Chicago fishing: Lakefront spurts of salmon and trout while inland fishing heats up

Good morning Dale, As you know this has been an up and down Coho season this year. I was talking to Corey at Park Bait and was telling him, I haven’t caught a decent fish in months. I think I have 4 fish for the year. You know how the more you suffer the bigger the fish, well being out there in the cold,rain and gale force winds for hours finally paid off. This gorgeous Steelhead 15 lbs was caught last night at Diversy ( lakeside) on a dead alewive, fishing off the bottom. I started around 4:30 PM and was about to wrap it up around 8:00 pm when my rod started tapping. I thought it was a small coho or brown nibbling on the bait. Felt a little tug, set the hook and Bam! It took off like a torpedo! 15 minutes later had him n the net and the rest is history. Man was she clean! No lamprey marks or growths. Chrome thru and thru.This beauty is headed straight to the smoker! Have a great day!

Hi Dale,I wanted to give you a smelt report. We caught a small pike w a lure stuck in its throat and gill plates. We caught hundreds of alewives in the 5/8″ net. Nothing in the smaller mesh 3/8″ net. No smelt were caught I had to operate on the fish clipping the barbs on the trebles. I was successful and was able to release it alive. The highlight of the evening for me anyway.That fish must have been chewing and banging it against things for days. After further research, I found out to was a Yozuri floating yellow perch pattern pins minnow. I love it.

Spring fishing is here! If we can get some days that the winds aren’t blowing 20mph! Many fish , bass and panfish are moving into the shallow water. Minnows and wax worms will work well for the panfish.

For the bass spinner baits. Chatter baits and soft plastics will all work. Don’t underestimate the top water bite for bass this time of year it’s excellent!

Hi DaleThe cold nights and cool windy days had the water temperatures down to 57. The water remains high and muddy. I saw the first goldfinch in summer bright yellow plumage and the first goslings swimming with their family. I was getting fewer bites so i had to slow down and really feel for bites. The 5 inch senko in black and blue got some nice still pre spawners to hit in very shallow water in wind protected areas. The bluegill anglers were catching bluegill in the same backwater area near an aerator with bobber and worms. My neighbor jim got another big crappie on a golden roach minnows. There were not many anglers out as it was quite cool and the wind seems relentless.In the music front i was able to perform for one of the special education classes as part of their music unit. What a joy and a pleasure to share my story and music with young people and possibly inspire them to tey music. Saturday midnite mile returned to the Irish mill. Its like goung back to the home lake or pond where you started out fishing the old Berkeley piwer worm. It re sets and recalibrates things in a way. Next show is june 7th wi3the conscious rockers at main street outfitters in waucanda. Gozortenplat rehearsals are ongoing and the band sounds tight.Tight lines and good health! Rob

Hey Dale,

Here is a recap from this weeks fishing

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A trip out to Braidwood was in order today with my good friend Tom Le. No surprise we were greeted with red flag conditions. Water temps on the hot side were 68-70 while on the cold side 58. Temps have definitely come down some over the past week. No real pattern developed throughout the day. Bass were caught off shore, tight to shoreline cover, ledges, and ditches. A multitude of presentations produced, but a stik worm in cosmic from Pandemic Plastix brought in a few keepers with those bluebird sky’s. A few blue cats were brought topside as well. One sliced up my thumb pretty good. Not a good idea to lip those fellas.

. . .

TTYL

Ken “Husker” O’Malley

Husker Outdoors

Waterwerks fishing team

On the riverwalk on state st, jigginh a ultralight while drop shotung for crappie and Bass, he felt weight and thought it was a good size smallmouth, he got it in to a surprise, bait was a fathead minnow

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.

Catfishing continues to be good on the Fox River. Cut bait is working along with stink bait.

Hi Dale, I want to share some photos from yesterday’s IHSA conference tournament on Heidicke. Timmy Raducka a senior at Plainfield South caught 3 muskie while throwing a jig for bass. Here are photos of two of them. Cam [Prokop’s son] and Sophia were able to grind out a second place for Plainfield South. While practicing for the tournament we caught multiple walleye using general bass techniques. The lake is awesome for multiple species right now.

Hey Dale,

Here is a recap from this weeks fishing

It was less than ideal conditions today for the first wading trip of the season on the Kankakee. Cold front conditions with stiff winds, high water conditions, and dropping water temps. Needless to say there wasn’t much wading going on. The focus was working flooded shoreline cover and behind humps not far from shore. Square bill cranks got the call first with no success. Time to switch to swim baits on a All-Terrain Tackle smasher head. That was the winning ticket as the big smallies came to play including my PB for that river. I can’t stress the importance of scouting during low water conditions. That allowed me to know exactly where those humps were with the high water conditions. The bass were tucked in behind them just waiting for an easy meal. I was more than accomadating to them. What a great day on the river today with plenty of wildlife as well.

