Bass fishing the Chicago River

Today is day one of my attempt to Bass fish the Chicago River. So far no luck catching any fish. However I did learn a few things.
Chicago PArk district has a learn to fish program, one of thier sites is on the Chicago River, south side, east of Columbus Drive. They provide poles, gear, bait, and teach whomever wants to learn, how to fish for sunfish, Bass, and Carp. Not sure if there is a cost involved or not. However they are there M-F 9-4 everyday. I talked to several of the instructors, and a couple of the fishermen. They were chumming the water with corn. One of the instructors said he caught a couple of bass today using 3" grubs. Thinking I give that a try tomorrow am.

Looks nice in the summer, last time I was there I saw a dropped full McDonalds coffee with the contents frozen to the sidewalk within inches of the cup... Brrrr....

Didn't Mike Iaconelli fish that with success? If my memory serves me right (and it rarely does)....I think he caught small mouth...and nice ones at that.

Looks like you are having an awesome trip, nice hotel. Good luck fishing man.

Went out again today. Fished for Bass, nothing again.
Staooped to talk to the Chicago Parks District folks again. They hooked me up with some Crappie gear and told me of a spot. Off I went, unfortunately the spot was a little occupied with homeless. Had an awefull urine odor, I kept on moving. Found another similar spot, without the local residents.

Managed to catch about a dozen Bluegill. Couple pics attached.


Returned to the Chicago Parks people and returned the unsed gear, and tehy informed me of a spot at teh mouth of the river, I'll try that in the am. Thanks to Chicago for providing the Parks Program. Angie and the crew were awesome.

Actually looks like fun. Can you put your own boat in there?

fender66 said:

Didn't Mike Iaconelli fish that with success? If my memory serves me right (and it rarely does)....I think he caught small mouth...and nice ones at that.

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I saw that episode also , he caught quite a few but he was in a boat so that may make a difference

This is my first year trying for Bass, so its all new to me. I typically fish for Crappie, however I didn't bring any Carppie gear, just the Bass stuff, and most of that came from the TinBoats Tournament in Madison this year. :mrgreen:

Yes, you can put your own boat in the river, and there lots of private vessals cruising up and down the river, or is it down and up? The direction of the current changes when they open the locks at the lake. When the lock is closed it moves North, when open it flows South.

We ended up eating dinner at Billy Goats and ran into Marilyn Monroe on the way there. She's a little taller than I expected. :mrgreen:
Billy Goat Tavern where the famous Saturday night Live skit came from. Check out the prices, and this is downtown Chicago. Food was good too!

I'll take 2 of everything on that menue...and I hope Marilyn was wearing underwear! :shock:

Yes she was. :LOL2:

It's a PG site, so I didn't post the pic. Not that the pic is provocative or anything, just keeping it clean.