LaSalle Lake Closing Day Catfishing

Chunsum, Dan(Pondboy's Angling Adventures), and I met up for the final day of fishing at LaSalle Lake this year: Sunday, October 13th.  Dan had caught a couple of shad the night before at his neighborhood ponds(and by a couple I mean literally two) so I was hopeful we could net some more at LaSalle before we started fishing.  We threw our cast nets at the launch cove for a bit when we first arrived but only managed a handful more in about 15 minutes of throwing. We wanted to get fishing so we headed out down to marker 45 and set up our rods.  Things started out slow, Dan was catching a few small channel cats but that was about it for the first hour.  I reeled in to check my shad head, it was still there, and I cast back out.  As I reeled in the slack and got set to put my rod back in the holder I felt a strong hit.  After a short fight Dan netted the first blue of the morning, which would also end up being the biggest of the day.

4-5lb blue catfish at LaSalle Lake.

Over the next few hours I landed several more smaller blue cats while missing a couple bites as well.

 


Chunsum also got in on the act with a blue catfish.

Not sure if Jimmy Houston would even try this!

By late morning we were running low on shad and had been relegated to using shad tails and a cut up green sunfish Chunsum had caught when we noticed some schools of small shad close to shore.  In a couple throws I netted about a dozen of these guys.

Fish candy: The threadfin shad.

Unfortunately by the time I netted these shad the bite had pretty much died and after a few more hours with nothing much to show on our fresh shad baits we decided to call it a day.

The key for catching the blue catfish for me today was long casts.  I only caught one blue catfish on my baitcaster setup even though I had the same bottom rig as my spinning rod.  The only difference was that I could cast my spinning rod about 30ft further out than my baitcasting rod.  I'm not sure if there was a big depth change between the two distances that made a difference for where the blue catfish were holding but my spinning rod was certainly getting a lot more action than my baitcaster rod on this day.  The catfishing rig I used today was a bottom float rig commonly called the Santee Rig.  A great explanation of this rig and why it is so effective on blue catfish can be found on the learntocatchcatfish website.  For my setup today I used a 1oz disc sinker, 2" slip float, and 3/0 team catfish double action circle hook.

LaSalle Lake will get a break from fishermen for the next 5 months but you can bet I'll be back in March for Hybrid and Blue Cat action!

Fish Caught:   Blue catfish - 6           
                      Drum - 1
Successful Baits: Cut shad and cut green sunfish(Santee Rig).
Weather: Sunny, NW winds 10mph, low 40's warming to low 60's.
Water Temp: 78.5

Des Plaines River Kayak Northern Pike Fishing

I decided to try for a species I'd never caught from the kayak on Friday, the northern pike.  I had read online that the Des Plaines River has a healthy population but I had never fished it so I didn't really know what to expect. Some recent reports from other kayak fisherman with 10-20 fish days gave me some confidence I at least wouldn't be skunked.
It was strange heading east from Naperville towards the city with my kayak.  The spots I regularly fish from my kayak are always south and west of where I live and I am used to seeing less developed land as I near my fishing spots, not more.  I was already beginning to second guess my decision to fish the Des Plaines as traffic slowed to a crawl on the Eisenhower when I heard on the radio that a body had been discovered the previous night in Thatcher Woods, which happened to be the forest preserve I was headed to.  Perfect.
I was half expecting to find the parking lot blocked off with police tape when I arrived at my put-in location off Chicago Ave.  Fortunately, the only sign anything had been amiss was a CBS Chicago van wrapping up a news piece.
The haul down to the river from the parking lot was a little more difficult than I was expecting, the treks always seem to look easier on satellite imagery.  The river was a pleasant surprise though, visibility was probably about three feet and my first few casts with the spinnerbait sent some small baitfish scattering airborne.  I paddled upstream a bit, the river really looked great, you'd never know you were surrounded by urbanized areas at this spot.

I started getting a few bites almost immediately on the spinnerbait fishing around tree laydowns but I was having trouble getting hooked up.  Eventually, I landed a small northern pike, unfortunately the fish slipped from my grasps before a could snap a picture.  A few casts later, I had a strong hit and then nothing, my line had been cut cleanly, a sure sign of another missed pike.  I paddled over to where I got the bite and could see my bright spinner bait on the bottom about 3 feet down. I rationalized that I've waded in worse and the river wasn't too cold with the warm October we've had thus far so I got in and grabbed it.

I started working my way down stream and started catching some more small pike, still missing about three bites for every hookup.

Typical sized "hammerhandle" Des Plaines River pike.

