The power of powerlining and the small chance of a smallmouth bass

Powerliner Jose Sanchez caught a big smallmouth bass March 31 while fishing the lakefront at 63rd Street (Jackson Park).

‘‘Yeah, he has been fishing since [he was] a kid — powerlining, at that — and he said that’s the first time ever hitting a bass via powerline or seeing one caught on a powerline,’’ texted Wayne Hankins of Nightmare Fishing, who also texted a bunch of photos.

The smallmouth was 21 inches long, weighed 4.5 pounds and was caught on a minnow 90 yards out.

Three things caught my attention. First, it’s a big smallmouth. Second, most of us tend to think of smallmouth relating more to nearshore areas. Third (and most surprising), it was caught on a powerline.

Powerlining, which works similarly to a trotline, involves propelling out a weight and rubber band, then connecting floats, a bell and fishing line with multiple hooks. Park Bait has a YouTube video explaining how to set up a powerline.

Powerlining, which is primarily used for coho and perch, started with railroad spikes as the weight to be tossed underhand or whirled overhead.

‘‘There were so many fights and arguments about guys throwing out spikes that crossed four or five other fishermen’s lines, of old-timers trying to toss out lines between fishermen’s buckets, you could be entertained all day,’’ Ron Wozny said 11 years ago in explaining powerlining. ‘‘Just think about the guys on the Shoe [on Montrose] whipping spikes around with 20 or 25 feet of rope. It was really dangerous.’’

The next evolution to propel the weight out was using a plumber’s helper. The most recent evolution in powerlining came with the weight being propelled from a pipe attached to a fire extinguisher.

Dale Bowman

‘‘It’s a line with bait in the water,’’ Park Bait’s Stacey Greene-Fenlon said. ‘‘So I can only assume that anything would hit it.’’

Well, just about anything.

‘‘Northern pike, brown trout, burbot, whitefish,’’ she messaged. ‘‘I think guys even put out and catch kings in the fall, but I find it a bad idea.’’

That a smallmouth had been caught on a powerline made her exclaim, ‘‘Smallmouth?’’

Yes, a smallmouth.

Illinois hunting

A heads-up to morel hunters and others using public sites open to spring turkey hunting: First season in the north zone opens Monday.

Wild things

Jay Damm, a top hunter of morels, emailed over the weekend: ‘‘With reports of morels being found north, south, east and west of the south suburbs, it’s just about time to start looking in earnest. The recent rains have been more than adequate to start the season, and with [this] week’s warmer temps, a week from now would be a good time to start hunting with reasonable expectations.’’

While on solar-eclipse duty over the weekend, I looked in southern Illinois.

• As of Sunday, a handful of hummingbird reports were already into southern Illinois at hummingbirdcentral.com.

Stray cast

Reading Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘‘Demon Copperhead’’ feels even grittier when visiting southern Illinois and its old coal country around the eclipse.