Chicago fishing: Coho, spring variety, Heidecke & smelt openers, new licenses

It’s only March 25th. But I do feel like we have been waiting forever for spring to get here! I’ve had customers fishing ponds that are producing crappies, bluegill and largemouth bass. Live bait has been the best. Minnows and wax worms for the panfish. Medium or large golden roach minnows for the bass. Lipless crank baits also are working for bass and pike. Think Spring!!

Hey Dale,

Here’s a recap from this past weeks fishing.

Timing the bite window is everything for pre-spawn bass by targeting areas were channels and drop offs near know spawning flats. Despite the overnight cold front that passed through, the bass were active on spinner baits and bladed jigs. I ran into a bit of a buzz saw the following day with the cold front pushing bass out deeper. Water temps have dropped to low 50’s. The morning started out flipping a jig into shoreline wood. I did get a few bites but they were immediately dropping the jig. I knew they were in a negative mood. Switched to a lipless crank and worked the outside weed lines. The only way I as getting strikes was to tick the top of the weeds. When the bait hung up and ripped it off the weeds, that’s when the bait got t-boned. I managed a few before those winds really kicked up.

Once we get a consistent weather pattern, this bite will really take off.

. . .

TTYL

Ken “Husker” O’Malley

Husker Outdoors
Waterwerks fishing team

Hi Dale

The up and down cold windy weather slowed the bite a little on island lake but fish are still going. It takes slowing down the retrieve to almost a crawl. Beautiful prespawn largemouth bass were hitting a orange jackhammer bladed jig with a chartreuse kalins tickle tail grub. The lipless arucu shad crankbait is still getting hits. With the cool water the minnow bite with golden roaches is producing multiple species. My neighbor caught a big prespawn largemouth and I caught an odd looking nice size crappie. On the water Sunday evening with Jim The Chicken wing king Schultz another cold front blew in I caught a couple and the spring winds blew hard. If the weather stabilizes the bite will most surely improve. A loon was foraging last night as the sun set a sure sighn of the season.

On the music front it’s a private party on lake Fairfield for a top fan of Midnite mile. A possible gig with The conscious rockers at lake street pub in Roselle in April or may… details still to follow And but also we are ready to begin rehearsals in Milwaukee tomorrow night for our show in Vegas with Ray White and Gozortenplat in June!

Tight lines and good health!

Rob

The transition from Winter to Summer Pool will begin next week, April 1st. All attempts will be made to make the transition as smooth as possible for the official opening of boating season on May 1st.

Riverwalk is doing good, still getting on crappies got on a couple of smallies, biggest was 1.8 lbs, just drop shoting minnows with a aberdeen hook, was their on friday and got on a lil over a 3 man limit(ALL WERE RELEASED) for crappie, black and whites. Awesome day it was

Hey Dale,

. . .
Here’s a Fox River report from Len Cajic:

“The smallmouth bass are starting to be active on the Fox River. The river is at a good level right now. Some areas are wadeable but use caution. The smallmouth can be taken on smaller style baits. I had the most success with 1/16 oz. hairjigs in assorted colors and shallow diving crankbaits working the dam areas, slack water, and current seams.”

Hi Dale,

A couple of recent, brief outings along the Fox. Early Saturday afternoon I fished the main stem of the river and it was cold-maybe low 40s air temps at most. I started with a low-and-slow retrieve in slack water. No interest from any smallmouths. Counterintuitively, I got a few aggressive follows as I picked up to make subsequent casts; the faster I retrieved, the more interest they showed, which surprised me in such cold water. None of them actually ate, but they moved far faster than I thought capable in such frigid water. A lot of cold rain on Sunday night raised water levels and dropped temps even further. I made a few casts at a creek mouth last evening, in the hope that it might have been a little warmer. Water was surprisingly clear, but I never moved a fish. On the way out, I fished some likely looking water farther upstream in the creek. Water was much warmer there due to groundwater inflows. That’s where I got the small bass in the first image.

On a side note, my first mate (Jeffery Spirek) and I have been absolutely tearing up the sauger on the Illinois River!! Limits everytime we have gone this week!!

3 man limit we got in an hour and a half earlier in the week!!

