Hello again Mr. Goby

A nice fishing spot

This is my attempt at a short post.

Fished a little bit yesterday on the lakefront. I'd read a few reports that there might be some smallie action on the lake. I've yet to catch one there, and I can't wait to the find them. They get super big in the lake!

Got some little hits on a little white jig and twister, I wondered if the goby were finally back and active after the strange winter. Turns out, there were. You may remember Mr. Goby as my sometimes nemesis and sometimes savior-from-the-skunk last year.

What can I say? A fish is a fish, and I enjoy catching them. Even gobies.

 

A little later I fished the Chicago river while waiting for my little sis to arrive via Amtrak. Got a few nips on the same twister, got a few stronger ones on a brick-colored texas-rigged chigger craw near a piling, but nobody would commit. Seemed like 20 people asked me if there were any fish in the river. I was happy to share with them the huge variety of fish you can catch there- unfortunately I couldn't demonstrate since I was skunked.

Only fished for about a half hour each time, but as always it was good to get out. With this series of thunderstorms rolling through, I'm at a loss how to approach fishing this weekend... or if I even should! Everything I've read tells me rain is good fishing, but thunder makes bad fishing for at least a day afterwards.

I'll probably just go fishing and find out.

Catfishing on the Chicago River

Ping Tom Park, Chinatown, Chicago

Friday morning I headed downtown early to get in some fishing in before work. I had a recording session to get to at 9am, and found a nice spot on the Chicago river just a few minutes from the studio. Ping Tom Park is in Chinatown, and features a cool looking pagoda and a lot of open grassy space. It also has a whole lot of riverbank to fish.

Leo left me with some nightcrawlers last week, so I figured I'd put them to good use. Ever since I caught that nice bass while leaving a crawler on the bottom, basically unattended, I've been intrigued by that whole style of fishing. Let the fish find the bait, and you just reel them in! Almost all of my fishing has been casting and retrieving lures, so this is new to me. I figured I'd soak some worm on the bottom of the river while I cast some lures, hopefully maximizing my chances of hooking up with some fish.

I rigged it up with some weights on the bottom, and a circle hook about a foot up the line; I tossed it out in the middle of the river, then leaned it on my rod holder while I went to rig my second line.

I started tying on a lure (don't remember what it was... spinner? twister? who knows..) when I noticed my other rod was bouncing and wiggling wildly. I had a fish on!

I dropped my rod, ran over to the first rod, set the hook for good measure (Jeremy Wade style) and began reeling it in. What was on the end of my line might have been the cutest little thing I've ever caught. But please don't tell any hardcore outdoorsmen I used the word "cute" to describe a little baby catfish.

A little kitty

I didn't know what kind of catfish it was (bullhead? channel? I was thinking bullhead...) but I was so happy to catch something on the first cast! [Edit: thanks to the internet and other fishermen, this fish has been identified as a bullhead catfish] And really, you have to admit... this is a cute little fish. Thankfully he was hooked cleanly in the jaw, and was released completely unscathed.

What a great start to a Friday morning. At this point, I was totally satisfied- I'd been dealing with a skunk, and it was nice to get rid of it. A fish is a fish is a fish- normally I don't go for the biggest fish, I just want to catch something. Today I won at catching the smallest fish.

I re-baited the hook, cast it out to the same spot in the middle of the river, and continued preparing my other line. Then it started to rain a little, but not too much. I put up my hood and continued fishing.

This time I watched the rod carefully, trying to figure out if it was getting hits or it was just wind or current. It was difficult, because the rod tip on this particular rod broke off during a previous fishing outing. Difficult, but not impossible- a few minutes later, I had another fish on. This one felt much bigger than the first one, but I had an idea what it was... And I was right!

Another cat

I was starting to really like these catfish. I knew I should learn how to tell them apart... I was pretty sure it wasn't a blue catfish, maybe a bullhead. A yellow bullhead? I'd have to look it up later.

This one was quite feisty, and did it's best to chomp down on my fingers while I got the hook out. I respect that- way to go fish; if somebody hooked my in the lip with a hook, I would also try and bite them. It would serve me right anyway.

After some pictures, I returned catfish #2 to the water, where it swam away gleefully. Maybe not gleefully; catfish seem more grumpy than gleeful, but that's just me.

Soon after that, one of my students showed up. He'd stayed up all night preparing his music for the recording session, and for some reason decided to come fish with me before the session. You may remember Pick from a previous outing at Ogden Slip, where he caught a bunch of fish!

I look angry, but that's my concentrating face

This time we weren't so lucky, as we didn't get any more hits. I worked a twister tail, spinner, crankbaits, and some other stuff while Pick manned the nightcrawler. It started to rain again, harder, and we decided to go get some food before our session.

