ChicagoFishingBlog.com

Nice Bass from Diversey Harbor

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:39:08 -0600

Spent a couple hours from 2-4pm this afternoon fishing for largemouth bass at Diversey Harbor. Right away I caught a couple smaller fish in the 12" range with a pumpkinseed colored power worm. Both bass came from under the docks.

I continued fishing along the west side of Diversey Harbor looking for any spots where I could drop in my lure. For a good hour nothing was happening for me. I was getting little bites here and there from some bluegill and caught a couple small rock bass, but that wasn't what I was after.

I decided to switch my lure to a watermelon colored senko. I worked the docks pretty hard the first time through, so I tried to work the heavier weed areas on my way back. So that's what I did.

Anywhere I saw a shady area and some heavy weeds is where I tossed my senko. The great thing about fishing a senko is that you don't have to give it that much action to fish it. Simply toss it out and let the lure wobble on its own as it dead drops into the pocket you're fishing.

With this senko fishing technique I came away with a nice 19" largemouth bass that swam up from the bottom, and inhaled my lure. It put up a nice fight with a couple jumps and I thought it was gonna break off my line with the weeds it had dragged me through, but I was lucky enough to land this bass with no problem.

Good Fishin'

Jon

Diversey Largemouth Bass

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:40:03 -0600

It's been awhile since my last post, and equally as long since my last time fishing one of the Chicago harbors. I got out yesterday morning to Diversey Harbor after the rain storms. The skies were still cloudy, and the winds were calm. It looked like another front was pushing into the area, so I thought the fishing would still be great.

I tossed a weightless watermelon senko between the docks on the west side of Diversey Harbor, but didn't have any luck. I noticed I was getting some follows, but no strikes. I switched my lure to a Berkley powerworm in pumpkinseed color below a split shot, about 8" up.

I would cast out, and swim the powerworm back, past the docks, weedlines, shady areas, etc. I think the twirling action of the curly tail made the difference as far as strikes. I came away with two smaller largemouth bass, and one decent largemouth that was about 14". Not too bad for a couple hours of fishing.

-Jon

Bass at Diversey Harbor

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:38:00 -0600

Finally, I was able to locate (and catch) some decent largemouth bass this season. I fished Diversey Harbor yesterday evening from 6-8pm. Conditions were in the 70s with clear skies that eventually turned cloudy around 7ish.

I started along the west end of the harbor tossing a jig and minnow lure along the bank and across the weedbeds. I picked up a few rock bass here and there. I continued walking south, past the boat launch, where I tossed my jig into a dark pocket right alongside one of the docks and bam!...caught this largemouth bass in the picture above. He hit the lure almost as soon as it broke the surface of the water.

The clouds started moving in at this point and I made my way further south and across to the other side of Diversey Harbor, right by the Fullerton Ave. bridge. I wanted to see if I could pick off any smallmouth bass sitting in the current.

I started tossing a chartreuse spinnerbait upstream, and worked it back about 10-12 ft. from the shoreline. I was getting a few little swipes at it, but nothing big enough to bite. I switched over to a suspending jerkbait, and made the same presentation by throwing upstream and slowly reeling, pausing and twitching it back. After my pass on that first cast I noticed there was a smallmouth trailing right behind my lure, but he wouldn't commit to it. I made the same cast a handful of times, and every time was the same. That smallie would just stare at my lure as I swam it along with its nose an inch away. Long story short, I threw a bunch of lures in that direction, but just couldn't get that smallmouth to bite.

I headed back to where I had caught that first largemouth bass and tossed a floating Rapala above the weed pockets. A couple casts later I hooked into a similar sized largemouth bass and yanked him out of the water with my line still taught. He made one good head shake, broke my line, and he dropped right back into the water, with my lure. Damn.

With that, I called it a night. It was still a successful one in my mind, knowing that the largemouth bass were finally turning on, and that some smallmouth bass in Diversey Harbor were still to be had.

Good Fishin'

- Jon

Get Firefox 3!

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:18:59 -0600

This is an off-topic subject, but for those who do follow what's going on in the world of computers and technology, you'll be happy to hear that Mozilla officially released its latest version of the popular web browser, Firefox. As of June 17, 2008, Firefox 3 is available to download for free.

