Waukegan thru 5-17

I am quite pleased to report that after an unusually slow start to our 2009 Fishing Season in late April and early May, our most recent trips on the water offered up more respectable catches with Sunday afternoon's trip really experiencing some fast action and a final tally of 21 fish! This should set the table for the rest of May and well into June for what I believe will be some good fishing.

Volatile and colder than normal weather have been the primary factor behind the slow start to fishing but the crew on Thursday landed 13 of the 23 fish we had on. A stiff Northwest wind on Saturday made conditions a little more challenging but the morning crew grabbed caught 11 fish, throwing one back to let it grow a little more. Wind persisted into Saturday afternoon and unfortunately fishing slowed a bit for the Kartholl Family which also witnessed a most impressive rally back from seasickness by Brad. We only pulled in 5 fish that trip but I remained anxious and optimistic for Sunday's weather forecast and a change in strategy.

Sunday's sun rose brightly on cool temps while the wind diminished. Several captains including myself decided to shelf the shallow water fishing along the shoreline where we had been fishing for several weeks in exchange for a run to deep water. Getting off to a little bit of a late start to fishing Sunday morning, the action in deep water paid off and proved steady for about 2 hours until the wind totally stopped and we pulled lines with 8 fish in the cooler.

With just a light breeze developing again by noon Sunday, I tweaked the deepwater plan just a little and headed even deeper to 150-160 feet of water. We got into some great action including an adventure of clearing one side of the boat's lines to chase down a large Steelhead (Rainbow Trout) that we had on which would not budge as well as a handful of affairs where we had fish on the floor of the boat, a fish or two being reeled in while another had just taken another bait! The crew hauled in 21 fish on what was a beautiful Sunday afternoon but we only had enough hooks on the "Windycitysalmon.com" fishboard for 19 of them! The fast fishing and terrific weather on Sunday made a great combination and iced the cake of a fun weekend on the water.

You can view pictures by going to the Photo Gallery tab and clicking on 2009 Fishing Album

Capt. Rick