And just in case you're wondering, I made sure to wash my hands very well so the recording studio didn't smell like river or catfish. I was wearing flannel and hiking boots however, but I think it was assumed I was being a hipster, not coming from a fishing trip.

A nice friday morning Chicago river cat

It was %$!#@ing cold

I've been hearing great reports of the fishing at Dusable Harbor, so of course that's where I found myself this morning around 6am. As soon as I got out of my car, I looked into the black sky and was almost knocked over by the wind. I had some second thoughts. Maybe it would be warmer by the water, I thought.

Does it look cold? It was!!

I walked up Michigan, over on Balbo, and was at the water in a few minutes. Huge waves crashed onto the pier, white streams of water flew everywhere. The lake was filled with giant waves, little white caps everywhere, and the wind was extremely intense.

It was $!#@%&ing cold as $%#&!

I almost turned around just then, but I stopped. I didn't wake up at 5 for nothing. I like little adventures almost as much as I like catching fish.

I walked north along the shore, trying to figure out how to deal with this curveball. I looked for a place that might give shelter to fish trying to escape the torrential wind. For a while I fished the area where Lake Shore Drive curves around and there are some docks. The water there was more calm, but no takers.

I kept walking north, working various lures along the lakefront as I went. I cast and retrieved with my cold, numb hands. It was supposed to be 74°F today, so I didn't bring any gloves. Lesson learned! Trying to improve my fishing skills, I've been changing lures more often. Every 10-20 minutes I tied on a different lure and tried a different technique. If any fish were biting I was determined to find them, catch them, and photograph them.

When I reached Dusable Harbor proper, I discovered a door to one of the long docks that must have been a fisherman's entrance. All I had to do was pull it open, and I walked onto the dock. A huge- no, humungous flock of seagulls was causing an insane racket over by some rocks closer to Navy Pier. I wondered if they discovered the baitfish and were having a nice morning buffet. I tried walking in that direction, but as soon as I moved beyond the big boat docked there in the harbor, the hurricane-like ice-cold wind changed my mind.

Dusable Harbor - that big boat to the right
was blocking some of the wind

No luck at the harbor, I continued walking, and found myself on the Chicago River. I fished some pilings with cranks, spinners, tubes, etc. but nobody was interested there either. I kept thinking there were certainly fish there, but I couldn't figure out how to get them. The wind was unrelenting, my hands were frozen to the core, and my three layers of flannel, sweatshirt, and windbreaker jacket weren't even enough.

The Chicago River
Doesn't look cold, but it really was

It occurred to me that I must really like fishing to be putting myself through this.

I realized I was only a 10 minute walk from Ogden Slip, where I'd had plenty of luck last year (thanks to Jim Nolan aka Bridgeport Bass for turning me on to the spot) so I headed there.

Somehow the wind was even more intense in there around all the buildings, and casting was next to impossible. I tried to work some pilings, but the wind had other ideas. I walked down the sidewalk and started fishing next to the "no fishing" sign in the corner. I had it on good authority that the city of Chicago actually built and owns the small cement dock I was on, so third party management companies cannot actually disallow fishing.

After a half hour there, working tubes, shallow cranks, deep cranks, spinners, and jigs, it was time to go. Thankfully the sun had risen enough I was slightly warm, just as I was leaving of course. I cut my losses, walked a few blocks to Michigan Avenue, hopped on a bus, and headed to work.

Not the most flattering shot....
I found a smaller, rounder bean hidden in some side streets

Evening at Ogden Slip

Sunset at Ogden Slip

One of my students has been wanting to go fishing with me for a while- apparently I post about fishing a lot on Facebook and make it look real fun- so today was the day I obliged him. I figured it would be good to put him on some fish, and so far I haven't been skunked at Ogden Slip. Set a meetup time of 5:30pm, and hopefully we would catch some fish!

not bad!

Left work, grabbed some Jimmy johns, hopped on the #29 to navy pier, and in a few short minutes I was at the spot. Pick arrived a few minutes later. I warned him about the no fishing sign, the security guard, and the imminent threat of hard prison time if we were caught fishing there, but he was game! So fished we did.

We didn't slay'em, and they weren't huge, but we did catch some fish. Over on the north side of Ogden Slip, the part where the security guards have a standing order to keep people from fishing, I ended up landing the first beast. A fair sized, maybe 10" largemouth that gave a great fight. Nice! I got in on, you guessed it, my prized tube jig. A few weeks ago that tube saved the day, catching a myriad of species- including catfish- so of course I had to bust it out first.