Personally, I like using Firefox and it's been my default web browser for the past year or so. I like it better than Internet Explorer because it's a little less cluttered in the toolbars, it seems to load more quickly, and in my opinion, the text/images that open up are more clear to the eye. Version 3 of Firefox boasts all the same benefits of previous versions, plus claims to offer over 15,000 improvements. The toolbar is modernized a bit more, but the clean look is still intact.

Load time in Firefox 3 is supposed to be 2-3 times faster in this most recent release. Security and customization have always been strong points for this web browser as well, and you'll find plenty of options to choose from when working with Firefox 3.

You'll find a button for a free dowload of the latest version of Firefox in the lower right column of this webpage.

Keep an eye on these posts, I'll be getting some fishing reports out soon!

- Jon

Fish Virus in Chicago?

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:09:08 -0600

I came across this story this morning in the Chicago Tribune about a fish virus that has possibly invaded the local waterways/rivers here in the Chicagoland area. After a massive die-off of gobies washed ashore in Milwaukee, WI, scientists discovered that it was linked to the VHS virus. This fish virus does not affect humans in any way, but it could potentially destroy a healthy population of not only gobies, but more important gamefish such as salmon, trout, walleye, muskie, perch and bass in Lake Michigan.

There's no real quick-fix solution to the problem, and scientists are hoping that fish populations here in Chicago can develop an immunity to the virus. It's not certain how the VHS virus in fish got here, but it's likely a result of cargo ships from neighboring waters emptying their infected ballast tanks into Lake Michigan.

Not good for fellow fishermen here in Chicago.

- Jon

Perch at Diversey Harbor

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:03:40 -0600

Tried again for some perch at Diversey Harbor on Friday afternoon. Storms looked like they were gonna roll through, but no rain ever fell while I was out there. It was a bit windy, which made casting and feeling the end of the line kind of tough. I was fishing for rock bass in the inner harbor when I noticed a striped fish come up and take a nip at my lure. Ah ha...perch! I switched up to a 1/32 oz. jig and white twister and caught a handful of perch. Nothing real big, but fun nonetheless. The key for me was to let the jig sink for a few seconds and to just keep the twister tail moving through the water with short pops every few seconds.

Good Fishin'

- Jon

Rock Bass Galore

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:41:53 -0600

Had the day off work today, so I headed to the piers at Diversey Harbor this morning around 9am. I was using a jig tipped with an artificial minnow and hoping to come away with some perch. I started out just underneath where lake shore drive crosses overhead. There was an opening in the gate so I tossed my lure parallel to the bank and just jigged it back along the bottom. I got a few bites, no perch, and one goby.

Next, I headed over to the long pier to try my luck on that side. Talked to some other folks that were out there saying they had a great day yesterday catching over 40 perch. I was watching what they were using as bait and it seemed to be pieces of shrimp under a bobber. They caught a couple perch while I was there, but nothing too big. There was one other guy working the opposite side of the harbor jigging something and he looked to be doing well. Me... no perch. Oh well.

I made my way back to the east wall of the harbor and started tossing a crankbait, than a white chatterbait. Picked up a few more rock bass. I switched over to a green tube and worked the shoreline south of fullerton avenue, in the lagoons. Came away with one small largemouth, and that was all.

I changed over to a senko and fished the west side of the harbor by the docks. I noticed a lot of largemouth covering their nests, but they weren't interested in chasing a lure. Of course the rock bass were. Picked a few more of them on the senko.

Finally, made my way north of the boat launch and figured I mine as well just have some fun with the rock bass. So I did. I tied on a chartreuse twister tail and caught a bunch. The last one of the day here was the biggest.

Good Fishin'

- Jon

Tons of Rock Bass, Zero Perch and One T-Shirt!

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:09:26 -0600

I spent a couple hours last night between 6-8pm fishing Diversey Harbor. I started on the lakeside, off the long pier and fished out 20-30 ft. With all the hub-bub lately about perch fishing in Chicago, I thought I'd give it a shot. I've never caught perch, or specifically tried to target them. From the fishing reports that have been coming in lately the ticket seemed to be minnows, or minnow-imitating type baits. I tied on a Berkley power minnow to a 1/16 oz. jig and let it sink all the way to the bottom. I slowly tried to twitch it along, but only managed to pickup weeds and get snagged.

