Chicago fishing: Slouching toward spring

The Illinois trout opener on Saturday was good from the reports I received from my customers. Lake Atwood in the Hollows Conservation Area is the closest to Dave’s Bait and Tackle.

Well Dale, there is little hope. Just hit 2 100% rainbow smelt! Lol

Hey Dale,

Here is a recap from this past weeks fishing.

Some days you have to make lemonade out of lemons. The weather was not very nice today. There was about 40 minutes of partial sun, but that was all I was going to get. The rest of the day was rain and very strong wind gusts. The best bait of the day was a BPF Lures lipless crank worked just over the top of the weeds to entice a few strikes from some willing bass. FINS Braids spin 5 braid with a fluorocarbon leader paired with a 4:7:1 bait caster and a medium action rod was the perfect setup to work the bait slow enough as bass were not very aggressive today. Water temps dropped into the low 50’s, but there is some good news ahead. This weeks forecast looks to be the best so far of the early spring season. A few 70 degree days and a new moon will kickstart the bite.

. . .

TTYL

Ken “Husker” O’Malley
Husker Outdoors
Waterwerks fishing team

Hi Dale,

The persistent cold nights, and cloudy windy rainy days slowed the already tough bite on island lake. Throwing hard bairs was fruitless. The only artificial bait to get a nibble was a blue swim jig and rage craw. The minnow slowed a bit as well. We did land a good bass and a big yellow bullhead cat that looked plump and full of eggs ready to spawn.

In the garden the daffodils hyacinths giving a nice show in the cool conditions . Grape muscari coloring up. The tulips like the bass still reluctant to bloom in this cool corner of Illinois.

On Saturday I took some of the Leyden bass fishing club to the Skokie lagoons for an outing to prepare for sectionals there in may. As we arrived a bald eagle was seen perched high in a dead tree. The water there was high stained and cool. One of the club members Artem F got a nice keeper on a small red crawfish crank. I’ve fished the lagoons and it can be tough but there are good ones to be caught there. Hopefully during sectionals.

On the music front it’s 4/20 with midnite mile at the Irish mill, june 7 with the conscious rockers at main street outfitters in Waucanda, and 3 summer dates with Gozortenplat in Chicago at Reggie’s Milwaukee at Nashville north and Aug. 3 in kenosha at the Peachtree Festival. The mastered versions of country boy and ladykiller blues are ready for release on the music platforms and videos need to be produced. Quite an exciting time for this musician!

Tight lines and good health!

Rob

Hi Dale — Got out on the right day for fishing Saturday on Braidwood. Early morning was chilly but Bass were active. Several bites on crankbaits and Ned rigs in deeper water off structure then worked reeds for shallow bites. Water temps about same with cold at 64 and warm just over 70. Fished a tournament for first time in years and enjoyed getting that competitive edge going again. 15 of the 20+ boats weighed in a limit of 3 with big bass at 4.72. A good day!

I haven’t heard any good reports from bass anglers this year [2023], but the folks chasing crappie and catfish have done well. Finding the old ditches that are now underwater and fishing the bottoms for catfish or the vertical sides for crappie seems to be the strategy.

Hi Dale,

The Fox is running every bit as high as advertised. It’s also muddied up, fast and cold. I fished the mouth of a tributary thinking that maybe someone would swim up the trib a short way to escape the heavy current, but no takers. The tribs are running high too but have better clarity. I looked at the same one on consecutive days after the rains had ended and it wasn’t dropping much, if at all. It will be a while before conditions return to normal. My neighbors did catch a nice smallmouth on the Fox — from what little slack water there is right now — just before I got there yesterday. At least the birding was a lot better than the fishing. Lots of wood ducks have arrived: some were seen flying or swimming on the Fox; others were heard in the flooded timber. I also bumped an eagle off his perch right at the mouth of a Fox trib.

The Fox River continues to be flooded and hard to fish with a lot of floating debris. As the water level comes down catfishing, walleye and small mouth should be good. Panfish are in the channels and can be caught on minnows or wax worms.

Good morning, Dale.

Salmon and Trout fishing has been hit or miss. Some are doing well and getting there limit while others get skunked. When the winds are out of the N/N-E fish turn on, winds change they slow up. It’s been mostly a large minnow or night crawler bite but they are also hitting spawn sacs, shrimp, shad, artificial baits etc. ... The eclipse was interesting. Not sure if it made fish more active but they were biting. Reports of Smallmouth getting active. Still a Perch here and there by those fishing for Coho on powerlines. I did have a gentleman tell us he went out to test his smelt equipment and was out for an hour and caught 15. He may be the only one that has tried so far lol.

The Chicago Fishing Advisory Committee will be holding its monthly meeting Thursday April 18th, 10AM at the 31st Street Harbor. It is an open meeting.

We’d like to get more anglers involved so if you can make it we’d love to have you!

Have a good week.

Weather nice last couple days people out fishing everywhere.

Coho bite for trollers from Michigan city to east Chicago fishing 20 to 40 feet of water dodger and flys, spoons and brads thinfish doing the job.

Crappie action on lake George in Hobart using minnows and Rufus jr jigs tipped with waxworms.

Crappie action at the marinas around the docks good at Cedar lake using Rufus jr jigs tipped with waxworms.

The walleye are spawning now and some females are moving back into the river. Water temperature Tuesday morning was 46.4. Even a few white bass showing up