Midwest Fishing Report: Rivers around Chicago fishing

The last few cold nights haven’t had any affect on the Pike bite. The northerns are super active right now and hitting everything thrown into a brush pile. Northern Cook County and Lake County offering the most abundant Pike fishing, most fish range between 21-30inches, with those occasional whoppers over 30inches. Thundersticks, larger bucktails, and big creatures baits doing very well. My personal catch of the week was this old wagon wheel. Floated over a hole that just so happen to have perfect clarity with this low water and notice the shape of the wheel. Had to jump out of the kayak and wade into the hole to retrieve it. Probably weighs over 75lbs and it almost submerged my kayak. Its covered in an inch of rust and river barnacles. I’ve pulled turn of the century dairy bottles and prohibition pop bottles out of the river in the same section. I’m just doing my part of cleaning up the river, one relic at a time.

Some things Change Quickly Friday morning, heading west on Route 30 to spend the weekend camping at Morrison Rockwood State Park, things were changing. The corn and soybean fields still had a fair amount of green in them, but the yellow was starting to show. West of the Rock River more yellows and browns with some fields gone completely brown already, but the predominant color was still green. Friday night they said it was going to be 40 degrees out there. It felt a bit colder. Sunday morning on the drive east you couldn’t help but notice that the green was pretty much gone. All the way to the Rock it seemed like everything went brown over night. A few fields were already being harvested. Soon the sunsets will turn a hazy pink as all the dust from all the harvesting lays low on the fields. So, you ask, what the heck does that have to do with fishing the Fox River. Got me, I didn’t get out the last few days. Okay, I lie, I was out on Wednesday night for a sunset cruise and in an hour and a half I hooked into 11 fish. This is still below what I like to see, but then we also tied a 30 year old temperature record of 96 degrees the day before. The river was murky and warm and I felt lucky to tie into the eleven. The temperatures are going to start dropping, both air and water. My own records show that this time of year is as good or better out on the Fox than even in the spring. For me anyway. Water temps should soon get down into the mid 50 range and that is an ideal temperature. Activity levels of smallies should increase, the bite should improve and if the stars align and the gods are with you, a fifty fish day is definitely within reach. I won’t know this week. In my garage sits a tent and ground cloth. The tent filled with water, the ground cloth covered in mud and water. There’s nothing more pleasant while out camping then breaking down at 6 AM in a downpour. Before you get to drink a single cup of coffee. The next two days are going to be beautiful out. Perfect days for sunset cruises and the hopes of an increase in fish catching numbers. Or drying out and cleaning out a tent.

Few steelhead and salmon being caught in the rivers now.