I tried out a new baitcaster for the first time today as well.  The H2O Xpress Mettle is on clearance right now through Academy for $30 and it worked great.  It was very smooth, no backlashes, and I was able to put my spinnerbait right where I wanted near the laydowns all evening.  Hopefully I'll have the chance to see how it handles some bigger fish later this year.

Putting the "pettle to the mettle" on a Des Plaines River pike.

I eventually worked my way down to the Washington Blvd bridge.  I downsized my spinnerbait from a 3/8 oz model to a 1/8 oz for a while and it seemed to improve my hookup ratio with the smaller pike. The pattern was to fish tree laydowns and log jams that had some decent current working through them.  My final pike was probably the biggest of the day.

This 18" northern came off a man-made stone wall.

I did have one nice pike that looked to be in the upper 20's follow my spinnerbait and take a swipe right at the kayak, so I'm sure there are some nicer pike than what I caught to be had in this area. The river itself is perfect for fishing from a kayak as the current is not so strong that you can't cover some distance paddling upstream if you want and there is plenty of structure to hold fish. I'll definitely fish the Des Plaines River again. I think next time I'll try farther north.

Fish Caught: 7 Northern Pike

Successful Baits:  1/8 to 3/8 oz spinnerbaits(chartreuse and white)

Weather: Mostly Sunny, SE winds 10-15mph, lower 70's

Water Temp: Unknown

River conditions: Semi-clear(~3ft), 160cfs(Riverside)

DuPage River Kayak Smallmouth Fishing

This year has been tough fishing for me on the DuPage River.  The heavy spring rains brought several weeks of high water and even record flooding to parts of the river which limited the number of times I was able to get out and fish the spots I like. The few times I did get out to try the East Branch brought the dreaded skunk or maybe one smallmouth if I was lucky.  The normal spots and baits I had success with the past two years on the river just haven't been productive for me this year.
I wanted to change my luck today as I really do like fishing the DuPage River, there are many stretches that have a pastoral feeling to them and I like the clear water conditions that are typical during low/normal flow levels. I decided to fish a stretch of river to the south of me so I drove down to Plainfield, IL.  After dropping off my bike downstream at Electric Park, I drove back up to my put in at 135th St where there is a nice ramp and parking area on the east side of the river. I have even seen fishermen launch drift boats there.
I had floated this stretch twice previously last summer with friends.  Both times we caught plenty of smallmouth but they were all on the small side.  I know some big smallies live along this stretch as I lost a nice one each of those trips and spooked many more while floating down the river.  That is part of exploring a new stretch of river, the first few times you go through it you often don't recognize a good spot until you are so close to it that you have spooked the fish that were holding there.
One spot I remembered where I had seen some big fish on a previous trip was a bank that had an undercut ledge near some faster current.  This time I made sure to avoid floating near that bank until I was in a position where I could cast upstream and let my bait come naturally down river.  On my first cast along the ledge with a Crabby Bass Crawdaddy the bait didn't even get to the bottom before I saw my line tighten up and begin heading sideways.  I set the hook and after several hard runs I landed a beautifully striped 18" smallmouth, the biggest bass I have caught out of the DuPage River to date.

About half an hour later I had switched to a small tube when something big grabbed my bait while I was trying to re-position my kayak in an eddy.  Unfortunately, I had my rod in the rear holder of my kayak when the fish struck and it was hard enough just to get the rod out of the holder(let alone get a good hookset) and the fish came off after a short but strong fight. I always hate losing big fish, especially before I even get a chance to see them.  Luckily, a few minutes later this nice 17" smallmouth inhaled the tube in the same eddy and helped me forget the one that got away.

I wanted to see if I could get anything on a topwater bait so I switched over to a small storm chug bug. There were a lot of weeds floating in the river as is typical during the summer and it made fishing the bait difficult as the treble hooks kept catching floating eel grass during the retrieve. Just before I was about to give up on my topwater attempts I noticed a swirl downstream along the bank so I cast my chug bug at the spot and didn't even get to pop it once before this 15" smallie nailed it.

The area near the end of my float was mostly shallower water and while I caught several more small smallmouth bass, the bigger fish seemed to be absent from this area.  Today it seemed the bigger smallmouth were near the deeper holes.  Not in the deepest and slowest moving water of the holes but at the beginning and end of the holes, where the depth is changing and the current is moving at a decent clip.  Also, current breaks and eddies that were deeper than a couple feet near fast water were holding some of the nicer smallmouth.  Fishing under the bridges, which is a typical summer pattern, produced very few fish today.  I think the recent cloudy and cool weather has something to do with that as the smallmouth haven't had to seek refuge from the sun and the heat lately.

All in all it was a great day to be out and I was very happy to finally get on a few nice smallmouth in the DuPage River.  This river will be on my short list for places to kayak for the rest of the year.

