SOME MAJOR-LEAGUE FUN
Excitement of opening day isn’t just for baseball
MARSEILLES, Ill. — Anthony and Roxie Tate were swinging bluegill up into the rocks Friday afternoon when I finally reached the east bank of LaSalle Lake. On my first cast, I pulled a 71⁄2-inch bluegill out.
That was my goal: Catch big bluegill on opening day at the cooling lake south of Seneca.
But it’s so easy to be distracted at LaSalle. There’s many options.
So many shore fishermen had big hybrid striped bass — 4- to 5-pounders — on stringers along the south bank that I spent more than an hour trying to catch one with a lure. Let me say, chicken liver is more effective than lures.
Just a reminder, the daily limit on striped bass, hybrid striped bass and/or white bass at LaSalle is 10, only three of which may be 17 inches or longer.
The Tates, faithful readers from Chicago, had a bunch of channel catfish and one big hybrid when I first met them. He said, “The paper said there were big bluegills.’’
I told him on the east bank and I was headed there, eventually. They packed up and walked out ahead of me.
An east wind in the afternoon thinned the ranks. When I finally made the east bank, it was everything fisheries biologist Ken Clodfelter had suggested for bluegills on the east bank and south side of the center dike.
I caught only one smaller than 7 inches and two topped 8 inches: thick, shouldered bluegill. I used an ice jig tipped with a red worm or wax worm, switching when action slowed.
Anthony, whom I’ve bumped into on several opening days, said, “You wondered why more people don’t do the bluegills? For some of us, it is the walk.’’
He has a point. They were fishing wax worms on a plain hook under a float. The counterpoint came a few minutes later.
“I can’t do no more, they are jumping out of the bucket,’’ he said. They headed in. I wanted one more good one and switched to a black Mepps spinner (a good multi-species bait at LaSalle). It paid off with an 8-inch male in spawning colors. It was time. From my spot on the east bank to my car was a 48-minute trek with gear and a bag of keeper bluegill.
The new concessionaire, after all these years, is expected shortly. In March, LaSalle is open 6 a.m. to sunset, Wednesday through Sunday.