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| We fished the Chain last night from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM. The conditions were perfect, but we never scored. My partner had one hit, and it bit part of the tail off of his Bulldawg (8:45). He was fishing in 12 feet of water. I had one blow up on a spinnerbait in 2 feet of water (10:00). That was all we saw.
It was next to impossible to fish until after dark. The big boats were in full effect last night. Plus, there are a ton of floating weeds everywhere. Topraiders would foul every two or three casts. Spinnerbaits are your best bet after dark.
Good luck, and lets keep this thread on the top.
Scott |
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| Any more reports? |
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| Fished the chain on Thursday, July 19th from 6:30pm - 10:30pm. We fished the weeds and suspended, and never had a bite.
On Saturday, July 21st, I fished Loon Lake from 5:30am - 10:00am. I had one lazy follow on a tiny crankbait. I mostly fished the weeds and secondary breaklines.
Hopefully someone will report some good news quick. Northern IL is dead right now.
Scott |
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| Finally gettin' back out to the Chain (hopefully) Sat. early A.M. thru sunrise...will post report.
skeelunker1[:devil:] |
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| It's about time, skeelunker1. You should give me the dollar for "BIG FISH" now. It will hurt less than giving it to me on saturday.
See ya friday sucker!
SKEELUNKER |
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| Correction SKEE,
I will take that $1.
Was out from 2 am to 8am had one in the boat on top @ a 6:15am. No other strikes or follows. Kinda slow
skee...1 |
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| Went out for the morning on catherine. My dad got a catfish on an ernie. Seen a dead musky, the product of a bad release(major jaw damage). The lake is as murky as I have ever seen it and it's warm. Weeds are dying and some areas have none which I believe someone has poisoned them. There was a big snail die off as they are floating all over the lake.
Probably won't go back untill after labor day.
Setme31 was that you I saw going to bob's marina? I was in the misty river. You were in the tuffy esox ltd. correct?
If it was how did you do? |
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| Yea, that was me. Sorry if you thought we cut you off at the end there, but we were trying to get the hell out of there. It felt like we were on the ocean when we came from Channel into Catherine. Way too many boats for me.
We got on the water at 4:00 AM. We fished Channel, Bluff, and then Catherine. We never saw a fish. When we first got on the lake, there were baitfish errupting all over on the surface. But we never saw anything.
I talked to one other boat, and they caught one small pike, and had one follow. I also talked to the creel survey guy, and he said that noone had caught a fish all day. Oh well, better luck next time.
If I see the Misty River out there again, I'll stop by and say hi.
Scott |
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| No problem. I think we made two more trolling passes and that was it. Kinda wish we would have went to silver instead.
We seen fish jumping all over also and we marked muskies too but they were not active or near the surface.
That's a clean old tuffy. [:sun:] |
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| One more thing. That survey guy gets around. Two years ago he was working spring lake south of peoria with that same boat. |
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| Was out Sat. 1am to 8am. Didn't even smell afish.
Tried shallow, deep, trolled, and everything in between....nothin'
skeelunker1[:((] |
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| I told you we should have stopped for a drink at the All Nude Review, to get the carma trian rolling.[:p] |
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| Las Vegas show girls rule!!
Never been there, but we drove past it at 3:00 in the morning, and the place was packed.[:p] |
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| Reports on the Chain have been surfacing of a lakefront owner taking the weed control efforts in his own hands. Evidently he had poisoned the weeds in front of his own home only to affect a good portion of the lakes.
I'm hearing this third party, so you know how rumors fly. I have many relatives and friends on the Chain and they're hearing the same reports.
Looks like the worst fishing in August on the Chain in years. [:((] |
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| Out on the chain today and for about the first time this year had good fishing conditions. Water temps in the mid seventies, cloudy and windy and the water had cleared a little. Caught two fish 30 and 32" auround stacked up bait fish.
I could not believe the boat traffic. All alone untill 10am and not much traffic at all untill the afternoon and it still was not bad. [:praise:] |
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| Fished the chain today with this years typical result. NADA. Not alot of pleasureboaters but alot of fisherman. There appeared to be three tournaments on the chain. I did not see a single fish caught by anybody.
They are there, I marked them but could not get one to go. Temps were 64 first thing to 74 by late afternoon. |
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| On the Chain last Sunday - 5 hours of nothing. Will try again next Sunday. |
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| We should have some replies here because I seen an s-load of musky fisherman today. Lot's of fisherman in the morning was replaced by the idiot 500. Still managed a 30" fish trolling. Not bad considering the water was so stirred up with wavesy boat got airborne on catherine!!! |
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| I am certainly not going to be able to add much here other than we got skunked Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Saturday was terrible thanks to the nice weather. Some real idiots out on the lake. One boat was doing 80mph across Lake Marie while it was packed. I can't believe no one got run over. We had one really good rip trolling but the fish got off. Other than that, we tried absolutely everything except live bait. Everyone else I ran into was having pretty much the same luck. Water temps were 64 to 66. Should be dropping like a rock with 40 degree weather this week. Keep pounding though. The fish are certainly there. Deeper weeds are excellent. As water levels drop and current forms, fish will stack up at the mouths of the channels heading to other lakes. River mouths are also good. The current will allow these areas to stay open longer. Fish have a tendency to migrate. Fish fast and cover a lot of water until you get a pattern going.
Good luck! |
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| Scott, it was already like you said and some lakes were insanely stacked up. Problem was it was like trolling across an interstate highway.[:(] |
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| Was out on the Chain Sunday what a mess, boats everywhere in the fog. Had some jackass in a yellow and black ranger run over my line (at full throttle) and cut off my lure (a brand new Jerko).
Now for the interesting news. While fishing Channel I caught a small 28" Musky. The interesting thing was it was a spotted/leech lake strain Musky. I also heard somebody caught a 34" Leech Laker. Who and When did this strain start getting stocked?
Dave |
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| I was out on Saturday morning, and ended with the same result as always. Skunked again!! What a great fishery we have here in Illinois. |
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| Went out today all day long. Sunup to darkness. Got a 30" pike and a 30" musky. Pops got the pike on petite casting. Petite probably has the clearest water of all the northern lakes on the chain. Pops wanted to try suckers and casting today so we tried that tried and true unproductive method on this water. The water quality is too bad for it. The lakes are murkier then I have ever seen them and the worst are channel and catherine less than one foot. I think the weed poisoning and the very hot weather caused it. We pretty much get our fish trolling. I think the lakes are too murky for productive casting and your best bet is to put your baits out and cover some water. We run four rods and if I could run more I would. |
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| was on the chain today one muskie on a jerkbait and that was it water temps 50-52 . |
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| Was out sat. and sun. all day both days. Got a fat 35" fish right off the bat sat. in five minutes trolling and that was it. Nothing sunday all day. Alot of non-musky fisherman out saturday but sunday was all musky-hunters and lots of them. Anybody else do any good? Temps were in the upper 40's. |
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| Nothing. No sightings, no nothin. |
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| Took my wife and son out yesterday afternoon. Trolled Channel Lake for about an hour, fished the 15ft. break line with a deep diver and a spinner bait – no fish. Trolled the southern half of Marie same way – no fish. Did mark quite a few fish in Marie though, none in Channel. It was a beautiful afternoon to be out.
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| Went out today and very few boats. Had the lakes at times to ourself. Temps 44 and fairly clear water. Weeds are still green and the level is down 2.5-3 feet. Had two follows and seen plenty under the boat on the finder which were presumably follows. The suckers were chased but never grabbed. |
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