MIDWEST FISHING REPORT
PERCH: Season reopens Friday in Illinois waters of Lake Michigan. With variable weather, no guess on how it will be.
FROGGING: Illinois’ bullfrog (only) season opens Wednesday. Fishing license required. Daily bag, eight; possession, 16. Only by hook-and-line, gig, pitchfork, spear, bow-and-arrow, hand or landing net.
ILLINOIS FREE FISHING DAYS: Friday through Monday. No licenses or stamps needed, but other regulations apply.
AREA RIVERS: DuPAGE: Aaron Funke: Rain Sunday helped smallmouth bite on topwaters. Jon Foster: Fly-fishing bluegills and smallmouth on Woolly Buggers and Clouser Minnows. FOX: Vince Oppedisano: Better evenings. Smallmouth best on Ned Rig in current below dams. Dave’s Bait: Catfish on cutbait, stink bait or crawlers below dams or log jams. Smallmouth on small spinners and crankbaits below Algonquin dam. Walleye below dams or bridges on jig and leech. KANKAKEE: George Peters: Latesummer low; best in main current on all baits.
CHAIN: Triangle: Catfish good all over on stink bait, crawlers or roaches on bottom. Crappie near shorelines evenings. White bass in 8 to 12 feet on Marie. Walleye on main-lake points on leeches on slip-bobber rig or a splitshot and hook. Bluegills 8 feet and shallower on Channel. DELAVAN/GENEVA, WISCONSIN: Capt. Dave Duwe: Largemouth in 3 to 5 feet or on deep weed line (15 to 20 feet). Bigger bluegills in 12 to 18 feet. Crappie outside weed line (12 to 15 feet). GENEVA: Post-spawn largemouth best (8 to 10 feet) on Linn Pier or Trinkes. Rock bass aggressive in 8 to 12 feet.
LAKEFRONT: Steve Plaxco: 21-pound king out of Montrose on No Bananas. Jason ‘‘Special One’’ Le: First skamania of year. Capt. A.J. Cwiok: First super slam — steelhead, brown, Chinook, laker, coho, pink salmon — on Storm Warning out of Burnham. James Baranski: Landed 30 to 40 smallmouth (many dinks) with kids in 13 to 24 feet; Berkley Maxscent, flat worms and tubes working. Park Bait: Northeasterlies keeping drum active on crabs (live or soft-shell). Capt. Bob Poteshman: Out of Chicago, steady coho, some steelhead and a few lakers in 60 to 120 feet. Out of North Point, good coho, lakers and some kings in 120 to 200 feet. Salmon Stop: Fish scattered — taking spoon bite, trolling faster than last week — in 100 to 120 feet. Coho with a few kings and lakers. NORTHERN WISCONSIN: Ken ‘‘Husker’’ O’Malley: Postspawn female smallmouth outside of spawning flats, rock humps and points. Walleye in emerging weeds with schools of perch adjacent to deeper water. Kurt Justice: Smallmouth, largemouth and perch (weeds in 5 to 8 feet) good to very good. Pike good.
NORTHWEST INDIANA: Slez’s: Steelhead in tributaries floating spawn sacs or casting spinners. Steelhead at Michigan City Pier and Portage Riverwalk (varies from day to day) on shrimp or crawlers under floats or casting KO Wobblers or Arctic spinners. When winds allow, trollers in 60 to 80 feet straight out of Portage. SHABBONA: Boondocks: Hybrids on dam wall on chicken livers. Bluegills at restaurant point evenings. Bass strong in northeast corner.