Perching the lakefront 5/30 - slim pickens

It was a tougher day on the lakefront this morning. I heard reports from various harbors that things were generally on the slow side.

I fished for a few hours this morning. Good amount of guys out there, but not too many perch. One guy got a limit and the rest of us were picking up one here, one there.

Took home 6 perch. Biggest was 13.75". A real chunker

Jig bite was tough for me. Picked up a couple including some dinks. Shad raps worked best for me. Lost two jumbos and landed 4 good sized perch.

Harbor fishing after work 5/29

Got down to the lake and messed around for a little bit in a Chicago harbor. It was more of a leisure stroll, but I brought a rod with me. I was watching some huge drum feeding on some algae off some rocks, so I tossed a jig at them. One of those subs hit, and line popped. Oh well. Continued "sight fishing" for those stupid sheephead with jigs and this guy hit. Nice little rocky -




Tossed the rocky back, and then tossed jig in water. Jig was smacked by this hungry bugger - 15" smallie




I then called it a night.

Perching on the Lakefront 5/24

So fellas, if you haven't heard, here it is - The perch are starting to show up. I've collected positive reports from Montrose Harbor down to 63rd Street (aka Jackson). Time for me to put some fillets in the freezer!

Over the last week, the action has been sporadic. Some guys clobbered the perch on Thursday, but a shift on winds and a 25 degree temp drop (which actually occurred in the matter of 15 mins; guys who were out there know what I'm talking about) cooled the perching action off. Lake temp is currently about 56 degrees (was 58 on Thursday).

I hit the lakefront this morning (as I have done the last 4 mornings) looking for some of those tasty little buggers. Fished with Rootpro from 530 - 830 am. Action was best between 6-7am.

Highlights of the day -

-55-60 total fish caught
-17 fish carved into fillets and stowed in the freezer (keepers were 9" - 13") between the two of us.
-I might have caught my biggest perch from shore EVER today. The thing pulled some drag on me too
-Action was pretty much on all morning
The really fat perch were LOADED with alewives.



Methods of perch delivery -

- FIN-S shad rigged in tandem on 1/32 and 1/16 oz jigs (#1 bait this morning)
- Chartruese and green paddles bugs rigged in tandem 1/32 and 1/16 oz jigs
- BPS XPS shad rap knockoffs


JUMBOS!!



Great day to be on the lake. Next weekend should have better numbers of spring time jumbos. Good luck guys


Mike

First Spring Perching action 5/21 and 5/22

Got out both days for a about an hour each day before work on the lakefront. The perch are showing up!

Hit about 35 on 5/21, but only 8 on 5/22

9 keepers between the two days. Got some real nice jumbos though - 4 fish over 13"


Jigging paddlebugs was the ticket

Weekend Recap 5/16 and 5/17

5/16



Arrived at Lake Delavan at 6:30 am. I fished with pals Hank and Keith. Worked weed edges, bays, and channels. Tried for crappies and bass. Got...nothing. Big ole skunk. None of us even got a bite. Delavan was a new lake for us, but I was expecting SOMETHING! Oh well. The winds were extremely strong and made boat control a challenge. Highlight of my day was watching a snake pike follow a rattle trap I was tossing.

We used crappie minnows, lipless cranks, spinners, jig n' spinner combos, creature jigs, and even tried a little topwater. Skunk!

5/17

Fished Beck lake with Keith. We armed ourselves for a crappie bite. Worked a windblown shoreline from 6 - 830pm. There was steady action, but nothing out of the world. Collectively, we probably caught around 15 crappie, a couple of warmouth, 4 dink bass (5-12", including a couple that came on a crappie spinner I was tossing), and a pike.

Keith won big fish award today with a 22" hammer handle.

Harvested a handful of the larger crappie for a future meal.

My First Lake Michigan Smallie 5/15

Yes. I went fishing on a Friday night. A night where most of my peers are out rubbing elbows at the bar.

I decided to stay in and relax, save a few bucks. I also need to be up at 3:30 am tomorrow for a Lake Delavan outting.

But, I got bored. Wanted to get outside. Wanted to get my first smallie of lake Michigan.

Now, I've fished Lake Michigan for perch, trout, and salmon...but never tried for smallies. I've been hearing lots about them, how Lake Michigan has a strong and growing Smallie population..I just had to give it a try.

