2011 Season Recap - Tough Weather, Tremendous Fishing

[Captain Rick Bentley]

It is under a grey, October sky and a howling northeast wind exceeding 50 knots, that I type this recap for the 2011 Season. The Gales of November, as Lightfoot said, have again come early but it seems to me that in 1975 they were actually right on time. Our nearby shores are getting pounded by huge waves as the Autumn witches apparently grow more angry and colder each time they return.

2011 is no stranger to rough weather however as we had hard north winds that lasted for seven days in the spring, a funnel cloud that barreled down the shoreline and right through the harbor, many storms that had city crews clearing away huge fallen trees that have stood for decades and power outages that lasted a week for some people. And just a few weeks ago for our last major wind event, a buoy in the middle of the lake, just over the Illinois Wisconsin border registered 23 feet waves before it stopped working altogether. Bad weather can always be counted on every season but 2011 was about as vicious as we have seen in a long time.

Still we managed to pack the trips in where we could and make it a record year for business and fish caught. In fact, this year's fishing on the aggregate was the best I've witnessed since I started as a captain four years ago. I might even say it's better than many of the seasons back when I was first mate. Sure we had a few tough trips here and there, that's fishing, but I ran some numbers and calculated that we returned to port each trip with an average of 15 fish and had the crews limited out nearly 40% of time. I attribute these figures to two factors: we indeed seemed to have lots of fish at least within reach of Waukegan all season long as well as I continue to get better and better as a fisherman and a Captain. On the latter point, there were some observations that I made this season that seemed revelatory to me and I will continue to employ and fine tune these once enigmatic matters in the seasons to come.

As far as business goes, I am about maxed out in terms of how many trips I would like to run in a season. Last season was the year I hit the numbers that I thought were necessary for the near and long term health of the business and this year - even with the weather I just described and the many cancellations that accompanied it - we built on that level by another 18%. Accolades aside, what this means is reservations will increasingly be made farther in advance and my ability to accommodate crews on short notice will diminish. Furthermore, being on the water this much makes it easier to dial into the fish.

Having finished this season with a string of busy days through most of last week and the boat getting hauled out last Saturday, I am just getting back to shore life but a hallway and dining room full of gear await sorting, maintenance, and eventual if temporary storage. However in less than two weeks I will be on a flight to Seattle where I will hike different areas of Washington and Oregon. There is lots to do before then including shaping myself up into some hiking condition to better enjoy my time out west. With that adventure in the near future and the weather far more dim now here than when I just recently fished it, I am indeed ready for a break after a very busy season.

It was a fantastic finish to this year though as limit after limit of two and three-year old Kings were taken in offshore waters. Not only was the fishing awesome, we did it 'old-style' under beautiful skies and calm water with only four downriggers and only sometimes ran wire divers. We only ran leadcore and copper when I felt the bite was a touch slower and/or to give a chance at some stray steelhead. The size of our catch in both numbers and individual fish this fall - fish that will be mature four year-olds next season - suggests that 2012 King Salmon fishing may be one for the books. And while I look forward to that possibility, our Coho Salmon fishing this past season was one that people, Captains, will talk about for a long time. We had our usual limits in the Spring but this super strong Coho trend continued into June and we even caught huge numbers of Coho into July this year. When we thought that was about it, August and September arrived and there were days when our cooler had as many or more big Coho to go along with our Kings. By this point, these Coho typically weighed in at 8-10lbs and some larger Coho up to 14lbs were taken as well.

So whereas in some circles the whispers may be that the fishing isn't as good as it used to be and the fish aren't as big .... I would like to say that fishing seems to me as good as it's ever been and with a forecast next year for some very big Kings has me really excited.

On a last note, this was the first year I had hats and apparel made and it was really a lot of fun. And it is pretty cool to see people around town wearing Windycitysalmon apparel or walking on the boat with their shirts and hats already on and ready to fish. The gear was a big hit and not only did I want to put my name on something for you get on board to remember your trip by, I wanted to make them cool enough that you would want to wear them anyway! So, thank you very much for your purchases and I'll try to keep it that way. In that regard, I have some items left and I will send out an email about Windycitysalmon hoodies, hats, and T's. Please sign up for the Email Newsletter and take a look at it if you are interested in getting any gear.

Attached are a few photos from some of our last excursions. All photos for the season have been updated to the Photo Gallery on the website so go check out all the others.

Thank you for reading and thanks very much for coming on board to fish with me not only this season but in seasons past.


Capt Rick
Windycitysalmon