Pick's rock bass

Soon Pick had a fish on, an awesome looking rock bass. The rock bass at this spot have the most gnarly coloring, so gnarly at first I didn't know they were rock bass. Figuring my fishing guide duties were satisfied, I proceeded to catch a bunch more bass.

Actually we had to move right after Pick's first fish. A guard came over (not the cool one who is ok with us fishing there) and told us we had to leave. I figured I had two choices: fight it, as we certainly were in the right and should be able to fish there, or just say ok and move. I didn't want to spend any precious fishing time arguing, so I just said ok and we headed over to the other side.

We saw some weird looking fish coming toward the surface, looking like they were eating the algae. Of course I had no idea what they were.

There were no fish (besides tiny bluegills) over on our side, and it was difficult to cast to the other side. I needed some more weight. I switched out my tube for a wacky rigged dark purple 6" senko- with a bullet weight. I've never seen anybody rig a wacky rig like that, but hey I needed more weight!

Sure enough I was able to easily cast all the way to the other cement overhang so the worm was actually on the ground, then lightly yank it so it fell off the edge into the water. I've read about crayfish living in the piles falling into the water and the bass are accustomed to the sound, so I thought maybe that would get their attention.

Around this time Jeff Nolan of Bridgeport Bass (and Sun Times contributor) showed up on his boat with his dog Molly.  Always cool to run into a friend! Especially since he hipped me to the spot. He told us about a big fish he fought for 20 minutes last night right at that spot, and at the last minute it snapped the line. Oh man, I would have loved to see that. I started to dream of hooking into a coho some random weekday after work, and that's when I noticed some resistance on my lure. Snagged again, I moved to get it free... And it moved! Fish on!

check out the pattern on this guy

It was another nice bass- not huge, but a good fighter. After a quick fight, I got on land.. As he flopped around I saw my senko fly into the air, plop on the surface, and do that awesome horizontal sinking thing they makes them such great lures. Although I much prefer to have my line attached to then when they do that.

I was happy to catch a bass in front of the maestro, then I noticed he was also throwing a wacky rigged worm. I told I hadn't seen him with his wacky rig, I just wanted to try it.

It's so great to catch a fish regardless, but it's even better to successfully land one using new techniques! This was my first wacky-rig catch, and it was definitely working. I caught two more nice bass, both around 10", both on wacky rigged worms. One was on a senko, the other on a random brown worm I happened to have. Is this what "dialing in" is? If so, maybe that's what I was doing.. Finding out what the fish wanted today, and using that info to catch them.

I felt bad Pick wasn't catching tons of fish, but at least we had some action. We decided to head back to the first spot - in front of the no fishing sign- and try and catch us some more fish.

I caught one more bass over there, bringing my total to 4 bass for the evening. 1 on a tube, 3 on a wacky rigged worm. See, I DO use more than just my beloved tube jigs!

On Jeff's suggestion, I wanted to try the water under Lake Shore Drive (he had just landed a nice fish over there), and Pick decided to call it a day. I headed over there, tried the wacky rig and the tube, but nobody would commit. It was getting late anyway, and I had to catch a train, so I called it a day as well. 

I packed up my stuff, walked to the #140 bus stop, and waited. A real nice evening of fishing, and always great to have a fishing buddy or two!

Maybe Pick will get obsessed with fishing like I am. What if his work in my class suffers because of fishing... Would i lower his grade, or raise it for fishing extra credit? I think it would probably depend how many bass he caught.

what a cute little guy (the fish)

An evening of multi-species firsts

Fish are awesome!

or "The Magic of the Green Tube Jig"

Headed out to the new spot on the Chicago River yesterday evening after work, scarfed some Jimmy John's down on the #124 bus (didn't want to waste time eating when I could be fishing), which was filled with Navy Pier-goers.

Daiwa Peanut Crank in prizm black shad

Got off before they all did, ready to hit the spot. I already rigged a chigger craw per Jeff's suggestion, and took about 30 seconds to piece together my collapsible rod. When I got to the spot, I noticed the same security guard was there - right by the water - so I decided to fish from the other side of the river and wait until he left.

I think I'm getting much better at casting, because I was able to consistently get my lure in what I thought was the strike zone from about 50' (?). Although this was great casting practice, I wasn't getting so much as a nibble. I remembered one of the many fishing mantras I've heard over and over again: "If what you're doing doesn't work, change!" Since I wasn't ready to change my location (the security guard was still chatting it up with some ladies) I tied on a Daiwa Peanut Medium Crankbait in Prizm Black Shad color. I had never caught a fish on a crankbait, but I know there were little fish swimming around, so I'd give it a go.

