First bass of the year. Despite the weird weather we had a pretty good day. I think we landed 20, and missed another 20. My son got the big one for the day

A really windy day on Long Lake, but my wife and I got some fish in the 5 hours we fished there. Got 1 fish before the storm came through and then the rest after that with the 20-25 mph winds. Pic #1 (14-/12" bass), Pic #2 (15-1/2" bass), Pic #3 my wife with a (14-/12" bass), Pic #4 24" carp and last pic a 14.5" smallie

From the looks of this page Northern IL sure is heating up!! Nice catches all.

Here is my 19" 4# from today on my new Fenwick World Class 7'6" MH/F rod handled it nicely

And a 16"

12 hours ago, QUAKEnSHAKE said:

From the looks of this page Northern IL sure is heating up!! Nice catches all.

Here is my 19" 4# from today on my new Fenwick World Class 7'6" MH/F rod handled it nicely

 

And a 16"

 

What lake did you get those at may I ask? Nice fish.

On 5/6/2016 at 9:06 AM, Donald Schroyer said:

I am new to the Joliet area, work in Downers Grove. Any good advice for ponds to fish or lakes that aren't to far a drive? 

 

 

Mazonia, Rock Run Rockery, and Whalen are all places to check out in a boat.  If I was shore fishing I would be fishing the Dupage for smallies.  

I am on the Illinois side of the river from St Louis. Anyone here fish the River King Strip Mines in New Athens? Also do Alot of fishing at Kinkaid and next week I will be spending 4 days on Kentucky Lake. 

To the pike, that took my fresh one cast of keitech swing impact fat and tour grade 1/8 ball head jig, I salute you

Well, the ladies are starting to move up shallow around here.  They've been hard to locate, but I think the warm rains and the calendar finally got them moving.  Picked up three nice females and a dozen or so bucks today on SkitterPop before I lost it. Second one in the last two outings, but they earned their freedom. 

It shouldn't be too long before they're dancing with the guys. On a few of the shallow retention ponds around here they already are.

We're having a tourney out at Powers Lake, WI this weekend. I'll let you guys know how we do.

18 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

Well, the ladies are starting to move up shallow around here.  They've been hard to locate, but I think the warm rains and the calendar finally got them moving.  Picked up three nice females and a dozen or so bucks today on SkitterPop before I lost it. Second one in the last two outings, but they earned their freedom. 

It shouldn't be too long before they're dancing with the guys. On a few of the shallow retention ponds around here they already are.

Not far from you papajoe, I am north of Bourbonnais. I was thinking of tossing some top water as well, based on your report I'll give it a shot. Never really tried top water this time of year?

Their hitting on the top. Buzzbait and frogs.

3 hours ago, cadman said:

We're having a tourney out at Powers Lake, WI this weekend. I'll let you guys know how we do.

I'll be fishing my first tourney since I tore my shoulder apart on Sunday. It's been 4 years. I just finished PT from the last surgery 2 weeks ago and last Saturday was the first time in 4 years I've been able to spend an entire day casting without being in horrible pain. Still bothers me more than I like but it's better than it's been. 

12 minutes ago, slonezp said:

I'll be fishing my first tourney since I tore my shoulder apart on Sunday. It's been 4 years. I just finished PT from the last surgery 2 weeks ago and last Saturday was the first time in 4 years I've been able to spend an entire day casting without being in horrible pain. Still bothers me more than I like but it's better than it's been. 

Where are you fishing and when?

4 minutes ago, cadman said:

Where are you fishing and when?

Fox Chain on Sunday. Blarney Bassmasters open tourney

Good luck to you Sir!

1 hour ago, slonezp said:

Fox Chain on Sunday. Blarney Bassmasters open tourney

Hope it goes well for you and you cash a check.

22 hours ago, cadman said:

Hope it goes well for you and you cash a check.

Thanks. Should be interesting with the cold front coming thru tonight. Sunday is calling for mid 30's at takeoff and bluebird skies

I never have had good luck on the chain. I have always fished channel and Catherine and that was about 15 years ago. I went out there again with a freind and every cast produced green slime. Is that typical of the chain now? Where is the best place to start looking to catch Bass on the chain?

10 hours ago, GetJigginWithIt said:

I never have had good luck on the chain. I have always fished channel and Catherine and that was about 15 years ago. I went out there again with a freind and every cast produced green slime. Is that typical of the chain now? Where is the best place to start looking to catch Bass on the chain?

The best place to start is to keep driving up Rt12 and fish Geneva and Delavan. The reality is, the Chain gets pounded by tournament anglers every weekend from ice out until the end of September as well as 2 Wednesday night tournaments every week. The summer bite is real tough and the pleasure boaters are horrible I got sucked into the whole tournament thing around 12 years ago and really put my time in. I still get my a55 handed to me more than I care to admit.

 The green slime is algae blooms and they do happen periodically. The water clarity has improved quite a bit over the past 12 years, and the northern lakes have 6-8ft of visibility, the southern 2ft or so. 

We sucked today. Ended up I think 18 or 19 out of 30. Steve Mui a local pro came in first. Last time I fished against him was on Guntersville in 2012 where he cleaned up and won a boat. I had 2 bites all day. If it wasn't for my son I would have weighed in a goose egg. We also saw Willie Young from Da Bears crappie fishing. 

Well, I will enter my sad day on Powers Lake. Started out with it being cold and very windy in the morning. Followed by some sporadic snow showers over passing clouds. Is this May or am I fishing in March. Anyway, my wife got 6 bass on a jig all under 14" and 1 snakey pike. I got 1 bass under 14". My wife has been kicking my butt from the back of the boat this year. I don't know what the deal is. I can't seem to pull anything out of the front of the boat. Anyway back to the tourney, water was very clear, 59 degrees on the main lake and 61 in the back bay. We brought nothing to the scales. However winning weight was 5 fish 9.43 pounds. Out of 38 guys, maybe 10 caught fish. Another pretty bad tourney for me. It was nice to get off the lake after 8 hours and back into a warm car. Well there is always the next tourney to look forward to. Hopefully it will be warmer, water and air temps.

19 hours ago, slonezp said:

We sucked today. Ended up I think 18 or 19 out of 30. Steve Mui a local pro came in first. Last time I fished against him was on Guntersville in 2012 where he cleaned up and won a boat. I had 2 bites all day. If it wasn't for my son I would have weighed in a goose egg. We also saw Willie Young from Da Bears crappie fishing. 

Steve can fish. Why he isn't further along in his career is mind boggling.  That Legend boat he won is a sweet ride too.  Sorry to hear the bite wasn't good for you guys.  

I fished up north and we actually got snowed on periodically in between rain and gale force winds.  My boat caught about 18 largemouth but nothing of considerable size. 3-13 was the biggest.  Friday overnight was down to 30, Saturday had a 12 degree drop in temps and the bit was extremely tough.  I ended up with 5 bass all on a LC Pointer 78 everyone else was skunked except a few snakey northern. Had to rip it from weeds and kill it for them to commit.

Rough first weekend up there..

Another very windy day got a nice 3# bass a few others and even nicer crappie 14" in about 2hrs of fishing

 

2 hours ago, QUAKEnSHAKE said:

Another very windy day got a nice 3# bass a few others and even nicer crappie 14" in about 2hrs of fishing

 

At least someone is catching fish.

 

I was able to get 6 Largemouth from a small pond near my work last night on the way home in a little over an hour. Nothing big but they were attacking the frog. Now this pond is not very pressured but they sure did like jumping the frog