The vagaries of summer: At least in Chicago fishing

Hey Dale, The morning bite for bass on area lakes has slowed. Best option is to fish evening hours. Top water bite is good last hour of light. Spro frogs worked over emergent vegetation or pop r’s in open water have produced best.Before the rains, area rivers south of I-80 were low and clear with little moss. Working a modified TDR rig caught good numbers of smallmouth and largemouth bass.TTYL— Ken Husker O’Malley Huskeroutdoors Waterworks fishing team

Lake Geneva Fishing Report 8/15/16 through 8/22/16 The summer heat wave is upon us. The fishing remains pretty good as long as you get out early in the a.m. or late in the p.m. The boat traffic on the lake makes fishing in the middle of the day pretty difficult. Most of the fish are relating to deep water structure. The best fishing is consistently the largemouth or walleyes at night. Smallmouth bass are on the deep water structure in 22-30 ft of water. Look for the fish by Yerkes Observatory, South Shore Club or by the Wrigley Estate. They are being caught on lindy rigged nightcrawlers or drop shot rigged 4 inch finesse worms. They have not schooled up yet as they have in recent years. A typical school this year is 7-10 fish so you need to move around to have great success. Yellow Perch are in the shallows in 12-15 ft of water. Look for the fish by Knollwood or by Belvidere Park in Fontana. They are aggressively feeding on small fat head minnows or leaf worms. You want to fish them on a split shot rig or a Thill slip bobber rig. The best locations have scattered weeds and hard sand bottom. Largemouth bass fishing has been excellent in 18-24 ft of water. Look for the fish by Covenant Harbor Bible Camp or Gage Marine. They are being caught on football head jigs with a green pumpkin trailer or drop shotting green pumpkin finesse worms, my favorite are Chompers, red flake seems to be producing most of the fish. The key to finding them is finding locations with scattered weeds and a harder bottom. Rock bass fishing has been excellent in the deeper waters. A lot of the fish have been in excess of 20 ft of water. They are being caught on lindy rigged nightcrawlers or fat head minnows. Look for the fish off of main lake points like Cedar Point or Conference Point. Walleye fishing has been very good at night. Make sure you pick nights when there is wind. The best locations have been Trinkes Bay and Fontana Bay. Bluegill fishing has been excellent in the 18-24 ft depth range. The best location has been by Elgin Club or by Gage Marine. Try a split shot rig with a leaf worm approximately six inches off bottom for the best success. The average size of the bluegills is over 8 inches. Good luck and I hope to see you on the water. For guide parties, please call Dave Duwe at 608-883-2050

Delavan Lake Fishing Report 8/17/15 through 8/23/15 The fishing on Delavan continues to be a good day/bad day proposition. The weather has been pretty consistently hot and humid. The best bite on the lake remains the bluegills. They are constant throughout the lake. Early in the week the largemouth bass were on the deep weedlines in 15-18 ft of water. Because of the consistent warm weather, the deep water bite has been getting slower and slower as the day progresses. The fish I’m catching have been on lindy rigged nightcrawlers or lindy rigged medium suckers. The shallow water slop bite has been consistent. The fish are located by the condos on north shore or the boat launch channel. They are being caught on black or white frogs. The best depth is 2-3 ft. of water. The weed flats have also been producing in the early morning hours, Pop-R’s and Chug Bugs are working in 8-10 ft of water. The best location has been by Willow Point or Browns Channel. Walleye fishing has been spotty. Most of the fish are being caught on split shot rigged leeches or lindy rigged leeches. The best depth has been 18-25 ft off the main lake points. Look for the fish just west of the Yacht Club or by Willow Point. The best time to fish them is when there is a hea vy breeze blowing into the shore. Bluegill fishing has been excellent in the 15-18 ft depth range. There have been many limits of bigger bluegills caught. You want to fish split shot rigged leaf worms straight beneath the boat. The best locations have been by Assembly Park or just west of Willow Point. Once you find an active school, it doesn’t take long to catch your daily limit of 25. The average size of the fish is 7-8 inches. Northern Pike fishing has been spotty. I’ve been catching one or two per trip. They are in 22-24 ft of water. They have been biting on large suckers fished on a lindy rig with a 24 inch leader. The best location has been by the gray condos or by the Village Supper Club. They have been easy to locate but hard to entice the bite. Crappie fishing has been good when you find active schools. They are off the weedline in 15-20 ft of water. The best locations have been by Belvidere Park or the concrete point. You want to fish for them with a 1/32 oz jig and purple or chartreuse twister tail. The fish have been suspended 10-12 ft off bottom. Good luck and I hope to see you on the water. For guide parties, please call Dave Duwe at 608-883-2050

Dale,Been dealing with some lower back issues that had me off the water more than usual this summer. Lately I’ve been feeling a lot better and been putting quite some time on the water.As of late, large mouth bass have really been on fire in the northern sections of the river. Spinnerbait bite too good to pass up. Pike fishing consistently good. The morning bite has been best. Channel cats biting great as well all through the system on live bait with more than just occasional cat on artificials.Marcus BeneschRiver Grove

EXPANDED HOURS BEGINNING MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND! QUESTIONS? CALL THE COMLARA PARK VISITOR CENTER AT (309) 434-6770.

