MIDWEST FISHING REPORT
AREA LAKES: Ken “Husker” O’Malley: Largemouth good on Senkos on 2/0 weedless hook, pitched shallow; packs of bluegills shallow; crappie tight on wind-blown outside weed lines. Pete Lamar: Big bluegill, to 9½ inches, taking poppers.
AREA RIVERS: Chicago: Jeffrey Williams: Big carp very active; brother Jesse Gonzalez caught PB 40-pounder. Des Plaines: Sean Whippo: Multiple species active — rock bass, smallmouth, crappie, pike, bowfin (dead shiners). Fox: Lamar: With high water, smallmouth close to shore or in slack water in tributaries. Dicky’s: Multiple species in various stages of spawn; decent pike downstream of Montgomery Dam. Kankakee: George Peters: Jigs, spinner baits and surface lures all working for smallmouth.
CHAIN: Triangle: Best bites: (1) Bluegill on waxies and ice jigs; (2) white bass, try higher in column toward evening; (3) walleye, try main lake points or in current around bridges, slip bobber or Lindy rigs; (4) catfish, moved toward stinkbait; (5) crappie, Bluff or Marie. DELAVAN/GENEVA, WISCONSIN: Capt. Dave Duwe: Delavan: Fishing “outstanding.” Largemouth tight to shore; bluegill spawning in 2-4 feet; walleye on deep weed line in 15-20; smallmouth active in 12. Geneva: Fishing “very good.” Rock bass “everywhere,” best in 8-10 feet; walleye “excellent” on crawlers in 12-15; smallmouth on spawning flats; bluegill starting to spawn; largemouth around docks.
GREEN LAKE, WISCONSIN: Mike Norris: Fox Lake: Largemouth on everything, target rocks on north shore or flats in the Jug. Big Green: Smallmouth around the roadbed and shoreline rocks. Little Green: Largemouth staging to spawn; muskie good along emerging weed beds. HEIDECKE: O’Malley: Water into 70s; good trolling walleye on center dike, ledgers and humps on spinner rigs with crawlers. Jason “Special One” Le: Multiple species Sunday from shore. Bob Johnson: Walleye and smallmouth (in 5 feet off riprap or natural shore) on Texas rigs with craw trailer.
LAKEFRONT: Quinn Wunar: Picked off steelhead, one a day over the weekend, including one by a friend, at Burnham. Dan Bernstein: Bluegill to 8 inches at Belmont. Dr. Atul Mallik: Smallmouth going at Burnham. Park Bait: Few trying for drum at Horseshoe. Capt. Bob Poteshman: Coho, to 8 pounds, out of North Point, beach to inside the hill; find bait, then work area. Out of Chicago, decent coho in 25-40, very scattered Montrose to Wilmette; lakers very good in 85-120. Capt. Scott Wolfe: Out of Waukegan, most consistent from Lake Forest to Illinois Beach SP in 35-55; for kings, deeper than 100. PERCH: Season, Illinois waters, closed through June 15.
NORTHERN WISCONSIN: Kurt Justice: Walleye (weeds in 6-9 feet) and pike very good; crappie, smallmouth and largemouth good; muskie opener came in middle of spawn on many lakes.
NORTHWEST INDIANA: Slez’s: Steelhead at Portage Riverwalk and Michigan City pier, shrimp and crawlers or Arctic spinners; some coho and occasional steelhead or king in 45-55 straight out of Burns Ditch; lots of lakers, some coho, in 65-80, Burns Ditch and west.
SHABBONA: Boondocks: Hybrids on Hyper-Rattles; walleye good but small in deep trees and cribs; crappie good on rock points and cribs.
ST. JOSEPH, MICHIGAN: Tackle Haven: Kings and coho in 90-100; walleye good in lower river.
WOLF RIVER, WISCONSIN: Bill Stoeger: Walleye slowed on river, picking up on Poygan; some white bass around.