Fish caught: 10-15 smallmouth bass

Successful Baits: 2.75" Mizmo Teaser Tubes(1/16oz internal weight) texas rigged (Crawdad brown)

                          Crabby Bass Crawdaddy trimmed to 3" (1/8oz weight pegged) (Green Pumpkin) 

                          2.5" Storm Chug Bug (ghost shad)

Weather: Clearing, N Winds 0-5mph, lower 70's

Water Temp: 70

River conditions: Clear, 182 cfs (Shorewood)

Midweek Kayak Bass Fishing

Dan(Pondboy's Angling Experience) called me Wednesday evening to see if I wanted to meet up and do some kayak fishing.  He must of read my mind because I was already in my garage looking at my rods trying to decide where to go when he called.  We decided to fish a small suburban lake I had fished once before and had some good luck.  When we arrived Dan wasn't too excited about the carry in distance to the lake but I told him it would be worth it.  I started off drifting towards a deeper hole where I had caught bass on my first trip but other than a couple small missed bites on my topwater frog things started out pretty slow.  Then Dan started fishing a shady bank with a 4" power worm and small hula popper and the bites came one after the other for him.

 

The area Dan was catching his bass out of was probably only 1-2 feet deep but it was against a tree lined bank on the western shore so it provided the shade the bass were seeking. After watching Dan catch four or five bass in about 10 minutes, I gave up on the deeper holes and turned my kayak around and started fishing the shady bank as well.  Even I'm not that stubborn :).

After landing a few small bass on the frog I missed a good bite and remarked to Dan how he would probably end up catching the bass when he fished that spot.  While I was telling him that I noticed my frog get sucked under,  I thought this was just another small bass or perhaps even a bluegill because of the light bite but when I set the hook it turned out to be a nice 18" largemouth.

As the sun lowered we continued to catch bass but the best bite would turn out to be the western shoreline where we began.  Dan was probably outfishing me 4 to 1 but I stuck with the frog in hopes of getting another chance at the big bass I missed on my first trip at this lake.  That never happened for me but eventually I heard Dan sounding excited a little further up the lake about a bigger fish.  A nice 19" largemouth had fell to his 4" powerworm.

 

A short while later the powerworm produced again with a huge 9.5" bluegill, sweet!

As the sun began to set we fished our way back to the take out and I noticed something large moving through some lily pads towards my frog.  I thought it was a muskrat but when I moved in closer I saw it was the biggest bullfrog I have ever seen.  It would take a huge bass to choke down this guy!

Dan ended the evening with another nice bass. It was a great night to be out fishing with a friend and kayak fishing is a great way to clear the mind, especially during a busy work week.

Fish caught: 7 Largemouth Bass   (Dan: 20+ largemouth, 1 bluegill)

Successful baits: Booyah Pad Crasher(bullfrog)

Weather: Partly cloudy, NW winds 5-10mph, upper 70's

Water Temp: Unknown

Mazonia South Unit First Trip

I drove down to Mazonia this morning to do some bass fishing from my kayak and I ended up trying three different areas in the south unit today.  My first stop was two lakes that were that were connected by a narrow passageway.  I started off trying to see if I could get a few topwater bites before the sun got too high but the fish weren't having it.  The frustrating thing was some large fish that I assume were bass were occasionally coming to the surface eating small minnows and insects around the lake.  I did pick up a few small bass drifting a Crabby Bass Helgie behind my kayak while casting topwater baits around so I eventually just switched over to fishing the helgie most the time.  I found some narrow coves on the back lake that had some tree lined steep banks and the fish seemed to be a little larger here compared to what I was catching along the reeds.  My biggest bass of the day was caught near the point of one of these coves, a very fun fight on the ultralite.

16" Largemouth Bass caught on green pumpkin helgie.

After catching ten or so more bass(mostly dinks) in this area I noticed a submerged tree in some deeper water and let the helgie fall into the middle of it.  The line tightened up and I pulled out a decent bluegill.

The Mazonia bluegills had some great coloration.

After catching a few more bluegills out of the tree I decided to get out of the sun,  go grab some lunch, and take a break.  While driving through the small town of Godley, IL I noticed a small pond packed with fisherman.  They were having a fishing derby and it looked like a good turnout.

Children's fishing derby at K Mine Park, Godley, IL.

After lunch I returned to Mazonia to fish a long narrow lake I had noticed on satellite imagery earlier in the week.  I'm glad I remembered the area where you could enter the lake, otherwise I would have had a difficult time finding the entry point for this lake as the vegetation has been doing very well with the wet spring we had.

A tight squeeze!

