6/17/2009 : A slow, foggy morning on the wall

I got out to the normal spot on the seawall this morning and set up shop on my favorite point above the perch and began fishing. I got a good strong hit right away and pulled up a fighter of a rockbass. Back he went. I fished the next 40 minutes or so without so much as a tap. I then moved further down the wall and picked up one right away. The guys near me got some in their baskets as well.

I rounded up the morning with just a couple of keepers, which had both alewife and softshells in their stomachs. This is the first time that softshells have been in the stomachs of these yellow and gold bandits. My fish were again landed on tiny flukes on 1/16th oz. jigs.

Today I witnessed something fantastic at first light. A large bird that I have yet to identify. Some big prehistoric looking fellow with a white body, black cap to its crest and yellow beak sat staring across the harbor at me for 30 minutes or so. It was perched (no pun intended) on the edge of the wall watching me and watching the water, I would assume for fish. I also saw a beautiful kingfisher soar by right in front of me. I always like to watch the fishing birds cannon into the water in search of their breakfast.

More to come soon, west winds may finally be coming later this week, and my hopes are high that the end of the month could be saved if this is the case.

Chicago Jumbo Perch : 6/14/2009

This fishing has slowed greatly. A combination of the coldest june on record, driving north-east winds for the last week, and no sun has slowed the bite to a crawl. The 12 or so guys on the wall couldn't have combined their fish to make a 1 man limit in 3 hours of fishing Sunday Morning. The sunrise was fantastic and more than made up for the lack of perch.

Additionally the water clarity was exemplary. You could see gobies on the bottom in more than 15 feet of water from on the jetties. The clearest I have seen it this year.

Chicago Fishing Report : 6/13/2009

The driving north and east winds have slowed down perch fishing on the lake front. The bite has been getting earlier and earlier. A week ago, 5:30-6:15 a.m. was when the bite was on, it has slowly backed down to 4:15-5:00. This means the early bird gets the word, the really early bird.

Cold temperatures have not helped things advance and I doubt more perch are being driven in from the depths. What last week was easy morning limits has turned into half a dozen being an average morning session.

Last night when things got calm the lake really died in terms of a perch bite. I didn't hear of anyone getting more than a stray here and there.

Here's hoping that june starts feeling more like june, and less like late april.

Chicago Perch Fishing : 6/12/2009

I made the trip to the wall this morning, I arrived at 4:45, still dark I began fishing inside the harbor to see if there was any action inside. I immidiatly starting getting light taps but couldn't connect. After around 5 casts I made the walk out to the lake side.

I noticed all the alewifes swimming right under the wall, I hooked up with a nice 10 1/2" perch on my first cast. Today swinging two 1/16th oz. jigs off a 3 way swivel, with the braid I spooled up last night I was able to feel every bite. I got a handfull by 5:15, at that time the bite shut off almost immidiatly. Upon filleting the fish I learned why.

Those alewifes directly below the pier were what had brought in the perch. I could see them flashing down in the depths and I am sure it was a flurry of feeding activity. In the stomachs of the 5 fish I filleted this morning I took 8 fresh alewifes out of their stomachs, as well as some mostly digested ones. This is a good lesson to take from today, when there are schools of small alewifes and you are fishing with 6cm plastic minnow immitators, you might end up with a fast bite resulting in a full stringer.

Great Lakes Restoration : A different view from Detroit

Well, I can't say I agree with everything in this article, I think that the great lakes is one of our nation's most valuable resources and each and every head turned to it helps. This article from Eric Sharp is certainly worth a read.

You can take a look at the article : here.

I think the idea of restoring the great lakes to an arbitrary point is something worth thinking about. We'll never be able to restore them to the way they were when only native americans lived on their shores, or to a point preceding even them. I'd like to think that some progress could be made, or at least regression could be avoided.

There is plenty of good information in the article, enjoy the read!

Lake Michigan Perch Report : a lovely morning

I got my 14" jumbo this morning!! In fact, it was 14.5". It was caught on the lake front using a double jig fishing tiny flukes.

I had a couple others come unbuttoned on the way in but nothing near the size of this one. I'm still learning the artificials but I'm making headway. I'll be out there at the seawall again at 4:00 a.m.!

They are there for the taking, go get 'em!

13.75" Jumbo Perch, My first chicago jumbo

Well I biked back out to the harbor yesterday and fished for perch, I needed to work on my technique with artificials. I hooked up with a nice 10" perch almost right away. I then took a walk out to the lake side and began fishing in the waves.

My 13.75 inch perch. It was huge, I'm so excited to finally have caught one of these monsters. I'm headed out for the evening bit tonight and will be out at dawn tomorrow morning. Get out there and hammer them readers! They're out there for the taking.

Daily Chicago Perch Fishing Report : 6/9/2009

I got out this morning extra early anticipating a great bite because of the hard west wind blowing yesterday. I arrived at 3:45 a.m. and set up next to a guy named Tommy, the only other angler there. We talked for around an hour without so much as a bite. As the sun started to rise we moved out to the lake from the harbor and immidiatly started getting fish. I only ended up with 2 decent sized perch. A friend of mine got 5 and some others got around 10. The fast action lasted something like 25 minutes. After that it was done for the rest of the morning.

Pretty dissapointing. The action has been very on and off and the on times sometimes only last 15 minutes or so. Limits are attainable but the fishing gods have not been kind to me so far this June. 9 or 10 hours of perching done, 5 keepers.

I'll hit it right one of these mornings!

Chicago Shore Fishing Report, Jumbo Perch, 6/8/2009

I couldn't leave the lake alone... Not even for a day. I am craving a stringer full of jumbos, and I really wanted to try out the new rigs I tied up last night. I got to my favorite spot at around 4:15 in the afternoon, I only fished for an hour but it was pretty steady. Every 4 or 5 minutes someone would pull one in. I got a large rock bass which I released along with a few other small perch. I kept one 10 1/4" perch which had a large emerald shiner in it's stomach.

Heading out in the morning bright (actually proably still very dark), and early.

Jumbo Perch Fishing in Chicago 6/7/2009

Jumbo's were practically jumping on stringers this morning, unfortunatly it was everone elses stringers... not mine. My tactics from Navy Pier in the dead of winter using crappie rigs and shrimp pieces is not working now. I just picked up some jig heads and artificials so tomorrow morning I'm going to try and repeat the performances of everyone else with limits of 12-14 inch fish.

There is always a new way to fish that works better than the way you are fishing now it would seem.