The spot. Notice the security guard in the upper-right-hand corner. Outside the frame is the "No Fishing" sign

My first cast, the crank landed exactly where I wanted it- I waited for the ripples to stop, and I twitched it a few times (this crank floated on the top until you started retrieving it. Maybe that's how all crankbaits work, but I've barely used them...) On the third twitch, WHAM! Fish on!

This was no tentative bite, this was "Hey gimme that right now I'm hungry! MMmmmmm!" I set the hook, and began the short battle. I pulled up, reeled, pulled up, reeled - Jeremy Wade style - to keep the fish from going down into the rebar that I knew was on the bottom. As it came closer, fighting voraciously, I saw it was a fair-sized fish. Whoohoooo!

My 30 minute skunk-fest ended, I pulled up a good sized bluegill (pumpkinseed? I always confuse them), which was not only my first crankbait catch, but my first Chicago River gill!

A real nice-sized fish, who gave me a great fight

It took me a while to get the treble hook (actually 1 part of it broke off, so there were only 2 hooks in the fish) but once I did, I snapped a quick picture and let my new best friend back into the water. She (I think) was happy to go and quickly darted to the bottom.

Alright! I thought- I found something that worked! I cast to the same spot, and twitched it the same way.... and... nothing. Worked that lure for another 20 minutes, and again, not even a nibble.

A mom and her 4-year-old (?) son came down to watch. The little kid thought my pretend fish was pretty awesome, and it "swims just like a real fish!" It sure does! I think it's pretty awesome too. "There's a lot of trash in there. Fish don't eat trash. Ducks don't eat trash." He was right- it's too bad people are so careless with their McDonald's cups and candy bar wrappers.

The security guard gone, with a chigger craw tied back on, I tiptoed to the other side of the river and threw my lure in. This, mind you, was in front of a very large "NO FISHING" sign. I worked the bait against the wall, bunny-hopping it along; dragged it along the bottom near some falling water (fish love oxygen, right?), and again, nothing.

Around this time I noticed two ladies having a smoke break by the water, giving me some dirty looks. Obviously they didn't like me fishing there, but I'm not sure what they didn't like.. All my gear was in my backpack, on my back, and I wasn't casting anywhere near them. Any monofilament line went right back into my backpack, and I wasn't making a sound. I wasn't smoking, drinking, shouting, or littering.

I noticed the security guard come back around the corner, and started talking to the ladies. They spoke in hushed tones, but then one said loudly "Go get'em!"

I heard the keys on his belt rattle as he walked in my direction, but I kept fishing because I got a few nibbles in the spot, and I thought it would be awesome to pull out a smallie or something right when he came down. He came up about 10' behind me and whispered "Hey"

I turned around, and he recognized me from last week. He explained that he didn't care if I fished there or not, but those ladies were complaining. He told me to go back to the other side, but I could come back to this spot when the ladies left. If the sidewalk I was on was in fact city property as Jeff said it was, then this was all total mierda, but I wanted to keep fishing. So I went to the other side, and continued fishing.

Fish #2

They left about 3 minutes later, I went back to the other side, and the security guard gave me a thumbs up. Ok, cool. I wonder what he would have done if I complained about the ladies' smoking. Seems to me that is a lot more disruptive than a silent, careful, respectful angler wearing a backpack. Not to mention the ~20 people who stopped to talk to me, seemingly sincerely interested that there are fish in the river. I'm guessing some of them will come back and fish sometime!

Back to fishing, I tried some more lures, to no avail. Chigger craw, cranks, minnows on jig (worked last week), and nothing. I decided to bust out my all-time favorite lure, that has caught me more fish than any other, probably because I fish with it so much- my green tube jig.

Of course, immediately, first cast, I got a hit! and reeled in a nice looking rock bass. Cha-ching! I'm in!

It had a very interesting pattern I hadn't seen before, with dark splotches. Kind of pretty. This is rock bass, and not some other species, right? Remember, I'm still super new to all this.

Kept working the tube jig, got LOTS of little hits. Saw a brown colored fish in the water hanging out with a bunch of dink 'gills. Couldn't tell what it was (smallie? smallie? smallie?) Pitched the jig ~4' beyond the fish, and crawfished it over toward the brown fish. WHAM! Fish on!

This guy fought even harder than the previous two fish, and I was very surprised to see a ~10" catfish come out of the water attached to my green tube jig. This was my fourth catfish ever, first one on the river, and first one on an artificial! Whooohoooo!

My new friend, the catfish, fish #3 of the day

Fish #4 - My first Chicago River crappie!

