Chicago fishing: Spring trout opens Saturday and lakefront smallmouth and coho keep going

Good evening Dale.

Jim Hall here from Mt Greenwood.

Just thought I’d share my daughter Gwen’s (11years old) nice catch the other day at her Grandpa Jerry’s private club.

She was throwing a bladed jig when this nice 3-1/2lber hit. She did a great job fighting it and getting it close to the dock so I could lip it.

Fish was photographed and released

Hey Dale,

Here’s a recap of this past week’s fishing.

The inconsistent weather of this spring continues. Warm one day and cold the next.

Despite those gusty winds today, the 80 degree day fired up those gills that made for one excellent mid afternoon bite. The bait of choice was a Wackem and Stackem Custom Baits micro split tail on a 1/80 jig. Water temps are still in the low 50’s, so the focus was right on the outside weed lines. To far out or in and no bites, so accurate casts was a must. It was certainly nice to be out in just a shirt today.

Today was the true definition of junk fishing. I couldn’t establish a pattern no matter what. Finally a consistent bite window developed late when I was just about to hang it up. A spinner bait worked along the outside weed line adjacent to deeper water got them to go. With water temps near 50, we need a consistent streak of warmer days to get those bass to start staging again.

Last Saturday the U.S. Coast Guard did boat safety inspections at Water Werks Marine.

TTYL

Ken “Husker” O’Malley

Husker Outdoors
Waterwerks fishing team

April 1st and it only 29 degrees to start the day! Don’t forget you need a new license and trout and salmon stamps for the 2025.

Put and take trout season opener is Saturday April 5th. Use small spoons, spinners, prepared trout bait or wax worms and you will catch some.

The water temperatures are going to get warmer quickly as soon as we don’t have nighttime temperatures in the twenties and thirties. Fish the northern sides of the lakes and ponds and those with a dark bottom. They heat up quickly.

Crappie are in the channels provided they have enough water. Use small minnows or wax worms.

Hi Dale,

I fished some local ponds throughout last week and the fishing got progressively better as temps warmed. Wednesday afternoon all I got was a few half-hearted taps from some small bluegills; Friday I fished a small wet fly under a foam popper just to see if they had a preference-all fish came on the wet fly, subsurface. The fish in the attachment is from the weekend, the first fish of the year taken on the surface, on a small dry; more than a few other bluegills also hit on the surface. I went back later in the day, after the wind had really started howling, to target bass. One other angler out and he said the bass were on fire: he had lost count of how many he’d caught on an adjacent pond. While I was walking past, he caught bass on consecutive casts. I quit after reaching double digits, even though there was still daylight left. The high winds bothered us a lot more than it bothered the fish.

Hi Dale

The season is progressing in Island Lake along with the wild weather as daffodils and crocuses are blooming along with the forsythia shrub. Hyacinths showing color and perennials pushing through. Friday after school, i took some of the fishing club students to Busse as the warm wind blew in. Nobody in the area was catching anything, but the summerlike sunset was spectacular. The tornado like storm Sunday ripped the bud covers from the silver maple trees. Before the storms, I had the boat out and got some aggressive hits from prespawn largemouth bass on an orange slobberknocker with chartreuse kalins tickle tail grub. The fish were out away from shore staging on flats with grass in 3 to 6 feet of water. The lunar table was right as the fish were hitting aggressive before the front and with a new moon. I was just able to get home and the boat into the garage as the deluge hit. On Monday I fished off the dock with minnows under slip floats. The water was 54 degrees and a light ripple taking the floats in a good drift was a perfect situation. A multi species slam of sorts starting with beautiful crappies on fathead minnows, a northern pike on large golden roach minnow, big prespawn largemouth, and as the sun was setting the cool water yellow Bullhead catfish started to bite. This is the kind of spring action when you needed more bait.

On the music front it’s April 19 at Patti’s house on Lake Fairfield for Amy’s big 50th Birthday party. Will be bringing the rods. Gozortenplat at club Garibaldi in Milwaukee May 29th as a warm-up show for June 7th in Las Vegas. THE conscious rockers are looking to book show at the new location of Wild Hare at fulton Street Market. Bringing the music forward with the season!

Tight lines and good health!

Rob

Dale…. Rock bass were stacked up under the RT 52 bridge on the Du Page river today…. beetle spin with shad trailer…..

Hey Dale,

Here’s a Fox River report from Len Cajic:

“Fishing for smallmouth bass on the Fox River has been slow the last week. The water clarity is stained / dirty. The water level seems to have come down a little bit. The river is still wadable. Continue to use caution when navigating because the current can be strong in some areas. You can find smallmouth fishing close to structure and the dam areas. Fishing along current seams, slack water, and pockets are also producing. The smallmouth were not hitting moving baits. The baits that produced well were 2.5″ and 2.75″ Tubes, 1/16 ox. Hairjigs, and Ned Rig style baits dragged along the bottom. The color of the lures didn’t seem to matter.”

