Outdoors: Two degrees of adventure from Chicago fishermen

Come trade winds and 75 degrees or snow and 21, Waita Reservoir on Kauai or Milwaukee Harbor, Chicago-area fishermen find a way anywhere.

It’s one reason Chicago is such a mecca for outdoor shows.

Let’s start with Patrick Patel tweeting about catching peacock bass in Hawaii during Thanksgiving week, then to Nick Doumel kayak-fishing for big brown trout in Milwaukee.

‘‘Standard trade winds, temps a frigid 75 degrees, a little overcast,’’ Patel tweeted.

The young man from Oak Lawn had an Illinois-native buddy in Kauai, a bass fisherman, who wanting to fish Waita, the largest inland water in Hawaii. It is private access, so they met a local guide known as Kitty, who ‘‘had no use for the ocean.’’

‘‘So there we were, in Kauai, throwing live bait, plastics, Rapalas and topwaters,’’ Patel tweeted.

They drifted a channel with small bluegills and threw topwaters in calm water, crankbaits on rock piles and plastics on dropoffs.

They caught about 10 bass — all peacock bass, other than one largemouth.

‘‘All the while, zipliners overhead,’’ Patel tweeted.

That’s a fishing adventure.

Doumel had another one, to a different degree. He and Teddy Wozny, from Lucid Fishing, drove to Milwaukee on Friday to meet a friend. Their kayaks were in the water by 9 a.m.

‘‘The weather was a bit snowy, temps were a balmy 21 degrees, and there was a steady and strong south wind, so the waves were kicking up quite a bit,’’ Doumel emailed. ‘‘Water temps ranged from 35 to 33 degrees.’’

Doumel, a Plainfield man who won the inaugural overall title of the Great Lakes Kayak Fishing Series, trolled two lines. One had a Biovex AMP Deep Runner crankbait in hot shad. The other had a magnum-sized spoon in green dolphin.

In fishing until 1:30 p.m., Doumel went 5-for-11, including his first brown topping 20 pounds caught from a kayak. It, as well as eight of the other hits, came on the crankbait. All were released.

I think John Schenck put it best on Facebook: ‘‘I know only a handful of guys that will fish these conditions! & from a yak . . . hard core.’’

Places and faces

Paul Botts, executive director of The Wetlands Initiative, said Hennepin and Hopper lakes, once the greatest public fishing in Illinois, should reopen to public fishing next year. Details are being worked out.

Stray cast

The demise of the Bears’ season will spike hockey rants on sports-talk radio, which is like catching a northern pike while muskie fishing or like being handed a light beer.

Email: straycasts@sbcglobal.net

Twitter: @BowmanOutside