Social Fins

Here in Chicago, IL...  the winter is a rough time for us anglers... super rough if your like me, and dont get your fix from ice fishing.

What do you do if your in the land of frozen.... when you have aready prepped all your tackle, cleaned and lubbed all your reels, watched every fishing video on YouTube, even beat the latest fishing video game...AND SPRING IS STILL NOT HERE YET!

Here is an idea:

You start by looking up water treatment plants in your areas...Google did this for me in a jiffy...and being in Chicago the results were plentiful...and before I say anything more. Yes, there are bass in the Chicago River! hehe

Next I pulled up Google maps and searched each address I found,  I narrowed my list by simply seeing if there was a river or creek nearby...lets say less than a mile from the treatment plant...then I looked closely and BINGO found what I was looking for...a discharge!

It is known as a effluent outflow. ( not really clear on the process of treating water, a little too much book learning for my blood)...But I do know that this process pushes water back into the river at the spots I found, and the water is WARM!

So I grabbed a spinning set up , and a casting set up and headed to the spot...walking up to the river I had mixed feelings, but hey I was getting out of the house, and at worst would get a few casts in!...As I got closer to the river, I could smell it.  It smelled like dirty river detergent. When I got within eyesite of the river I could see it steaming, and I thought to myself how could I not have known this was year all these winters!!!

It was 24 degrees out that day, ( without wind chill) and my guess is that the actual river temp was around 30 - 33 degrees....I get down to the water and stick my hand in by the outflow...It must be in the mid 50's!!!!

I go to work and to me it feels like spring, I wasnt even cold anymore...I knew there was a good chance of me getting on some open water bass in the dead of winter!... well it wasnt long before I lost the shakyhead I had set up on my spinning outfit...should have brought more tackle, but when I left the house, I didnt have high hopes for this spot!

So picked up the caster which I had rigged with a weightless pearl super fluke on a 4/o hook...and flinged it out at current break.... WHAM!  a fish rolls on it, and I missed it (I'm a little bit  rusty, hehe)... whipped it back out to the same place and BAM! Hooked up! I fight the fish for about 1o seconds, before I realize this is not a bass??...it getting closer, and it is a small maybe 2o inch pike. Now normally I kinda hate pike...they steal my lures and mess up my tournaments...gressy snakes, haha, But today I am happy to feel anything at the end of my line!

I get him to shore and try to swing him up to wear I was standing...dumb move, He broke off and swam away with my fluke still hanging out the side of his mouth! =(

He left me lureless, so I packed it up and went home... I have been planing my return visit to this discharge for the last 24 hours...and plan to pick this spot apart for the rest of the winter. =)

So does anyone have any experince with winter fishing like this?? What would you throw??, how would you apporach this return? Im thinking heavy jig and pigs? the water is warm enough maybe even a spinnerbait?

I know there has got to be bass there, just a matter of time before i figure them out!

Please comment if you would like / have any ideas for me...Thanks!

Thanks for reading my artical/ blog/ rant/ whatever!

JayPee the HHF! (HipHopFishermen)