I live in the CHicago suburbs and was wondering how long to wait after ice out to go fishing....because it doesnt get really warm here till like may....so wondering when would be alright to start...i know for walleye i can start anytime after ice out....but for bass when would be good??

I know people in the states that start as soon as the ice is gone. Just gotta fish real slow and work for your fish. You'll get less bites but probably bigger fish.

I know that alot of people go after smallies as soon as ice out occurs.

I fished a pond last year that half of the pond still had ice on it and still caught fish shallow. I have noticed that when you start seeing baitfish in the shallows its a good bet that the bass has started to move up. This could happen overnight if you had a few warm days and a mild night temp.

Chris i know exactly what your talking about, the overnight thing. We had a week where it was in the seventys and about 45-50 at night, The bass were really shallow, but  I cought the biggest that week in the deep part. But that weekend my cousin pulled in a 5 pounder in those shallows.

I plan to fish shallow as well.

Work the north sides of the lake after ice out, since they warm faster. Also look for rocks, they gather heat better and warm the water faster.

if you could name top 5 prespawn baits what would they be?? Ill be fishing a chicago lake....i was thinking some new rapala dt4s..worked real slow??

1. jerkbait

2. spinnerbait

3. carolina rig

4. tube

5. shad rap rs

Senko's

Rattlin Rapala

1/2 Spinner bait

1/2 Jig/pig

Tube bait

All fished SLOW!

also watch the show BassCenter on ESPN 2 on saturday mornings at 11... they have a small segment where they show the expected spawn areas in red on a map of the US and tell of good lakes where big prespawn fish have been caught