Hit Navy Pier today looking for more perch for the freezer.  The reports, from recent days, had indicated that the perch were in and that their size was better (10+ inches).  The recent rain had also caused the ice to disappear in past days, so access to the water would be better.

The conditions for Navy Pier this morning were as follows: 20 to 30 F, depending on the sunrise, with strong winds gusting out of the South up to 20 mph.  The barometer was slowly falling.  The sunrise was at 7:18 am, but the overcast skies held true daylight form appearing until a little later in the morning. The arrival time downtown was about 7:30, just as the sun was peaking over the horizon.  We were once again happy to see that not many people decided to brave waking up early on New Year’s Day, the skim ice that had formed overnight, or the cold gusty winds.  We set up at our usual spot on the North side of Navy Pier.

Only a little bit of breaking was needed to get through the ice.  The biggest challenge was keeping the holes of skim ice from refreezing again.

The action started fast with three solid keepers within 15 minutes of fishing.  We were once again armed with crappie rigs and a few different sizes of fathead minnows.  After those few quick keepers, the smaller fish decided to join in on the fun.

Then, at about 8:00 am, the fishing just stopped.  There were no fish to be found anywhere.  We decided not to move and await their return, and return they did.  We found that the best strategy for the larger fish was to let both minnows lay flat on the bottom.  We also found that the larger fatheads were just not as appetizing as the smaller ones.  The smaller minnows definitely out fished the larger ones when it came to the larger perch.  It made it really difficult to detect the bites, but it seemed to keep the smaller ones away for the most part.  At 10:30 am, we called it a morning with a limit of 15 fish each. My catch:

Todd’s Catch:

All the fish together (there were a few small ones due to swallowed hooks)

And finally, Todd’s big fish of the day:

Todd definitely won the contest today with more fish and more quality fish.  It was great to get out on the first day of the year and begin the 2009 Fishing Season with a bang.  Hopefully, this will be signs of another excellent season to come.

Fish Totals:
2 Man Limit of Perch (30 total, 15 apiece) with many dinks thrown back to be caught another day.

[Slashdot] [Digg] [Reddit] [del.icio.us] [Facebook] [Technorati] [Google] [StumbleUpon]