My son and I went fishing today. I caught a few before he hooked, up, but he got the biggest of the trip:
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Totally jealous. Everything here is still too frozen or just not great for fishing. I’ve been ice fishing a few times, but haven’t been able to get into fish. The whitefish should be running soon around here. I’m hoping that changes my luck.
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These are some of my favorite times to go river fishing around here. It can be chilly, but I often have my pick of spots and the fishing can be just as good as summer. Once things warm up, I switch over to lakes nearly 100%.
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I suck at winter fishing. I can’t seem to find the fish, no matter how much I try. I’ve read a bunch about it and know all the best practices, but I always come up with nothing. I pretty much gave up a few years ago, although if the weather stays nice I may head out to the one river around here.
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Fishing groups will hook you up. No augur? Not necessarily a problem. People will tell you where you can go. Dams and spillways namely where the flow keeps the water open, but there are more interesting spots.
I know guys who figured out that the drains in the parking garage at Navy Pier in Chicago go straight down to the lake. So they park in the garage where it is warmer, and dangle their baits down the drain. As long as they are catching fish that are smaller than the holes in the drain, there’s no problem. Navy Pier is the place to fish for yellow perch this time of year.
That is an expensive day’s fishing! Navy Pier parking is notoriously steep.
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Also what I thought. But one of the advantages which is unspoken is the ability to take far more than their limit of perch, away from prying eyes. I dunno if those guys are poaching or not, but it’s a big problem, guys filling up garbage bags full of perch in the fall/winter. Limit is 15 fish per person IIRC. I hear stories of DNR agents breaking fishing rods, getting in physical altercations over it, and dudes going to jail.
Perch is fine, fried with a beer batter, but not worth getting arrested for poaching.
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Chicago Lakefront fisherpeople (there’s gotta be a better term) are a strange and passionate bunch.
I specifically meant river fishing in the winter. I just can’t get dialed into the fish this time of year at all. I probably could have been more clear in my post 
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Chicago lakefront anglers.
And yeah, I’ll agree with you about their passion for fishing!
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Secret source of info number 2 then: Bait shops. Find one in close proximity to where you want to fish, and buy stuff. Doesn’t matter what you buy, just buy something more than a couple dollars. Chat up the cashier during checkout, and they will put you on fish. They will tell you everything you need to know. They hear all the things, all the fish stories, they know what’s biting and where that week and on what. I had a bait shop cashier explain once how the soil composition around a small lake 30 miles away made it terrible to fish.
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Hey everyone! I’m down in South Carolina and excited to take my first stab at saltwater fishing this weekend. I’ll be renting gear and fishing from the 2nd Ave pier in Myrtle Beach.
From what I’ve read so far, dawn and dusk are best, and 2 hours on either side of high tide. Looks like this weekend the dusk and high-tide window will be fortuitous, so I’m going for it.
I did some re-con this morning, and the guy at the pier bait counter was pretty helpful, but I wondered if anyone here might have any tips or warnings or anything. @FloridaManJefe , looking at you for the east coast, salt water low down…
The pier is over sand up to the 4th light post, then over a rocky reef to the deep end. It looks like most anglers set up between the 2nd and 4th post.
My day pass comes with a bait tray, which looks like about 1/2 lb of shrimp.
Any and all tips, advice and well wishes will be used to the fullest extent possible!
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My experience in NC is thus:
Just about everything in the ocean will bite on a shrimp, but good luck keeping that bait on the hook. Squid is better, IMO. Everything will bite on it, but it’s tougher and sticks around. Mullet is also good, because lots of things won’t bite on it.
Bluefish are tasty, don’t throw them back. In the carolinas, the puffer fish are edible. Don’t throw them back, they are supposed to be one of the better tasting fish.
Don’t set up near a fish cleaning station on the pier. You may find yourself hooking into the big sharks.
If you see schools of mullet going around, get some white bread, and pinch it on a hook and float it on top of the water. They are both tasty and make good bait for predators.
If you are willing to put in the work to clean smaller fish, pinfish and croakers are fine eating. They tend to be on the bottom, so if you want to try avoiding the bait stealing small fish, use some variation of a dropper rig:
(The local shops will usually sell pre-made dropper rigs with snaps so you can put on the hooks and weights you like)
Make sure you get a pier net. You never know when some random big fish is going to take your small bait. Red and Black drum are the ones that A. May do that and B. You may want to keep, as they are tasty.
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Gah. I totally chickened out. I watched some videos and got really insecure about what I’d do if I hooked something I didn’t want (like a ray) and couldn’t figure out how to humanely and safely set it loose.
I’m so curious, for those of you who learned this on your own, I.e., w/o an in-person mentor, how did you get over this trepidation?
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Gear is how you do it. Long forceps, and cut resistant gloves.
If you are worried about a bitey shark (double negative - all sharks are bitey), or a stabby ray, get a bolt cutter to cut the hook in half instead of messing around near its mouth with forceps. Better for the animal that way too.
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In case of unanticipated toothy critter - cut the line and tie on a new hook. Don’t use stainless steel hooks in saltwater. Regular steel hooks will rust out quickly.
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