Everglades City, FL: We’re experiencing a string of warm and sunny days, and if you can escape the wind, the saltwater fishing is on fire. Spotted sea trout cruising in 2–4 feet of water on grass flats out in the Gulf. Cast for them with an imitation shrimp on a popping cork rig, or use live shrimp if available. Redfish are holding near current breaks around the islands. Use a cut-up piece of mullet. Snook in mangrove pockets where current breaks exist. Either live pilchards or mullet chunks can be used here.

Mike Norris

Hey Dale,

. . .

I was able to fish the lakefront some more last week targeting smallmouth. I found a couple of fish on the ned rig close to the breakwall earlier in the week. On Saturday I had the best day of smallmouth fishing I’ve ever had. Water temperature was around 45 degrees plus maybe a few degrees. North wind, water clarity was pretty good. Not sure if these fish are getting ready to spawn yet but they were moving in over the weekend for sure. I caught six fish and missed one, but the size was there. I landed a 21 incher, 20.5, 19.5 and another fish in that class that I didn’t measure (pictured). I was using a goby imitation, fished very slowly along the bottom. Thanks to the angler who told me he had caught a few that way early in the day.

Went for the coho but stayed for the smallmouth. Blade bait on a break wall

Hi Dale,

I got out fishing for the first time this season on Saturday. Decided to try throwing jerkbaits for pike down at 31st Street Harbor. Ended up landing this nice 17 inch smallmouth instead! Didn’t have a scale, but felt like 2-2.5 lbs. Really solid fish, and definitely not what I was expecting. I guess that’s why I love fishing the lake this time of year…

Take care,

Dan Smykowski

Hi Dale,

A solo trip to the big pond today. Launched out of Diversey harbor this time. Was targeting coho. Headed to the breakwall by the lighthouse. The bite was pretty consistent. Boated my limit of 4 coho’s and 1 brown trout within 90 minutes. Since it was still early I decided to explore some other areas. Fished the Monroe harbor area for a bit for smallmouth, but no luck. Luckily I bought a perch rod with me and had some night crawlers left over from my previous trip. I headed to Navy Pier to see if there were any perch around. After 30 minutes of searching, I found a pretty good pod of them near the tour boats that were docked. The first perch landed was a 12″. After boating that I knew it was game on! The perch bite was very very light. Once I figured them out, I boated a limit of 15 in the next 2 hours. Biggest was just over 13″. It was a great day on the water!

Jim Shell

Hi good morning

Coho bite is good especially on days lake has some chop. Large minnows and crawlers seem to be the baits of choice but also shrimp, spawn sacs etc… Still nice Northerns in the mix. A few nice Smallmouth in and around the harbors.

Shop Hours are now 6am to 7pm 7 days a week.

Have a great week!

Tres Holes Spring Break Still some ice on Lakes, but too much open water to risk venturing out 30 Days until the Wisconsin Opener

Inconsistent weather this last week including an ice storm Saturday night into Sunday morning (3/29-3/30) followed by a wintery mix made for very few reports. Shorelines can be iffy especially on the warmer sunny days but some anglers were “planking” out earlier in the week with some success.

Yellow Perch: Very Good-Good – Deep Perch in 16-24’ being caught using wigglers. Others catching decent Perch as shallow as 4’, but 8-14’ being the more common theme. Wigglers and rosies producing best whatever your method.

Crappie: Good – Less wind, for the most part, has been good for tip-downs with rosies or Crappie minnows. Also jigs tipped with dark plastics producing. Less reports of a deep basin bite 20-26’ (although not done yet). Slowly more reports in 8-14’ also finding fish.

Bluegill: Good-Fair? – Very few people targeting but the few who did gave OK reports. Tipping jigs or small spoon with waxies or spikes working in shallow weeds of 4-10’.

Looks like another storm may be dropping a couple of inches in the Northland area overnight and into tomorrow. With temps this week ranging from the upper 40’s Fri/Sat (4/3-4/4) to lows at night as cold as the upper teens the ice isn’t going anywhere YET. Shorelines will be the battle to get access in some spots (north sides of lakes being the biggest challenge). Safest bet getting on would be south end of lakes. Ice thickness still 20” plus with still about a foot on smaller lakes.

*** April Spools ***
Get your reels ready for open water
Sale $$ thru April 27^th

No Fooling

Kurt Justice

Kurt’s Island Sports Shop
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Perch action still decent straight north of Gary light in 53 to 58ft of water if the wind allows the boaters out there.

Coho action solid for trollers from Hammond to Michigan city once you find a pocket of them. Rattling thinfish and dodgers and flys best. Most action is in 15 to 35ft of water.

Coho fishing for shore fisherman is day to day one day good next day super slow. East Chicago, Portage Riverwalk, Port of Indiana and Michigan City Peir are the places to go. Squid, skein, shrimp and crawlers are baits to use. Some being caught casting lil Cleo’s and ko wobblers

Crappie action for some on wolf lake, lake George Hobart and in the river down from portage public marina.

Stocked trout in crown point at the lake county fairgrounds. Jumbo redworms, waxworms and power bait best baits. Casting lil rooster tails or money clip spoons work well also.

The Wisconsin River is on fire

Recent rains have brought the the river up to minor flood stage in Outagamie County, slow no wake in effect. Walleye bite slowed a bit with water temp going down and the water is dirty with the runoff.