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First time fishing from boat at LaSalle Lake

3K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  christhecatman22 
#1 ·
Hey everybody. Was wondering if anybody could give a rookie some advise. Just got a real nice boat and thought I'd try LaSalle Lake. Been there thousands of times fishing from shore with usually great results. Battling the rocks and shore garbage, left behind from other people. It was my first time there with the new boat (18' Grumman, 65hp Johnson outboard). Went there last Saturday (May 17). Skunked! Wind was out of north at 25 mph, but felt like 60 mph. Huge whitecap waves. I was truly stumped. Didn't stay out there too long. Maybe a couple hours. Felt dangerous. Waves damn near bigger than my boat. Scary!

Planning on going back on a calmer day, real soon. Just wondering if anybody here could give some advise on where to go and what to use/do. Boat has a Hummingbird Wide Eye fish finder and I have a map of lake. But thats about it. Smallmouth is my favorite fish, but would just like to catch anything. Preferably game fish. I have a large array of tackle and I'm used to taking nice smallmouth and largemouth from shore. Once you are on the boat, you truly realize how big that lake is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

As for anybody who is planning a trip to LaSalle Lake to fish from shore. There are garbage cans roughly every couple hundred feet. Garbage cans are things that you throw garbage into. Like worm/chicken liver tubs, wrappers, big wads of 60lb fishing line, or anything you do not plan on taking home with you. Sorry to rant, but I really hate to see such an nice place to fish look like a local landfill. Breaks my hart.

Thanks in advance to anybody willing to help the cause. The cause is me catching big fish and a lot of them...lol

P.S. Picture is of my daughter(5yrs old) catching her first largemouth bass. Almost brought tears to my eyes. Other is my son(8yrs old) catching his first smallmouth. Life is so good. Thanks again...


 
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#6 ·
Thanks everybody.

I completely realize that for Chicagoans, it'd be a long haul to fish there. Also realize that the lack of cover, vegetation, and lake size makes it an extremely hard lake to read. I know there are some BIG fish out there. Just have to figure out how to find/catch them.

Twoglasseyes, thats something I will try. Thank for the advise.

Topwater, thanks for the reply. Glad to be here at WCF among fellow northern Illinois fishermen. Its a start. Really like this site already. Didn't even know most of these lakes, within my reach, existed.

Fishkid, thanks. I think I was more proud of the fish my kids caught than they were. Maybe not the boy. He wanted to mount that one he caught. Now thats proud...lol I suppose your first real fish always looks big. Wait till the boy hooks a real smallmouth, a 4 or 5 pounder. I've never even caught one that big. But I know they are out there.

And just a thanks to anyone who helps this newbie out in his quest.
 
#8 ·
Sorry, just saw this this thread. I am far from an expert at Lasalle and only fish it once or twice in March, but I'll try to help none the less. Like every cooling lake, windblown shores are key. TGeyes hit it right on the head about casting parallel to the shore. If you have decent electronics, searching for baitfish and then anchoring would be a good starting point as well. Lasalle is one of those lakes that if you can find the bait, you will always be into the fish. Another popular method is drift fishing chicken livers off the dike points and the edges of the barrow pits. There were many reports of great days with the hybrids last year during the late spring all the way into the summer doing this. Last but not least, trolling deeper diving body baits (10-20 feet) is a great way to catch the blue catfish all year long. I really wish I could help you more and I will keep an eye out for any recent reports. I have not seen much as of late. On another note, Heidecke is doing really well right down the road. SR5's casted or trolled are doing well, as well as drifting or trolling crawler harnesses for a variety of fish. You won't have all the action from the dink cats like at Lasalle, but there are tons of quality fish to be had out there as well.

Good luck when you make it out. Its great that you are getting the kids into fishing as well :wink:
 
#9 ·
Hey thanks FishingMatt.

I will take the advise and run. Going to hit LaSalle lake tomorrow (Sat. May 24). Try to get there as early as possible. Supposed to be a pretty good day. Also, I was looking at Heidecke lake. Not far away and seems to be much of the same as LaSalle Lake. I notice that I don't see Braidwood lake hear on WCF's website. Any reasons why? Also, has anyone from here been there and could give a report?

Thanks again and for any info in future.
 
#10 ·
Right now Braidwood is really only good for small cats and bluegill. They have a major problem with the bass population and fish such as crappie, walleye, stripers, and tiger muskie that used to be abundant have all but disapeared. Not to many guys fish it here. I hit it up every once inawhile in March just to have fun with the cats. It is depressing, as we used to pull big gamefish out of there all March long in the 90's :cry:
 
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