I look forward to good ice when one can follow a person slightly larger and more brave onto good ice, but until then, I will continue to fish on soft water. After church today, picked up my son and his friend and headed to Hammond to launch and go find some lake michigan perch. The bite has been going on in Cal Harbor for several weeks/months and it really has not slowed down. For some unknown reason, they would not let us launch out of Hammond today as they said it was too icy and was too dangerous and only my visual inspection appeared to show me a clear ramp with no ice in the harbor. Well, we don't harass the messenger and thanked him for his information and headed to the ramp off of Ewing on the south side of Chicago. This was my first time there and it was ok and seemed insulated in a park, away from the city even though the city of Chicago would like us to contribute $29 to launch and park there in this abandon park. This made for a short boat drive to the mouth of the Chicago River (I think that is the name of this) and we went a short distance upstream and fished memories of where previous catches have occurred. Three of us had 45 perch with none under 9" and a good number over 10" but none exceeding 11", in about one hour. It was a bit cold and a snow flurry came and went but with good clothing and reliable equipment, we had a good couple of hours out of the house. Retrieving the boat was routine and we listened to the Bears/Packers game on the radio on the way back home. So, if you are too feverish indoors and the walls are closing in a bit, until the ice is safe, perch fishing is still an option. Where we were fishing does require an Illinois license just so you know.