This was kind of weird; usually when I get into some fish, I'll get into some more of the same kind in the same place on the same bait, but not today. Today was multi-species day! And it kept going- a few minutes later I got my first Chicago River crappie... on the same green tube jig.

Awesome! None of these fish are huge, but hey, it's great to catch fish. It's also really cool there is such a variety of fish right here- I know there are also LMB and smallies around here, and I'd been seeing carp jump all evening. To think a few 20 years ago this river was a disgusting trough of toxic waste, it speaks volumes of the river cleanup and awareness that it can support all these fish today.

I caught mussels! (Fish #4 1/2?)

I kept with my favorite lure, and was getting battered by hits. Missed a few hooksets, and got caught up in some branches a few times. One cast I got into a fish, it pulled the jig down, and when I reeled in I got another very interesting catch. I wasn't sure if they were zebra mussels or not, I should look that up so I know if they are nice mussels or bad mussels. I thought of how much I like eating mussels... Don't worry, I didn't eat them.

Anyway, I persisted, and hooked into what seemed like a VERY nice fish. Could it be? Finally? After all this time and effort, could I have finnally hooked a smallie?? Is this the moment I've been daydreaming about?

This fish gave me a GREAT fight- I estimated it was bigger than the bluegill I caught earlier in the evening; it was taking me all over the place, my rod tip bent and pulsing, my drag squealing as I struggled to keep it out of the weeds, rebar, and rocks on the bottom...

I finally get him to the surface, and I was a little confused, to say the least..

Confused because it's very small size, un-rock-bass-like shape, and extreme fight. I didn't think this was a smallie, it's fins and pattern seemed to be wrong for that... It didn't seem like a rock bass, or did it? It was a lot darker than any other rock bass I'd caught.

Here's the fish I caught...

... here's a picture of a "shadow bass"

..and here's a similarly-sized rock bass

And here I was, thinking I was all fancy and good at identifying fish now... and now I was stumped. I took a few pictures, and let the little bugger go. It was time to leave to catch my train, so I could see my wife for a few minutes before we both went to sleep.

All in all a great outing- but it really made me wonder about the green tube jig. Is it that is really that effective, and can catch basically anything that swims? Or could it be that since I've fished with it more than any other lure, I am better at working it in the water than any other lure... Or maybe I just suck at all the other lures I try using...

I'm not sure; I'm going to keep varying up my lures and not automatically start with the green tube jig on my line... I would like to get better at other lure styles, and learn to be a well-rounded all-species angler.

Fishing the Big Lake and the Chicago River

Yesterday morning (~6am-9am) fished the Chicago river from Union Station all the way to the lake, then down to the planetarium. It was nice and sunny, only a few tentative hits. I was throwing 2" tube jigs in grey with red specks and green ones with red specks; also threw white spinnerbait, a mepps black fury, and pink 1/16 oz jigs tipped with gulp 2.5" smelt minnows. Met Ron from the Chicago Park District around the Columbus drive bridge, and he gave me lots of great tips.

Once I got to the lake, I saw some rocks and weeds and threw my trusty 2" green tube jig- and got this little guy:

It was great to beat the skunk! Also caught a lot of gobies on the tube jig, including this big guy (the largest goby I'd caught):

I had to go to work, so that was it for the morning. After work (~5pm) I came back out to the lake and met Jeff Nolan, Sun Times fishing contributor, who gave me a wealth of tips and a good bass spot... So I headed up the coast, back to the river spot he suggested.

The spot looked super fishy, and it indeed was! On my first cast (jighead tipped with gulp smelt) I got a real strong hit and pulled up this fella:

Took a quick picture, threw him back, and quickly recast to the same spot, and immediately got another hit, this time way stronger! I was super excited. I hadn't yet caught ANYTHING in the river, and this was too good to be true! After a short battle I met my first Chicago river bass!

Around that time Jeff (who was on his bike) showed up and gave me some more tips on the spot, and I proceeded to land 2 more LMB, all on the same pink jighead and gulp smelt, bunny-hopped along the bottom per Jeff's suggestion. The fish all seemed healthy and put up pretty good fights. I'm not sure how long each one was, I didn't have a way to measure them... but I sure will next time.

Around the 3rd bass, a security guard came out and told us we couldn't fish there, that the management company of the building owned the sidewalk or something like that. There was a short argument, and I'm glad Jeff was there (apparently he's seen this happen before, and it even made the paper that the can't ban fishing there...!) I had to catch my metra home, so I headed off... But all in all, a GREAT day fishing, made possible by tips from other fisherman. A few short months ago, I couldn't tell the difference between a LMB and a bluegill, but thanks to the generosity of those on windycityfishing.com and fishermen I've met along the way, I think I'm becoming a better fisherman.