It was a striper kind of day from shore for opening day at LaSalle Lake.
IVCC student Morgan Wolf caught this one next to me shortly after I had my first as dawn came this morning.
Walking out in the about 1 p.m., I passed Chicagoans Freddy Castrejon and his dad Peter. They had alreay limited out on striped bass from the south shore. And Peter had the fish of the day, a 23 1/2-inch largemouth weighing 6 1/2 pounds. He plans to mount it.
I got sidetracked and did not get a picture, but Freddy said he would send it.
It was some day. For a day that started off with my buddy’s boat not working. So I did the shore. And did manage to make it all the way back to the hot water for some casts.
My most beautiful fish came mid-morning off the east bank.
Everything hit on a white spinner.Even this big bull bluegill hit the same white spinner as all the other fish.
My best fish was this 22-inch hybrid.
The water was warmer than I expected, 80s in the hot chute, according to Jay Angel, 70s in pool 3 and 60s in pool 2.
Even the screwy 4 p.m. close couldn’t completely sully the wonder of a day in the 50s with the fish hitting.
