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Government Pier

1K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  bubblefish 
#1 ·
I don't usually post reports, but I figured I would throw one out there while I am still in Chicago this week.




In light of the cold South wind weather I decided to fish sundown last night from 5:30-8PM. Hooked into a first one at 6:15 PM. A 29" Skamania Steelhead Hen at Government Pier at Waukegan Harbor last night on a jumbo crawler who I inflated - 14' down on the slip - 6 LB Seaguar FLUOROCARBON - 8# Gamakatsu Octopus Hook - 11'6" St. Croix Wild River Drift Rod - about 75 feet of line off the South side of the pier just East of the breakwall. Fought this girl for about 20 minutes with lots of drag. She went aerial around 7 times and made 3 runs. She finally got close enough to the rocks and I carefully unhooked her with out taking her out of the water and released her to continue eating Alewives and Goby. These post spawn winter run Skamania don't fight as intensely but it was still a fun fight.


Next Steelhead was caught same style but way less acrobats and only 2 runs around 6:45 PM. Was careful to not remove the fish from the water when I removed the hook, and let it swim away after resuscitating it.


After I was done baitfishing, I decided to try out this new Fenwick Techna AV 6' Medium 1 piece rod on 4LB Fireline Crystal. I landed two Coho both within 5 minutes apart on a really nice 1/2 OZ Bomber Balsa Crankbait in Firetiger that dives to 18'.

Decided to keep both Coho and headed in around 8 PM. When I got to the marina, I saw a guy out Smelt fishing who had just thrown a 36" Northern out of his net onto the other side of the pier. He claimed he was using them for bait for Flatheads. Well, cheers.
 
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#3 ·
Nicely done and great photos! I too ran into that same smelt guy couple weeks back. I'm assuming it's the same guy because he too said he was going to use them for flatheads. A lot of work just to get catfish baits I thought. He had set up a huge shop and had 2 smelts in the bucket and had just released a northern. Must be a nice spot for northerns.
 
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