Illinois' new assistant fish chief spent some three decades in the field, before adding Springfield offices duties in recent years.

It's a well deserved promotion. He has the perspective on the broader issues of Illinois fishing.

He is actively involved in promoting Illinois fishing to the younger crowd through his involvement with Illinois' innovative high school bass fishing championship. I have bumped into Stephenson every year at the finals in Carlyle Lake.

The photo above is up the lineup of boats on the first day in 2009 at the first IHSA bass fishing championship.

"Outside" airs from 4:30-5 p.m. Mondays on WKCC-FM (91.1) in Kankakee. Rebroadcasts of the show are at 12:30 p.m. on Sundays.

click here for online listening options.

Laurel Soper, the web tech and digital media person for KCC, has put together the podcast system here.

The Facebook page for "Outside with Dale Bowman" is at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Outside-with-Dale-Bowman/241327739268720