After navigating through the reeds, the lake was actually pretty easy to navigate around.

I had high hopes for this spot after my first two casts with a walking topwater bait produced bass but the fish must of spread the word quickly to their friends that the imitation bluegill was not the easy meal it appeared.  I switched back to the helgie and action was pretty steady here for small bass.  I tried a bigger bait as well with a houdini colored super fluke to try and coax some larger bass but my catches didn't increase in size unfortunately.  I fished one more lake before dark that was very clear, probably close to 10 foot visibility and landed a few more small bass fishing the edges of the reeds with the helgie.

While I didn't land any big bass on this trip it was nice to get away from the traffic noise and crowds that are typical of most suburban fishing spots.  The occasional shrill of red-winged blackbirds and the distant knocking of woodpeckers were the only sounds for much of the day and it was a nice respite after a long week of work.

Fish Caught: 20-25 Largemouth Bass

                      5 Bluegill

Successful Baits: Crabby bass helgies with small split shot(black/green pumpkin)

                            H2O Xpress Model TWS Topwater Bait(bluegill)

                            Zoom Super Fluke weightless(houdini)

Weather: Increasing clouds, light and variable winds, low 70's.

Water Temp: 73

LaSalle Lake.....Target: Blue Cats

Met up with Dan, Jason, Marty, and Chunsum from DuPage Angler to try for some blue cats on LaSalle Lake.  Everybody caught one or two blue cats during our trip, with it being the first blue catfish for a few of the guys which was cool. The blue catfish we caught today probably averaged 2-3lbs. Dan saved the day by catching some shad at a local pond with his fishing net the evening before the trip. Fresh cut shad are a hard bait to beat when fishing for blues.  Dan did a nice write-up of our trip on his blog here: Pondboy's Angling Adventures

Fish Caught: Blue catfish - 2

                    Channel catfish - 2

Successful Baits: Cut shad on three-way swivel rig with 3/0 circle hooks.

Weather: Cloudy, NW winds 10-15mph. low 60's.

Water Temp: 78

Chaminwood: Don't forget the helgies!

It was supposed to be a rainy day today but when I checked the radar late this morning it looked like there was a several hour window between storms so I hurriedly packed up the kayak and headed down to Lake Chaminwood preserve in Minooka.  Lake Chaminwood just recently opened to the public in the fall of 2012 and this was my first time to fish this lake. When I arrived the parking lot was almost full and there were probably 15-20 shore anglers.  There is no boat launch but you are allowed to carry in small boats, canoes, and kayaks.  The put in was muddy but it was a short distance from the parking lot so it wasn't too bad.  I decided to skip the portion of the lake with most the shore anglers and paddle under the pedestrian bridge to the larger part of the lake.

Lookin' Bassy!

Water clarity was probably 3'-4' and the shallow areas had large hydrilla like weeds growing up close to the surface.  Most of the shoreline is steep and brushy though and shore fishing on this portion of the lake is very limited.  Perfect for kayak fishing, however.  I started out out fishing some wacky rigged 5" senkos and super flukes but I couldn't even get a bite.  Out of desperation to get the skunk off I decided to get the ultralite out try some Crabby Bass helgies.  Unfortunately I quickly realized the heligies had been left in the car.  I scrounged around the few bags of plastics I had brought and managed to find one rigged up helgie and a small split shot.  It turned out the helgie was the ticket to getting the bass to bite.

Small Chaminwood bass on black with blue flake helgie

After landing 7 or 8 small bass and a nice bluegill on the helgie I had a good-sized bass break my line.  I had a choice to either make the long paddle back to my car to retrieve the helgies or keep fishing with other lures.  I didn't feel like losing any fishing time since it was starting to sprinkle so I decided to go with the next smallest plastic I had brought with me, some 4" senkos.  I didn't get nearly as many bites as I got on the helgie but I still managed several more bass.

First KayakWars worthy bass(16"+) for 2013

Healthy 15.5" Chaminwood bass

The pattern for today was to fish reed edges and under overhanging branches on steep banks.  It was a nice day to be out as I only got rained on for 10 minutes and the east winds never got too bad.  I talked to a couple shore anglers and it seemed they all had big fish stories from the lake. Hook straightening, giant mouthed tales are part of the allure of the deep quarry lakes we have in this area.  One of these days I hope to land one of these "monsters of the deep".

Fish Caught: Largemouth Bass - 12+

                      Bluegill - 1

                      Black Crappie - 1

Successful Baits: Crabby Bass helgie w/small split shot

                            4" Gary Yamamoto red shad laminate senko weightless

Weather: Cloudy, isolated showers, E winds 5-10 mph, mid-60's.

Water Temp: Unknown