I was able to fish for about an hour before the cops kicked me out. 10pm- 11pm. 3 hookups, 1 fish landed. Got a look at one fish that flopped off - probably was around a 2#er. Landed this guy - ~14".

I worked a Poor boy rubber goby imitation on a 1/4oz jig head. Slow retrieves, bouncing off the bottom, lots of twitches.

This is addicting. I have discovered a new element to lake Michigan shore fishing

Deep Lake 5/9

Hit up Deep Lake with a pal. Fished from 3 - sunset. Fishing was slooow. Not a whole lot going on. We ended the day with a grand total of 3 bass boated. John with 2, and I got 1. Some bass are on their beds. We saw quite a few beds. One bed had (guestimate) 3 lb male and a 5lb hawg female. Maybe it was bigger... water distorts the size on things.

Here's a quick recap -

1 bass on lipless crank

2 bass on spinner

John brought his new toy - the thermometer. That thing was pretty slick. Warmest water we recorded was 61. Coldest was 52

Deep Lake 5/3

After spending my morning playing softball, I realized what a beautiful day this Sunday was shaping out to be. I wanted to get back out on the water and do some more fishing. Since I am a Deep Lake newbee, I decided to pack the outboard and minn kota up in the car and try some more of Deep lake. I gave my pal Dan a call and invited him along.

We got on the water around 4ish. Dan quickly hooked up with his first Deep Lake monster. I think this one was pushing 11"



Nice job Dan

Not to be outdone by my fishing partner, I hauled in another monster shortly after -



The bite went dead from 5-7pm. Nothing going. Talked to other boaters and the common message I heard was, "man, last week was hot." Other boaters at the time picked up 1 or 2 fish here and there, nothing spectacular.

I headed out to some new territory for me. Found some deeper weeds and started burning traps right over the top. From 7-745, Dan and I caught another 8 or 9 fish. The bite seemed to have really picked up right before sunset. I also saw a couple of bass burst surface. Is topwater season just around there corner? :wink:

Here are some more pics of us today




And then the last little fish I caught as the sun set. Give it a kiss good bye and we were off the lake. Hot bait was black/gold. See ya next time

5/2 - Deep Lake Bassing, Lake Michigan Perching

Keith and I had plans to launch with a couple of friends out of Waukegan this sunny afternoon shortly after lunch time. This allowed us a few hours of bassing before we went offshore chasing perch.

Hit Deep Lake from 6:45am - 10:30ish.

This was actually my first time on the open water for Deep Lake. I liked the lake a lot. The water was pretty darn clear too. Keith and I worked deeper weed lines and edges looking for bass today. It wasn't long before Keith hooked up. I followed his act with my first Deep Lake bass - a mighty 12"er. Well, nothing to brag about, but I was on the board for Deep Lake!


We ended the day with 9 bass boated and one skinny pike that was maybe 18-20". That thing slammed my bait. Baits of choice - CHROME traps. Nothing working on plastics. All fish tackle on the hardware.

Bass ranged from 12" - 17.5"

Here are a few pics of us on the lake from this morning -


A nice double Keith and I pulled off in 8 foot of water -



And now, the perch!!!

Launched out of waukegan with a few pals shortly after 12 pm. Worked crappie rigs from 50' - 63' of water. Picked up perch here and there for about 4 hours. Might've had 8-10 fish in the box until we hit the SPOT. We nailed the perch in a 40 minute time frame. We easily put another 40 in the boat. Called it a day shortly after 5ish. What a beautiful day on both lakes! We saw a ton of boats straight East out of Waukegan.

Some of the perch we got were absolute beasts. 14.5" fish! We put about 10 fish in the box that were 14"+

Here are some cool pics of us on the big pond, enjoy -





What a great way to spend a Saturday! See ya next time


Mike

CCFP 5/1

Saw a little forest preserve near the Des Plaines river that was about 10 mins away from my work. I got stuck in the office today until about 7, and tonight seemed to be a good night to spend 30 mins checking this place out.

Worked my MO (lately), 1/2oz lipless crank along the shorelines.

To my surprise, I caught a fish. Not just any fish, a decent crappie! 12.5".

Going offshore tomorrow...stay tuned