakee. . . . Can't make the Rock Bass Rally, but it should be fun. . . . Can't do the streams steelhead either, in part because I am stockpiling good will with my wife for next weekend on my birthday when i hope to do a float/baot trip down a new river in Indiana.