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PostPosted: Mon Mar 15, 2021 6:15 pm • # 1 
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Location: Suburban Chicago
Out of the blue one of my fishing buddies gave me a call and asked if I would like to go fishing on Sunday (yesterday). Given Covid and isolation it’s been a while since I have seen many of my friends so of course I said yes.
The weather around which had been in the 60’s yesterday was going to nosedive yesterday. I woke up to a stiff and cold northeast wind window with temperature in the low 40’s and dropping. So needless to say I wasn’t expecting much. We met up at a suburban retention pond. With wind blowing as hard as it was I was surprised I was still able to cast a line. Needless to say I didn’t catch anything. My buddy, using a spinning rig and a wacky was able to catch 4 small largemouth between 8 and 12 inches long. The wind was getting to be a bit much and I was ready to go home but he suggested we try a local stream. He told me there was an eddy where he caught some rock bass earlier and it could be fished from shore without wading. That was good news considering I didn’t bring my waders.
The spot he wanted to fish was a deeper area by a bridge pylon.
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I started out at the head of a riffle that led into the eddy. But the current was too fast and the chartreuse mop fly was not heavy enough to get to the bottom. So I moved down to a quieter area and this was the game changer. With the quieter water I switched to a size 10 olive pine squirrel zonker. The first cast led to this bluegill.
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After that is was game on. I caught a few more bluegills and the then the rock bass showed up.
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I was surprised to see this crappie but they were there too.

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The final fish of the day ended up being this one and only pumpkinseed (I think).
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I caught about 20+ bluegills, rock bass, crappies and pumpkinseeds with the vast majority being bluegills and rock bass with a few crappies and one pumpkinseed thrown in. The flies that worked was a size 8 chartreuse mop fly, a size 10 olive pine squirrel zonker, and a size 10 wee Willie wiggler(a Craig Reindeau creation). A floating weight forward line along with a 9’ 5x leader. The unweighted zonker was the most effective. A very slow retrieve was used and slowly lifting the fly would trigger a strike.
The strong wind and temperatures now in the 30’s was chilling me to the bone. Time for us to leave.The fish were small but were fun. And considering the terrible weather conditions it was a pleasant surprise to see the fish were hitting.
One thing I learned is that don’t let bad weather conditions keep you from fishing.


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 7:06 am • # 2 
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Location: Rusagonis, New Brunswick, Canada
Looks like a good day on the water with a friend. And how valuable has THAT become?
brent


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 7:45 am • # 3 
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Looks like a fun day with some nice catches. And, as wheezeburnt said, time on the water with friends has been a rare commodity this past year. Thanks for sharing.


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 7:51 am • # 4 
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Location: Manitoba
Thanks for the report, nice to see that even the “northerners” are starting to catch fish. That must mean there is hope for those of us who live just a wee bit further north.

Harry


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 10:46 am • # 5 
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Free2Fish wrote:
Thanks for the report, nice to see that even the “northerners” are starting to catch fish. That must mean there is hope for those of us who live just a wee bit further north.Harry


:lol No kidding. We're heading for an early (well, earlier) spring this year; how's it looking in Manitoba?
brent


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 11:31 am • # 6 
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love the report . if we had fish in this area and if i had a friend i would call him / her to go fishing . good report .


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:04 pm • # 7 
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wheezeburnt wrote:
Free2Fish wrote:
Thanks for the report, nice to see that even the “northerners” are starting to catch fish. That must mean there is hope for those of us who live just a wee bit further north.Harry


:lol No kidding. We're heading for an early (well, earlier) spring this year; how's it looking in Manitoba?
brent

Looking pretty good here too for an earlier spring but that can change in a heartbeat. Not much snow left and the ice on the river has gotten dark.

Softhackle, is this also early for Chicago?

Harry


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 4:19 pm • # 8 
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Location: Suburban Chicago
Free2Fish wrote:
wheezeburnt wrote:
Free2Fish wrote:
Thanks for the report, nice to see that even the “northerners” are starting to catch fish. That must mean there is hope for those of us who live just a wee bit further north.Harry


:lol No kidding. We're heading for an early (well, earlier) spring this year; how's it looking in Manitoba?
brent

Looking pretty good here too for an earlier spring but that can change in a heartbeat. Not much snow left and the ice on the river has gotten dark.

Softhackle, is this also early for Chicago?

Harry

Up until the beginning of February we were having a milder than average winter then February came and the Polar vortex changed that. But this is pretty typical early March weather for around here.


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 10:19 pm • # 9 
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Nice post, good to hear they have some fishing in a large metro area like Chicago. The Pumpkinseed doesn't look like the Pumpkinseed I am familiar with.


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PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 8:56 am • # 10 
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Fun day! Thanks for sharing!


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PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 5:47 pm • # 11 
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JimRed wrote:
Nice post, good to hear they have some fishing in a large metro area like Chicago. The Pumpkinseed doesn't look like the Pumpkinseed I am familiar with.

I could be wrong on the pumpkinseed ID. I was taking a guess, I’ll have to see if I can positively ID it.
There is some surprisingly good fishing around the Chicago area. The Fox, DesPlaines, Kankakee, and DuPage rivers all have good fishing for largemouth, and smallmouth bass, panfish and the occasional northern pike. Most of the streams around here are under fished because people don’t believe there is good fishing around here. In addition to the afore mentioned streams there are a lot of subdivision retention ponds that offer good fishing plus salmon, trout and perch in Lake Michigan. Google Earth is great tool for finding fishing spots.


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PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 8:57 pm • # 12 
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Thanks for filling us in on the fishing around Chicago; I had the notion that urban fishing was restricted to newer built up communities like we have in the Dallas area.
Fisherman here tell me that they use Google maps to find ponds; they have shown up at a pond I am fishing and ask if I don't mind them fishing and then have explained their ventures. Sounds really exciting.
We have ponds tucked away in wooded areas that get little pressure.
Unfortunately, an awful lot of good fishable water is restricted to residents and thus get no use while other places do not allow fishing.
We have a hybrid species of sunfish in the waters I fish. Wondering with the size of the mouth of that one if it isn't a hybrid.


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PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 9:14 pm • # 13 
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softhackle wrote:
JimRed wrote:
Nice post, good to hear they have some fishing in a large metro area like Chicago. The Pumpkinseed doesn't look like the Pumpkinseed I am familiar with.

I could be wrong on the pumpkinseed ID. I was taking a guess, I’ll have to see if I can positively ID it.
There is some surprisingly good fishing around the Chicago area. The Fox, DesPlaines, Kankakee, and DuPage rivers all have good fishing for largemouth, and smallmouth bass, panfish and the occasional northern pike. Most of the streams around here are under fished because people don’t believe there is good fishing around here. In addition to the afore mentioned streams there are a lot of subdivision retention ponds that offer good fishing plus salmon, trout and perch in Lake Michigan. Google Earth is great tool for finding fishing spots.


Years ago I worked construction up there and fished the Kankakee S P . Caught some smallies there .


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