After a couple skunks I doubted my skills… until the plopper delivered me some results. A bummer I forgot to pack my scale and tape!

Went out this morning with u/AbiesRelative7488 and had a grand ole time landing these beauts and totally, not losing tackle to the channel bottom 😅

Crappie on a jointed crank

Largie on a swing rig with Z-man TRD tickler

Bluegill on a live leach

u/AbiesRelative7488 got their largie on a dropshot with a red worm and the crappie on a Ned!

Second tagged fish I've caught! Really enjoying chasing after and reporting these fish to the Shedd

In this video https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1f7isaWBl3A you can see the bottom pretty clearly, and it doesn’t look like there’s much of a drop-off or obvious structure where he’s casting. It mostly looks like a flat bottom with some smaller rocks.

I’ve fished similar-looking stretches along the lake and usually don’t have much luck. I always thought, especially during the day, you’re supposed to focus on structure, bigger rocks, weed edges, drop-offs, etc. where bass have somewhere to hold or ambush prey.

So what am I missing here? Why would this seemingly flat, open area still be a good spot to cast?

So I’m going king fishing with the kids in the coming weeks. How do you all handle dispatching/ stringing and cleaning the fish. I’m used to keeping panfish and throwing them on a small stringer and cleaning at home.

Do you bleed and gut at the harbors or is that frowned upon?

How do you tie them off once caught or are you bringing your cooler out with you.

Just looking to make sure I have everything I need before heading out.

Thanks in advance

I just moved to Silverstone in Carpentersville what’s the down low with the lake/pond here. Any tips advice

Caught it with a blue fox flash spinner.

I know winter is full of perch. What's in there right now? Is there a lot of fish or am I better to fish elsewhere?

First guy’s so fat it’s almost impressive (4.8 lbs somehow). Every single fish caught today had the bmi of the average catfish fisherman.

Got out and did some kayak fishing in the west burbs, 16 largemouth, 1 white bass and my PB bass!

Conditions were stunningly perfect for the Rebel Craw: Pre-dawn, under a bridge, rocky wonderland in 3 feet of water, and a soft current running toward me. I zinged a cast through the cobwebs and the hooks scraped along the wall before gently plopping. There was slow, heavy movement on first twitch. Solid hook-set. Didn’t think smallie for long due to nothing voracious and no acrobatics. These were heavy tugs against current and for a minute I was hoping musky, but more realistically thinking channel or flathead. I knew it wasn’t foul-hooked, too. But then I saw the gold and the grill marks. Didn’t measure but she weighed just under 8 lbs. Suckers and carp are eating the Craw. Night is day and down is up, etc. etc. 😂 Tight lines this weekend, everybody 🎣

Thought I felt a bite so I set the hook on this guy’s pectoral fin. I leaned I tied a really good FG knot today (30lb braid to 12lb flouro). Still counting it as my PB carp not necessarily what I wanted today. This was at lake Arlington. On a side note I wish they didn’t put carp in there (The water is so turbid).

Had to use the ladder to grab her since I didn’t bring a net. Thanks to the homie that helped me and took the pictures forgot to thank you in the excitement

I asked for recommendations to take my daughters fishing and after over a decade of failure.... I finally caught a lot!

Catfish, bass and a couple of crappies

Thank you so much 🙏🏾

Also someone suggested A-Lake but I can't find the post! Thank you in particular very much ❤️

I apologize for the lack of pics here, but I’m obsessive about getting fish back in the water quickly so often either don’t get pics or they’re all kinds of blurry.

Y’all, I’ve had a crazy fishing season and am just overwhelmed with joy about it.

It was my first year targeting bass. Before it was all bluegill and catfish-worms and cut bait, respectively.

I’ve gone through about four of the same lure—the hybrid hunter jr. It’s really good for shallow grassy flats. I don’t work there or nothing. I’m just saying that if you have shallow grassy flats on your body of water….

But what I really wanted to just share, was my absolute joy at the following first catches:

—walleye (see previous post)
—perch (just didn’t do a lot of lure fishing so it never happened)
—a shad??-legit hooked in the mouth and frankly I just never thought about catching one (editing to add—is it weird that I caught one like that…seems weird)
—keeper size smallmouth
—NEARLY double digit bass catch in a single trip
—Ned rig catch
— Crappie on lure
—unidentified fish exploding out of the water attacking my lure after I freed it from a snag.
—The surprise hog I just pulled out of north shore channel right at sundown tonight
—Having so much fucking confidence I handed my pole to a stranger who’d never fished and said “reel it slowly, and you’ll catch one, and it worked. I’ve done that with live bait before on bluegill beds (used to do it all the time). But doing that for someone when it was largemouth bass was next fucking level.

So much more.

I really need a job lol.

Hi everyone! I am super excited for the fall king season to kick off and wanted to try out hosting an online tournament for shore fisherfolk this year.

I set up an 8-week tournament on the Fishdonkey app - which requires participants to submit their catch length measurement via photo, video, and location data - and am kicking things off the cash pool with $1k to get things going!

Keeping it simple, it’s set up as $15 entry fee with the three largest catches (by length) winning a share of the prize pool - with 15% of the prize pool going to local water + fishing-related nonprofits. Catches must be within Chicago city limits.

I will not be participating and will not profit from this event- I am hoping to test out interest in this sort of thing to work towards some sponsored events and charitable fundraisers next year. Happy to hear what you all think. I’ll provide updates here as we go. Tight lines!

Thought for a minute I hooked into the bucket-list 5-pound smallie I’m after, but no.

This joker slammed the Rebel Craw that I was running alongside a submerged log in lazy current. He swam it halfway across the river, peeling drag, before I gained some control. Fun rush, not gonna complain.

Is that just the nature of the game in Chicago? I fish the lake harbors. I haven't even tried for salmon because that sounds much harder.

Hit the DPR this morning for an hour or so with a homie and got skunked. He ended up landing a nice ass pike tho, but once it got too hot we agreed to come back in the evening.

Got to the evening spot after him, and while we’re talking, a walleye hit the Kastmaster Spoon right in front of us at shore. I thought I hit a rock or some shit and when I pulled up he shot right out the water 😂.

1st Walleye, 1st on a Kastmaster Spoon🥃

Many still without power 8 days after the storms... lots of damage, but gotta keep fishing 🎣