The Fishing Headquarters is a non-profit "for-fun" angling community that was created in 2005 by Andrew Ragas. The site began as his personal fishing page, which after nearly two seasons, grew into a much larger website that became a gathering place for people and friends alike who share a common bond for the sport of fishing.

Over the past few seasons, the Fishing Headquarters website has tremendously grown and has slowly but effectively been attracting anglers from all across the United States, and even Canada! Our basis as a community is to drop the ego, catch anything that swims with fins, and to enjoy all aspects of freshwater multi-species fishing, or the sport of fishing in general.

If you have any questions, comments, contributions or submissions you'd like to make to this site, please contact the Fishing Headquarters Staff or drop us a line in the forums.

For FREE Fishing Headquarters membership, click here and register to our Fishing Discussion Forums and you will automatically be a HQ member, and have the opportunity have fun discussions, and chat with other fellow anglers and share fishing techniques and secrets.

                                                                   Thank you for the support and for visiting!

                                                                 Andrew Ragas

                                                                 Website Owner & Web Designer

Andrew Ragas

Founder & Owner of the Fishing Headquarters,

Site Administrator, General Manager, & Web Designer

Hello, and welcome to Fishcast. My name is Andrew Ragas, and I am a 23 year-old multi-species angler who fishes the lakes and rivers of Northern Wisconsin, and the rivers and streams of Northern Illinois. I enjoy fishing as much as possible throughout the year and often find myself fishing upwards of 150+ days per calendar season.

If I had to choose a few favorite quarries, they would be power and finesse fishing for Largemouth & Smallmouth Bass, chasing suspended and “jungle-oriented” Northern Pike on the lakes in Wisconsin, wading rivers and casting crankbaits for Walleyes, and casting for Muskies.

Besides my fishing-related information, I am a senior student attending Loyola University Chicago, and am majoring in Communication and minoring in Visual Communication which encompasses graphic design – All of this is with fishing thrown onto the side, obviously. I am on the verge of finally graduating and who knows what the future holds for me, all I know is that fishing will be a major part of it.

When my collegiate studies are completed, and with an even greater understanding for the sport of fishing and the dynamics it brings, I would like to work within the fishing industry and apply the skills I have learned within the classroom into that field. Whether it is in video production, product management for tackle companies, website and/or catalog design, tackle testing, something else, or all of the above, I think my services and skills would fit within that field of work. Not saying that this cannot happen, but if it won’t be fishing in tournaments to make a living, then working within the angling industry is what I want to do and can eventually see happening. Either/or, it would be fun and productive work!

Presently in the realm of fishing, I am a staff writer and blogger for the largest online outdoor media publication in the state of Illinois, Prairie State Outdoors in which I write for the Northern Illinois Angler. In addition, I am also working for Time on the Water TV with Frank Hyla as their website designer and a crew member who does a little bit of everything with even recurring roles as a fisherman in Frank’s boat included.

In my mind, fishing is more than just an obsessive hobby – it is a lifestyle. I am a firm believer that if you treat the sport with respect and use your God-given talents on the water, you will be rewarded with great catches.

If interested in contributing to this website as well as to The Fishing Headquarters, interested in becoming an advertising partner or sponsor, and in receiving news concerning anything related to fishing and my operations, please send me an e-mail at andrew@fishing-headquarters.com

Kenny Lookingbill

FHQ Commodore and Moderator of Discussion Forums.

Website Blogger and Writer

My name is Kenny Lookingbill and I am from Cambridge, IL, which is around the Quad Cities area. I attend Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois and am majoring in Biology and hope to work for the Department of Natural Resources in the Fisheries Division.

I have been attending Illinois State University since fall 2006 where I eventually met Tony (bassmastertony), late that semester where he mentioned that his friend Andrew was starting up a fishing website after he discovered that I liked fishing. I then registered on the site a few days after it started up and instantly loved it. I liked the atmosphere of younger anglers and people I could relate to and most of them were from Illinois.

I am still relatively new to fishing as I have only been seriously fishing for around 4 years. However, I have fished all over the upper midwest over the last couple years including Lac De Mille Lac in Ontario Canada, Lake Rathbun in Iowa, the lakes of northern Wisconsin with Andrew, and of course many places in Illinois, ranging from Mickelson’s Landing up north on the Mississippi River, to strip mines in West Central Illinois, to Clinton Lake in East Central Illinois and the Dupage River in Chicago's western suburbs.

