MIDWEST FISHING REPORT
NOTE: With the heat forecast this weekend, use extra care if releasing fish and extra ice if keeping them.
AREA LAKES: Pond fishing may be the best choice, especially evenings for largemouth, as Ken “Husker” O’Malley noted. Focus on lakes with deeper water and work Senkos along outside weed lines along steep drops for the last hour and a half of light.
AREA RIVERS: CALUMET: Billy Miller/Ryan Whitacre: Good evening topwater bite for bass. CHICAGO: Riverwalk officially open. Jeffrey Williams: Largemouth to 4 pounds, channel catfish to 5 on Monday. DuPAGE: Larry Narro: Smallmouth “on fire.” KANKAKEE: Prime for wading. FOX: Paul Pezalla: Catching a couple of big carp daily on the fly.
CHAIN: Triangle: Catfish and flatheads (on bullheads or bluegill) are top bites; walleye consistent around bridges and moving water; bass on weed lines.
COOLING LAKES/MAZONIA: Open 6 a.m. to sunset. BRAIDWOOD: Minor fish kill last week, but fishing going on. HEIDECKE: Readers reported some dead carp, but biologist Seth Love didn’t find a fish kill. LaSALLE: A species-wide fish kill around the launch last week, but fishing continues.
DELAVAN/GENEVA, WIS.: Dave Duwe: DELAVAN: Largemouth excellent in slop on bright days or topwaters near shoreline structure; perch best on west end; bluegill in 18-19 feet; pike on deep weed lines; walleye are consistent at dawn or dusk. GENEVA: Bluegill in 16-20 feet; rock bass in 10-12; lakers in 75-80 at first light or dusk; smallmouth moved off weed lines; largemouth on topwaters or Carolina rigging; walleye at night when wind is blowing.
GREEN LAKE, WIS.: Mike Norris: BIG GREEN: Smallmouth improved with cool down on tubes on bottom near rocky areas or leeches trolled outside weed lines; largemouth on topwaters early and late. LITTLE GREEN: Crappie best, but heat drove them deeper, drift in 12-15 feet.
LAKEFRONT: Officially closed in Chicago, but people riding or biking in to fish. Fisherman’s parking passes are not being sold while lakefront officially closed. Off Chicago, best has been 70-100 feet or around R-4 worth ride for coho; out of North Point, it’s from the inside of hill to the hill. Capt. Scott Wolfe: Out of Waukegan, stable weather made for excellent fishing for coho, lakers and steelhead in 80-110 feet; for shore anglers, some steelhead showing in harbor.
N. WIS.: Kurt Justice: A break in the heat dropped surfaces to low to mid-80s; largemouth (in cabbage flats in 8-12 feet or morning/ evening topwaters), smallmouth (drop-shotting Gulp! Alive! minnows or Senkos along outside cabbage or coontail edges) and bluegill are very good; crappie, perch, walleye and pike are good. NW IND.: Slez’s: For perch, try outside Burns Ditch outside the mud line in 25-35 feet and from the Donut to Michigan City; lots of bluegills at Willow Slough on crickets or red wigglers; before blow, best for salmon/trout was 70-100 out of Burns Ditch and east.
SHABBONA: Lakeside: Heat (water in high 80s and low 90s) slowed effort, some bass hiding in and around the weeds; catfish are being caught.