[blumpie]

I started my wife off on the blue gills this last spring. She has been taking lunkers regularly now and outfishing me before I even get my pole in the water! She even landed a 3 foot northern last month. we are getting it mounted.

She wants to try salmon, it's Early Oce. so it's now or next year. I have never fished the big lake in my entire life except for smelts. I always figured it was to big.

We dont have a boat, so we need to fish from the shore. I would like to fish Lake Forest and/or Highland Park since it's closer to the house. we have some bussiness in Waukeegan in the morning, so we might try there first.

So........

What times of the day are best? What kind of bait and presentation? I will admit, I have been a bass man most of my life, but I am ready to move on.

Thanks in advance.

 

[George W]

Do you ahve Tackle Covered already.. ??

Waukegan isn't a bad Start, Gov. Pier Lake Side or The Rocks Have been producing. Long Slender Crank Baits in Green Or Chartruse Have been working well.

Example... Crank bait on the left:

Also Glow in the dark thunder sticks and Rattle Traps glow in the dark have been producing.

Good Luck !

Will be a spawn bite soon

George

 

[phil]

Will be a spawn bite soon

When does that start?

 

[jnapodano]

Covered a 4 mile stretch of the lakefront, the only thing they were catching them on today was spawn. Guys had there own spawn sacks from previous outings and were floating them under a slip bobber along the shore. Certain areas were producing very well, windblown shorelines were the key. The guys who were throwing cranks n' spoons weren't catching anything for some reason?

 

[blumpie]

I don't have any in green, I have mostly shad and minnow colored. I'm set up for bass and pike mostly. I have some spoons and spinners, and a few daredevils.

Thanks for the tips! Nothing a trip to Wally world cant fix!

P.s. If I were to get spawn sacks, what should I get? samon eggs? Trout?

 

[blumpie]

Thanks for the tips. My wife landed this girl from the south rocks yesterday afternoon on a brass spoon.

 

[George W]

nice Job Beautiful Fish !!

They'll Hit a Variety of differnat colors or baits/Presentations on any given day. Thats Why It's Right place right time etc.. For Salmon

Great Job !!

Beautfiul Silver King

George

:arrow:

 

[toothdoc]

Congratulations. Nice fish!

 

[JasonN]

Awesome!

 

[blumpie]

Thats Why It's Right place right time etc.. For Salmon

:arrow:

I wondered about that. Is that the way it is with salmon?

It didn't seem like they weren't lying in ambush like bass. I was trying to hit pockets and weed beds. It seemed like they were "On Patrol" and it was just a luck thing. Lucky to have a lure passing by when a salmon was.

I saw a few surface and I tried to get one or two by casting ahead and trying to time the lure to be in front of his face when he went by. No luck for me.

My wife also hooked into a nice Coho that took her lure. The thing jumped 10 feet in the air several times. They seem fun to catch. Real fighters.

 

[blumpie]

This is why she wanted to go salmon fishing. She is bored with catching lunkers like this every night! Now she's talking about booking a trip and go for some Tuna.

 

[RobBull]

My wife is too squeemish to put crawlers on the hook. Last time I took her fishing, she caught a small walleye, a few bluegills and a LM last time out at Busse. I only caught 2 LM, LOL.

 

[toothdoc]

Blumpie,

I noticed that the picture of the bass that your wife was holding was taken inside. Are you routinely keeping fish like this? Most people CPR bass and don't keep them for eating, since they don't usually taste very good. It's nice releasing fish like that so that others have a chance at catching them and the population doesn't get depleted. My understanding is that bass don't reproduce as well as other game fish and the stocking of them is almost non-existant. Just my opinion.

 

[#1cubsfan]

WELL SOME PEOPLE LIKE FISH AND AS LONG AS THEY'RE
NOT DOING ANYTHING ILLEGAL IT'S ALL OK. WE ALL HAVE
ARE RIGHTS NOW LETS NOT TAKE THOSE AWAY TOO...

 

[toothdoc]

I'm more curious than anything, since bass are not very good to eat. There are many other fish that are better to eat. Bass are a gamefish and as such it is nice to practice CPR so that others can enjoy the sport. Salmon, trout, walleye and perch all are much better to eat and reproduce better than bass. That is just my opinion.

 

[Augy]

blumpie, first of all, congrats on a nice catch. second let me just emphasize you have every right to keep fish that's of legal size and that was caught legally but a few things to consider before keeping bass.

most of us practice catch n release, especially with bass, for the things that toothdoc pointed out and for other reasons. something to consider...bass of that size are not in abundance around these parts and it takes several years for a bass to become that size. to remove a dominant bass like that will hinder the reproduction process because it removes a dominant gene from the pool. we want those big bass to live and spawn each spring to produce more of them bigguns. :wink:

something else to consider is that bass isn't really considered a high quality fish to consume. also, the bigger the fish (the older they are), the worse they taste. if you just can't pass up a bass dinner, keep the smaller legal size and release the big ones as an endowment for the future of bass angling.

once again however, you have every right to keep your catch, i (we) just wanted to pass along some information regarding a common practice within the bass fishing community.

:mrgreen:

 

[toothdoc]

Thank you Augy for putting my thoughts into words. You very eloquently said what I really meant. That fish was atleast 6 years old and as we all know they are not that abundant around here. But yes, congratulations on the catch!

 

[George W]

Nice Job !

For a Rule of Thumb, Usually The Fish Jumping Aren't as likely to be caught Same thing to go with carp. Why I'm Not positive on but working to figure it out. Theres, Always salmon near your lure Within a 10 Feet Radius, They Just Are Very Lathargic i guess. Theyu pick out what they Think is good. Or Maybe you got that Easy meal Bait and they'll take that.

You come in from work all day not eating anything

and your wife has a Big Cheeseburger Already set out, Cooked etc.

Or you have a choice to make your favorite meal..

You taking the Cheeseburger, Your to hungry to sit and make your meal. And the Cheeseburger is just sitting there a good hunger killer at your taking.

Your not passing it up..

Either is The salmon.

If you can find some bait fish activity and fish under it.. You'll be sure to catch a few ACTIVE and AGGRESSIVE ONES.

But.. As of Now it's a Spawn bite In my Area. They are being caught in the harbors.

I'll Be hitting carp this weekend

George

 

[blumpie]

Thanks all for the kudos for my wife's catches, the folks sticking up for my rights to harvest, and to those concerned with the species survival and other sport-fisherman.

I am also a hunter as well as a fisherman and I am very much in tune with the balance of hunting/fishing and harvest. We follow the DNR rules to the letter and obey any local size and creel limits.

We actually like to eat bass and we consume our harvests. Further more; my wife makes sure that NOTHING goes to waste. She will make several meals from that fish; A nice fillet dinner, soup stock from the organs and carcass, and she considers the head, eyes, brain, and tail a delicacy. The only things that will be tossed into the compost heap are the bones.

We also don't keep every fish that we catch and we have released bigger ones than that. That bass there is about 3-4 lbs. We have caught 5+ pounders before. She is only 4'10" so every fish she holds up looks like a monster. In the picture with the salmon, she is standing on a step stool.

The DNR sets the limits for all game. If there was problem with the species population, they would change the limits. We toss back many more fish than we harvest and we only harvested a total of 3 bass this year in the 2-4 pound range. We consume our harvests of any game animal as much as possible. I don't see anything wrong with that.

Thanks again! And good fishing!

 

[Augy]

i commend you on being a responsible outdoorsman and i applaud your wifes meticulous consumption of her catches and her prowess to hook into some monster fish. didn't realize your wife was so petite. those fish look HUGE! :mrgreen: