Root River Steelhead Report : Early March 2010

Finally, it is here. I got up to Racine and onto the Root by sunrise this past Sunday to do a little breaking in of my new St. Croix 8 weight accompanied by my Hatch 7+. This morning was fruitful in sun, scenery, and isolation on the water. I did not manage to tango with any Steelhead though. I think I may have been too ambitious as I got after some deep runs that I hoped would be holding early steelhead jockying for position on the beds just upstream. I should have stuck to slow drifting through the deepest of holes... but that just isn't my style.

Photographs are forthcoming but I'm on lunch at work at the moment and don't have the files here.

I took a ride to a spot downstream where I met some friends to do some ice fishing on the deep slow areas of the river directly preceding the harbor. The action was steady, although landed fish were few. Here is a photo of Keith and I with the first Steelhead of the season from the Root River. Thanks to Dan for the photo from his cell phone we snapped just before releasing this chrome male Steelhead.


Steelhead are staging in Lake Michigan and in Harbors directly below our tributaries now. We should expect to see substantial pushes of fish into the systems over the next week as air temps flirt with fifty all week and ice thins as meltoff exudes from the banks. Next weekend is a good bet for getting your first river Steelhead of the year.

Lake Michigan Ice and West Winds

Recently I posted photographs of a few miles of shore ice attached to Illinois as I flew over it toward New York.

The recent west winds have broken off the entire shoreline and sent it out toward Michigan. I checked out the satellite photos today and found these gems.

Here you can see the ice breaking from the shore.

Lake Michigan

Chicago Perch Fishing Report : 12/13/2009

Perch are finally showing up in numbers in the harbors near Chicago, fishing picked up this morning at Montrose Harbor around 8:30 a.m. today and continued to be good until I left at 10:30. Between myself and two friends we pulled up around 75 perch in those 2 hours, 14 of which were winter keeper Perch in the 7.5-10 inch range. Shrimp on a crappie rig on the bottom worked well, artificial minnows and small spinners tipped with bait worked as well. Larger Perch hit the spinners but fish were far between using that method.

The code for the Montrose Harbor Docks (B Dock at least) is 3-4-5 this winter, this allows you to get out into the harbor and off the wall, move often if perch aren't biting to find an active school.

A friend took home the keepers in the photograph above, I gave some of my keepers to him and released the rest. A quick note, I was checked by the DNR today for license and limit. It is great to see the DNR out there enforcing some law. I wouldn't dare keep more than 15 perch or fish without a license. There is no where to run or hide and the DNR will catch you if you are poaching.

As the ice comes be safe and careful out there, a lot of fun will be had this winter on the ice but do some reading if you haven't been out before and always use common sense.

White Bear Lake : Winter Carnival : Ice Fishing Tournament is Back!

White Bear Lake will host what was an old tradition, the Winter Carnival Ice Fishing Tournament, and event that used to draw 10,000 people to the lake for a day of frozen knuckles, flopping fish, and prizes. They shut the tournament down in 1982, but now, for the first time in nearly 30 years, it's going to be back for the 2010 carnival this winter.

Photograph by Great Lakes Angler (on Lake Michigan, sorry I don't have any ice on WBL)

The full story at WCCO News.