Next, I tried the shad rap approach. I attached a small bullet weight about 18" ahead of a little Rapala floating minnow crankbait. I tried retrieving it at various speeds, but didn't get any hits. Maybe the fish weren't there at this time in the evening? I don't know. There was a lot of boat/jetski traffic at the mouth of the harbor, so that could have contributed as well.

The one thing I did manage to catch was a T-shirt. A guy laying out on the pier came up to me and asked a favor to fish his T-shirt out of the water below. Apparently he had lost it due to the wind. I tied on a small bait hook, attached a little weight, and bingo...one soaking wet baby blue T-shirt fished out of Lake Michigan. Nice.

After that accomplishment, I made my way back to the inner harbor and tied on a white bomber crankbait. I think this might be my knew favorite lure. It's got a nice wide wobble, and you can work it slow enough just above the weeds in the shallow spots. I managed one largemouth of about 12" and a bunch of rock bass. Nothing really noteworthy, so I didn't take any pictures.

How is everyone else doing in the harbors this time of the year?

- Jon

Mixed Bag at Belmont Harbor

Tue, 3 Jun 2008 08:16:04 -0600

It's been about 3 weeks since my last post and I apologize to those return visitors who check back for weekly fishing reports. I was out of town for a week in Colorado (pics will be up soon on another post!), and came back to work to find my department is being laid off. So with that, the fishing blog has taken a backseat, but with the great weather we've been having lately I couldn't resist an opportunity to get some fishing in.

This past Sunday I went out to Diversey for a couple hours before noon in search of largemouth bass. I fished the docks with a senko, but didn't get any hookups. I noticed that there were tons of panfish following my lure back to shore, so I changed over to a chartreuse mini-mite. The rock bass were all over that mini-mite as soon as it hit the water. When you can't find the more desirable smallmouth/largemouth bass, in my opinion, rock bass are the next best option. They hit pretty hard, and there are a lot of good sized ones in the big lake right now. To the left is a picture of one of the bigger rock bass I caught at Diversey.

Yesterday evening, I fished the shallow north cove at Belmont Harbor. There was a lot of cottonwood debris in the water which made fishing difficult in that spot. Nonetheless, I tossed one of my Bomber crankbaits parallel to shore in hopes of smallmouth, but instead came away with more rock bass and a tough little pumpkinseed that was about the size of my lure! I noticed some big largemouth swimming around in the area too, but couldn't get their attention.

Finally I made may way over to deeper water at Belmont where all the big rocks are in the horseshoe. I was still fishing my crankbait, and again, caught another rock bass from just outside the big boulders close to shore. Needless to say, now's the time to fish for rockbass. They'll hit just about anything you throw at them. I changed over to a twister tail on a 1/16 oz. jig, caught a couple more rock bass, and finally came away with a little smallmouth bass just beyond the rocks.

A nice night to be out. With a variety of fish on a variety of lures, now is the time to get out and fish if you haven't been already!

See ya out there!

-Jon

Windy Evening at Belmont Harbor

Wed, 14 May 2008 07:47:11 -0600

Went out to Belmont Harbor last night, trying to beat the storms that were rolling through. I got there just after 6pm and the wind was really whipping around. I picked up a few items from Cabelas over the weekend, so I planned to get out and give them a test drive. I was spooled up with brand new Berkley XL Smooth Casting fishing line, attached to a Bomber shad colored crankbait. Man I could cast that thing far... A night and day difference between the kinked/twisted Stren line I had on there before.

So the conditions were windy, and really the wind had been blowing all day from the south/southeast. With that, all the garbage and debris from the harbor was floating in the exact location where I planned to be fishing. There were carp up and down the shoreline everywhere, but I didn't see any smallmouth.

I tried fishing the deeper water with my crankbait, a spinnerbait, and finally a little 2" white grub on a 1/16 oz. jig, but came away with nothing. The rain finally started coming down around 7pm, and I called it a night.

Better luck next time...

- Jon