Hello and good morning Dale.Entire week has been good from hill all way south to Great Lakes.Really big coho and rainbows shows in big numbers, occasionally king 2 year old..240 feet of water for nice Lakers this week with no king’s ,mixed with coho and rainbows. Overall good week of fishing. Thanks Ted ( diehard angler ) BOSKA

GREAT Topwater bite with the 3″ Hubs Chub! Hot colors, Bone Shad, Crawdad and Fire/Tiger.I had the day off from guiding and I fished with my good friend Bob Dekker. We pounded the smallmouth and largemouth today on the Menominee River.

Minocqua Area Fishing Report 08/15/16 Usually by mid-August, we will see a night or two cold enough to start just a few sugar maples turning- hasn’t happened yet. Still warm, although cooling down a bit. Surface temps averaging 75⁰ on most lakes. The heat has unfortunately brought about a cisco kill on the Minocqua Chain, as the thermocline deepens and these fragile, cool water fish have a tough time coping with the lower oxygen levels. Could be happening on other lakes, but this one is the only one we’ve heard of. Largemouth Bass: Very Good. Despite a few days of unusual wind (N.E) and some high pressure, largemouths continue to provide the fastest action in the Lakeland area. Wacky worming is far tops. Carolina rigging 4 and 7 Power worms as well as Beavers and Yum Ultimate Craws also providing good catches. A few of the warmer evenings are giving up good top-water frog action also. Smallmouth Bass: Very Good- Good. Outside weed edges of 12-16’ producing nice smallies (15-18) on lipless cranks counted down as well as skirted grubs on 1/8 – ¼ oz. jigs. Tube jigs also working along these edges. Off-shore humps of 22’-28’ anglers are drop-shotting 2 ½Gulp minnows and small craws scoring well. Northern Pike: Good. Spinnerbaits (Boonies, Booyah and Chatterbaits) over heavy weed flats. Weedless spoons such as Johnson Silver Minnows and Northland Jawbreakers also working. Chubs, suckers always a good backup. Bluegills: Good. Best on warmer days. Mini mites, tiny tubes tipped with waxies. Use small leeches on 1/50 oz. jig heads under small floats. Musky: Good-Fair. More fish being seen (and caught) of late. Bucktails and Spinnerbaits as well as twitch baits in 7-10’ weeds. Top-water is also bringing up fish. Most reports this week are of 34-38 fish. Yellow Perch: Fair. Best on warmer days. Medium fatheads, medium leeches. Crappie: Fair. Best at dusk and after dark on medium fats and lighted slip-bobbers. Surface temps should remain stable this week, rising on sunny days. The typical August cool down doesn’t show any signs of coming soon.

Fishing Report Muskie: They’ll be in the weeds, rocks, break lines, and mid-lake humps depending on the lake being fished. Don’t forget to bring the arsenal of baits needed to cover a lot of water. Remember that the proper equipment is needed to use certain baits to make your fishing experience enjoyable. Northern Pike: Fishing the weed edges with bass style spinnerbaits or inline spinnerbaits such as Mepps #4 and #5 and weedless spoons, such as Johnson Silver Minnows, should get you in a tussle with this fish. Jig and minnow combos fishing near weeds for walleyes will catch a few also. Walleye: The deep weed edges and sharp drops are where you can find these fish. Bass: (Largemouth) Bass spinnerbaits (safety pin style) and crankbaits are working well. If fishing weeds, don’t forget to bring top water baits like a Scum Frog or a Zara Spook; adding this approach will add success. Texas and Carolina rigging plastics will also entice that fish to bite. (Smallmouth) Basic live bait rig is always a go to presentation; also plastics and crankbaits will work well. Panfish: For Bluegills, slip bobber rigs are the way to go baited up with a good selection of live bait such as waxies, small leeches and red worms. Plastics are working under bobbers also, but a twitch of the rod is needed to make sure they have action. Crappies will be looking for cover in the weeds, downed trees or around cribs and a slip bobber rigged with small minnow or plastics. Work them the same way as with Bluegills. Perch are in the weeds too, and using a selection of small leeches, red worms and small minnows on slip bobbers are the ticket for them.