I fish year-round whenever I can as I enjoy open water fishing and ice fishing. I also consider myself a multi-species angler as I fish about any fish that inhabits waters in Illinois, whether it is Bass fishing in ponds, Walleye fishing in the Rock River, Catfishing in ponds and reservoirs, or panfishing in any body of water. I also will occasionally fish for the Esox species when the time calls for it. I still am looking the elusive first Muskie, but I believe it will come this year. I also hope to fish in more tournaments eventually when I have more time and money, as I have done well the couple that I have fished.

Mike Planthaber

FHQ Commodore and Moderator of Discussion Forums.

Website Blogger and Writer, President of Trout Mafia

I was born December 23, 1983 to a family of fisher people.

 

I grew up in Chicago, and while growing up, I spent many hours with my first fishing mentor, my dad, on his 14 foot boat. For my education, I attended Whitney Young High School, graduated with the class of 2002, and played varsity baseball. Following high school, I went off to college (sort of) in the fall of 2002 to the University of Illinois at Chicago. 120 credit hours later, I earned my bachelor’s in Finance, and began life in the real world.

I currently work for a company called Textura where I am a Senior Operations Consultant. Most of my after-work hours and the majority of my weekends are spent fishing. . . . . . Fishing from miles offshore on Lake Michigan to its creeks and tributaries for Trout and Salmon, and many inland lakes in-between, I am out fishing for practically anything that swims, four seasons of the year. I really do not consider myself an expert in any form of fishing. Rather, someone who has endless multi-species angling opportunities, and the experience of it, in and around the Chicagoland area.

Jim Gronaw

Writer and Blogger

Jim Gronaw, 58, of Westminster, Maryland recently joined the Fishing Headquarters website and its discussion boards as a new member and contributor. He then proceeded to drop us a line and asked for a position to be one of our writers and bloggers. Without hesitation, he joined the crew. Jim is a licensed fishing guide, writer, and multi-species angler whose passion is chasing trophy Panfish. In addition to his fishing, Jim is a contributor for

In-Fisherman, and has been published over 600 times both nationally and regionally  for various publications such as In-Fisherman, Outdoor Life, Fishing Facts, and Sports Afield.

Ed Schmitt

Writer and Blogger

Website member, Special Ed, joined the website in spring, 2009 and has surged himself into being one of our more prominent members. For a while he was pondering whether or not he wanted a blog of his own to chronicle his own adventures and eventually the day finally came in January 2010. Ed has been a lifelong Chicago area resident who happened to serve our country in the Marines. Now, he resides in the southwest suburbs and goes fishing every chance he gets. If he had a goal in life, it would be to spend the remainder of his days learning new waters, sharing his knowledge of local waters, and enjoying the scenery that nature surrounds us with.

Dan Cahill

Video Director

Dan Cahill, 27, joined the Fishing Headquarters during the fall of 2009 as a follower of Andrew's blog. He then registered to the site and while fishing numerous times together since then, we quickly found out that he enjoys creating videos. A 2005 graduate in video production from Columbia College in Chicago, Dan has since been producing videos on the side whether it be for leisure, work, and then for fishing. With Dan's assistance during the 2010 fishing season, we hope to film a few fishing instructional and promotional videos for this website and our partner websites. In addition, Dan is an avid Bass angler who fishes in the ABA Circuit, and enjoys traveling and fishing across the state of Illinois on its lakes, ponds, and small rivers with his pond prowler.

Phillip Krotine

Writer and Blogger

Longtime FHQ member, Phil, joined the ranks as our first ever official fly fishing blogger in May 2010. A resident of eastern Ohio, Phil was introduced at the age of 14 to this foreign thing called fly fishing. Having only fished soft plastics, this was something completely different and intriguing. From there he learned everything he could about the sport, including fly tying and rod building. Phil loves the rod building and fly tying because it let me express myself in ways spin fishing couldn’t. He still uses the spinning rod from time to time, but fly fishing makes up 98% of his angling. Phil's favorite places to fish are small ponds and creeks! He enjoys small creeks for the reason that there tends to be a great variety of fish, they are very underfished, and hold some special prizes.