Chicago fishing: Coho, smallmouth, largemouth

The1 day I didn’t have the scale with me

Lemont quarry on a black/blue Chatterbait

and the line broke but she frooze for just a second and a reached down and put 4 fingers in her mouth. Might be my PB or in my top 3

The colder nights seem to be behind us. I am hearing the crappies are biting on a lot of lakes, channels and the Fox River. Fathead minnows on a hook or jig will do the trick. Bluegill are eating wax worms. Bass are getting active on jigs, square bills and chatter baits. I only have a few going after catfish but the customers that are, they are doing well on cut bait.

Hey Dale,

Here is a recap of the past weeks fishing.

Those warmer days also mean gusting winds. I took full advantage of those winds. The crappie were stacked up just outside a windblown spawning bay. The hot bait was a Wackem and Stackem Custom Baits split tail worked 2 feet down under a slip float. Water temps need to warm up some but they are getting ready.

Those winds can just be plain brutal. What’s the upside to that? Fish those wind blown shorelines! The bait of choice was a BPF lipless crank burned just over the top of the weeds. When the bait hung up on the weeds, that momentary pause and rip caused a reactionary bite. Looking at the extended forecast, we should be in for some stable temps finally.

. . .

TTYL

Ken “Husker” O’Malley

Husker Outdoors
Waterwerks fishing team

Hi Dale,

A couple of outings in the Aurora area: I did much better on the smaller body of water than the larger one. The night of your presentation at OBTU last week? I fished a small lake beforehand. With the up and down temperatures, the lakes have not warmed up much and it was a lot of work to catch a few small bass in the still-frigid water. The next evening, after an afternoon of warm rain, fish were much more active on a Kane County F.P pond; I got into some good-sized bluegills feeding aggressively. With some consistent daytime temps in the 70s starting mid-week, the lakes may begin to warm up and activate the fish.

Hi Dale

The up and down weather had the water temps up to 54 degrees. Hopefully it will not go in reverse this week. The bite over the Easter weekend was a bit tough with wind rain and cold stained water but some nice fish were caught with time on the water. Friday I got 7 hits and landed 5 nice largemouth on different baits including black and blue thunder cricket, orange slobberknocker and og Rocco crankbait. The bass are still scattered over prespawn flats in 3 to 7 feet. Clearing and warming water is needed to trigger movement to the shallows as the lilac are showing buds. The live bait bite was good for a variety of fish. Bluegill crappie and yellow bass were hitting red worms under slip floats. One of the biggest bass hit a medium golden roach minnow but I lost it at the dock. This should be the week things heat up unless the snow flies one more time. Also the lake was sprayed for algae control just days after my pondering the health of the lake.

Great Easter action with work

On the music front the show Saturday night wad a good old fashioned garage keg party with a great time had by all. Next for midnite mile is the rock and roll garage at Leonard’s place may 3rd. May 10th it’s Gozortenplat in Madison WI.

Lake Fairfield largemouth Tom Bernard at Saturday party.

Tight lines and good health!

Rob

Hi Dale

I went to lake delavan in the back channels on Thursday and Friday got my 25 fish limet both days with 1 64 oz white jigs and spikes under small bobbers

arden

Fishing Report – 4/21/2025

Mike Norris

Big Green: We are still dealing with changing weather conditions daily, but largemouth bass can be found in the T-Channels and Beyer’s Cove on warmer days. Reaction baits that cover a lot of water are the ticket to catching them. Smallmouth bass are still holding along primary drop-offs. Try vertically jigging with a plastic minnow imitating lure or a drop-shot rig.

Fox Lake: Largemouth bass are pre-spawn and searching out areas to bed. The bullrushes along the lake’s south shore and at the lake’s east end absorb sunlight and heat the surrounding water. I would start my search there. Cover a lot of water with fast-moving lures. Both a swimbait and a chatterbait are good choices.

Hey Dale,

The smallmouth lakefront bite has been a little slower for me over the past week. I’ve had to work and cover a lot of water to find every fish. The water temps are still in the upper 40’s, with the water temp dropping a couple of degrees late last week and then rising again. Most fish landed were smaller than the ones I was running into the prior few weeks– biggest one is pictured, caught around 6am over the weekend. I wonder if they’ll start spawning in the next couple of weeks.

Fishing is hot in Chicago.