Hey Dale,

I spent some time on the lakefront this weekend fishing for smallmouth. Finesse style baits weren’t working for me, but crankbaits came through on Friday. Very windy day. Picked up a nice 16.5 inch smallmouth and my first two coho salmon. All three were found close to the breakwall.

Coho doing good. Large minnows, even larger golden shiners, night crawlers, shad, shrimp, also a few on spoons. An occasional Brown trout and Steelhead trout caught in the mix as well as Northern. Perch still being caught south.

Have a great week.

Blues during a thunderstorm. Not a bad day caught 6 fish biggest 20 pounds 13 ,10,8 and two 5 pounders. Worked a half a day . Started fishing around 1pm did not get my first fish until 3 pm . I left at 4:30 due to the heavy rain and hail.

Not that we shouldn’t expect it, it is still only March! Dodged one snowfall without a scratch (snowflake) on 3/19. Wind the past week and some cold in the low teens wasn’t very fishermen friendly. Now, as of this report (3/23) snow has arrived, approx. 3” and still coming down. Wet and heavy will make trudging through a bit messy. You can put away your cleats for a bit, but pull on your tall boots.

Crappie: Very Good-Good – Fishable days have been the biggest hindrance. Wind made it tough to move about. Slow dropping jigs with plastics not easy in these winds. Tough to keep the tip-downs standing. Still nice catches. Using flip-shacks or hubs to keep the wind off, anglers reported good catches using Crappie minnows, rosies and even wigglers. Still a basin bite over 20-28’, with fish sometimes suspended 6-12’ off the bottom. Up in the weeds (8-12’) tough to properly work plastics. Dead sticking small minnows next to your jigging spoons (pimples, pinheads) for weight best.

Yellow Perch: Very Good-Good – Not the reports of previous week, but good action despite conditions. Wigglers over mud in 16-24’ reported best catches. Using flashy, heavy jigs to draw attention and keep bait down. Anglers using medium fts or large rosies to target larger fish. Some action in cabbage on shallower lakes.

Bluegill: Good-Fair – Not liking the conditions as much. Surprisingly some reports of large schools out over 20-24’ working under Crappies. The weed bite should return, especially on days where warm air will melt snow into ice.

Ice thickness has changed some despite the colder temps. Averaging 24” or so with some smaller lakes reporting only 14”. Most had brittle surfaces with better ice below. A couple areas near inlets had the opposite, hard 12” on top with soft, rotting ice below. Could be from warmer water moving through below the ice. Either way, it’s time to use caution. Safety picks, floatation jacket or vest, rope and a fishing buddy.

If forecast holds (right…) we should be good through the coming weekend. Heading into the first week of April could see things change.

Kurt Justice

Kurt’s Island Sports Shop
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Hey Dale hope all is well,

We did make it out on the big pond Sunday with my buddy Matt Corral and is wife Elina, however couldn’t get out to the mud flats for the perch, We tried though, let me tell you it was one hell of a ride.. anyhow we were able to troll offshore by the discharges along the Gary beaches fish were very lethargic Sunday, probably because of the crazy northwinds on Saturday and huge waves..we almost got a three-man limit, all fish in that 17″ to 20″ inch range. still fun day even though the winds were blowing hard… firing up the smoker tonight…

Tight lines all.

BEST REGARDS
Allen Shander

Coho action for trollers fishing from Hammond to portage doing well fishing 20 to 35ft of water with rattling thinfish, small crankbaits and dodgers and flys.

Coho action from shore fishing portage, port of Indiana and Michigan city pier is hit of miss. Squid, shrimp, crawlers, skein baits to use.

Perch action last week when wind allowed was still good in that 53 to 58ft just straight north of Gary light.

Crappie action on lake George in Hobart going good fishing the bridges with minnows.

Some steelhead action going on in nwi tributaries floating spawn saks and voodoo jigs tipped with waxworms.

The walleye bite has not slowed down, even with several cold fronts coming through. Water temp. was 36 degrees on Monday. Best action mornings and evening is still in the 5-7 ft. water depth, and try deep water mid day. River rigs, with shiners, and a stinger hook will put fish in the boat.