. . .

TTYL

Ken “Husker” O’Malley

Husker Outdoors

Waterwerks fishing team

We got 23 walleye one day… got blown off Friday and Saturday…came home early

Jigging and zipping

Oak Harbor

Yep it’s me ,I hit it about 1:50pm yesterday and landed it about 2ish. 63st pier

Biggest brown I’ve ever landed,,, today’s my birthday so a treat to myself

Coho report pretty much staying the same. Hitting large minnows and crawlers as well as shrimp, spawn sacs, shad etc…Winds N/E they bite good other winds slow them down. Alewives are moving closer to shore so that is getting them more active closer to shore for those casting lures. Brown Trout still in that mix. No Perch or Smelt reports. Smallmouth activity picking up in and around the harbors. A couple Northerns caught in the area. Just get out and fish you never know what will be on the end of your hook!Have a great week!

Waukegan 4/22Hi Dale. Now is the time for coho. The entire lakefront from Carthage College in Wisconsin to East Chicago, Indiana is just loaded. Our boats in Waukegan limited out in 2 hours or less every trip this week. 24 to 29 feet anywhere seemed to be good. Everything on peanut Jimmy Fly Trolling Flys. Dark green was a key. Any fly with some dark green was getting crushed this week.People always ask about when to take kids out and the answer is now. It’s fast action for the shortest of attention spans.Attached [above] is a full rack on Abagail. Above average size for this time of year.Capt Scott Wolfe312-933-0552.Scott R Wolfe

We’re back…Per usual, April showed us what April can be. Cold and wind this past week disrupted the nice warm up that seemed to be occurring. With limited options to the fishing here in the Northwoods (panfish and catch & release Bass) what was a slowly improving bite came to a crashing halt.No worries, not a lot of anglers take advantage of the super early open water opportunities for panfish at times like these. But it can be productive under the right conditions.On warming day, with air temps in the 50’s and 60’s, Crappies and Gills will congregate in the shallows to warm themselves and feed on invertebrates (Perch have or will be spawning further out away from these areas). These Gills and Crappies are not spawning, as some think, just collecting heat to help with the development of their eggs. These fish can be in as little as one foot of water and very spooky. Stay as far back as a long cast will allow to offer up waxies, leaf worms, small minnows or tiny tube jigs. Heavy, weighted floats, such as Rocket Bobbers, will help with these casts.Forecast of highs in the 50’s, maybe low 60’s with bright sun will be best.We are extending our line sale through April 28th, so take advantage and get freshly spooled.As a reminder, the Lake Tomahawk/Lake Minocqua Chain will NOT be open to hook and line angling for Walleye at the time of the opener. In fact, if the LDF tribe does not spear Walleyes (they have not as of this writing) then the chain will remain closed until the 2025 opener.As Walleyes For Tomorrow has asked in the past, please refrain from targeting Walleyes on the chain as we continue to work to rehabilitate the population.Kurt JusticeKurt’s Island Sports Shop – Like us on Face

Coho action good out of east Chicago the way the wind has been blowing the wall there protects you and boaters make it out a lot of days.Action for coho fishing out of portage and Michigan city still good most days when the wind allows boaters out.Dodgers flys, spoons and rattling thinfish doing the job.Crappie action going good on potato creek state park using minnows fishing the stumps.Wolf lake both Indiana and Illinois side giving up a variety of fish.Slez’s Bait Shop has musky suckers in stock.

Hi Dale,

I went to Shabbona late last week to try for some walleyes. My thoughts on fishing for walleyes amounts to the less light, the better. I’d intended to get there in the early evening, while there is still enough daylight to get set up and then fish until closing time. But the winds were absolutely howling so I held off until the next morning when things were calmer. The park doesn’t open until after first light and a few minutes before sunrise. But conditions were still good: a lot of cloud cover and some stained water from all the wind and rain. I thought the walleyes might still be in close to shore, but I never found any. I did get a nice channel cat on a yellow streamer and lost something else while fishing on one of the dikes; it felt like a bass or a small catfish but I never got a look at it to confirm. Lots of other activities going on: pheasants cackling loudly, including one that couldn’t have been more than a few meters from the parking area. There were some black shapes along the dam when I got there and I thought they were turkeys at first. But they let me walk up on them without fleeing, so it was obvious they weren’t turkeys at that point. Turned out to be turkey vultures. I did eventually see a small flock of turkeys in an ag field while driving towards the exit after fishing.

Water temp 48.4 going out Monday morning. The river is dropping slowly and the male walleye are coming down. We had 63 white bass today. Working deep water and current breaks with rigs, minnows outdid the flies