With winds howling at times up to 40mph and waves ranging from 0.5 to 2.5 feet depending on where we were on the water, we set out at 7 a.m. and started setting lines at the mouth of Montrose, marking tons of fish and bait. We trolled all the way just north of the lighthouse before landing our first fish. From there, we continued trolling southwest from the lighthouse into shallower waters, and the fishing improved. I worked my way to Burnham, picking off fish one or two at a time while marking plenty more. We ended the day with plenty of fish to eat. Trolling speeds between 2.3 and 3.2 mph depending on the wind. Despite the conditions, the fishing remained manageable.

Coho for most of this past week were fantastic. Lots of limits. Hitting on large minnows, night crawlers and starting to get better on spoons. A variety of colors and sizes. A few nice Brown Trout caught. Chunks of Alewives, Large Shiners and crawlers on the bottom. 1 was about 10lbs. Nice Steelhead caught using hair jigs with wax worms in various harbors. Smallmouth activity good in and around all the harbors. No perch reports as of yet still think everyone fishing Salmon.

Have a great week!

Waukegan 4/21

Hi Dale.

The incredible fishing continues. Fast limit catches of coho are being taken from the state line to Lake Forest. The best areas seem to be directly at Waukegan and just South of Great Lakes.The Jimmy Fly Rooster behind a 00 red dodger with 1/2 ounce weights off yellowbirds and dipsey divers in 10 to 30 feet of water. Old school wobble lures like Hot N Tots and Tadpollys worked very well for some this weekend. This would be a good opportunity for us old guys to dust off those old lure boxes with body baits and wobble lures.

The time is now to get out. For kids this is the best time to take them. Fast action. Many charter boats don’t aggressively book charters until May, so there are boats available this week.

Capt Scott Wolfe
312-933-0552

With most of the lakes ice free in the Lakeland area (lakes still iced up to the North) and some nice warming days ahead, (highs in the 60’s) there is some pan fishing going on.

Crappies and Bluegills are coming into the shallows on sunny warm days to take advantage of the temps in the shallows. Anglers making long cast, so as not to spook the fish, using small weighted floats or Rocket Bobbers to deliver small Crappie minnows or wax worms on small jigs. Action has been best during the warmest times of the day (2pm – 5pm).

Not many reports on Yellow Perch, but some being caught on small minnows in 3-5’ of water.

Gamefish opener is May 3^rd. things look right on time as ice is going out and Walleyes starting to spawn. With the help of the 60-degree forecast, waters should gradually warm and weed growth should start, providing some good target areas for post spawn Walleyes on smaller to mi-sized lakes and possibly spawning Walleyes on the larger.

Don’t forget to take advantage of our line sale thru April 26^th. Stop in to check out the latest in new fish catching gear.

Kurt Justice

Kurt’s Island Sports Shop – Like us on FaceBook

Since last report a lot more kings have been caught from Hammond to new Buffalo some days just as many kings as coho

30 to 50ft of water using spoons, dodger and flys and thinfish.

Pier fishing has been slow

Crappie going good in lake George in Hobart around the bridges and below the dam the size of them very from small to good ones you must pick thru them.

Gills on three rivers county park are biting good on the back side. Beemoth and jumbo reds best.

Some steelhead still being caught under Main Street bridge in Hobart.

Hi Dale,

. . .

I had to make an attempt at catching walleyes at Shabbona late in the week. I don’t find them all that difficult to catch on the fly; if they’re around, whether in the Fox, the Wisconsin, Shabbona or a Nothwoods lake, I can catch a few. But I don’t have much success catching larger walleyes. So I’m really up against it at Shabbona with its 18 inch minimum. I started about half an hour before sunset and never moved a fish, which is not unusual for walleyes. But well after complete darkness, probably around 8:30, I got an 18 + inch fish and called it a night immediately . . . It turned out to be a male, which surprised me; the females usually run larger. On the way out, a beaver used his tail to salute my efforts. It sounded like a bowling ball being dropped from a height into the water.

Fishing Report – 4/21/2025

Mike Norris

. . .

Wisconsin River (Nekossa): Anglers are catching walleyes drifting with a Jig and half a crawler or vertically jigging current seams. On windy days, it is best to fish the narrower section of the river to manage boat control.

Water temp is in the low 50’s. Walleye action continues to be very good, and some early white bass are showing up. Minnows or crawlers working for walleye, and minnows or flies doing well on the bass.