When I first fished LaSalle Lake, the focus was hybrid striped bass. Later, the lake turned into an absurdly good fishery for numbers of largemouth and smallmouth bass. In recent years, it has evolved into a top Illinois fishery for blue catfish.
For me, it’s bluegills — with a caveat.
Fishing for bluegills at LaSalle, the cooling lake south of Seneca that reopens to fishing Friday, depends on the winds. The best bluegill spot is the east bank. That means when the prevailing westerly winds are going, it’s impossible to fish for bluegills there.
‘‘The bluegill population remains very stable from previous years, with great numbers of fish in the 6- to 8-inch range and good numbers of fish over 8 inches,’’ biologist David Wyffels emailed. ‘‘All of these fish have above-average weights (thick shoulders!). Stay to the east wall in the cold pool. My feeling is this may be a majorly overlooked bluegill fishery.’’
Bluegills rank, but they’re below blues.
‘‘Blue catfish will be the star of the lake!’’ Wyffels emailed. ‘‘Excellent numbers of 12- to 20-inch fish are available. Very good numbers of fish in the 20- to 30-inch range will provide anglers lots of fun. Channel catfish are profound but have limited growth compared to the blues. Flathead can be found but are in limited numbers to both blues and channels.’’
I’ve always wondered how big blues could grow there.
‘‘The largest blue that I have sampled in the past 10 years was just over 36 inches,’’ Wyffels emailed. ‘‘We use low-pulse electrofishing to sample the population. Future plans are to run large nets to better sample the top end of the population.
‘‘The biggest blue I know of was the one you reported on a few years ago, pre-2020 fish kill, of 74-ish pounds.’’
A natural question is how big blues might grow in the unnatural thermal environment.
‘‘The lake has all the proper requirements to produce large fish, especially right now,’’ Wyffels emailed. ‘‘The fish kill of 2020 was very hard on that top end of the population. That reduction will allow lots of room for fish to grow fast and put on lots of weight quickly.’’
There were no fish kills last year.
‘‘Gizzard shad production is the main forage fish,’’ Wyffels emailed. ‘‘The lake’s physical structure and warm water are the drivers for great forage. I am sure the large sunfish (bluegill) help to fill in some meals for larger individuals.’’
There’s promise on the bass side, too.
‘‘The 2023 spring sample showed very good numbers of larger (15- to 20-inch) fish,’’ Wyffels emailed. ‘‘The spring samples have only been done for the past three years, to better access the bass population. Like always, get on the bass before the gizzard shad spawn! Fishing gets harder with all the new food from the gizzard shad spawn.’’
As a perched lake, boating at LaSalle is closed often by winds. Check daily updates at (815) 640-8099.
Rent e-bikes at adventur-e-bike-rental.com.
Fox waterway
The Fox Waterway Agency will hold stakeholder meetings at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday in Fox Lake. Registration and more details are at foxwaterway.com.
Stray cast
I’m beginning to think Chicago is like a cooling lake for stadium plans.
