whacker baits chicago winter league leg 2

[matchanglingndausa]

The second leg of the Whacker baits winter league was fished today on the chicago river.The temps stayed around the upper 30's to low 40's and was sunny for us.5 anglers fished and we used the new section of river we found that can accomodate 25 anglers and will definatly be a good venue for matches in the warmer months.We weren't sure on how it would fish as most of this river doesnt see more fishing activity or groundbait being introduced in it.The river itself here is between 6 to 8 ft deep at 7 to 12 mts but flows a little faster than the other stretches we fished for the other matches and most anglers fished floats between 6 to 8 grams today.The match was 3 hours and fished from 11 am till 2 pm.I thought before the start that the fish may be a little shy here as they are not use to angling presure and the bank side distrubence and may be slow to come in on the groundbait straight away at the start.Also because the last few nights had become a little colder than what they were last week i cut back my feeding and put no loose feed in my groundbait at all.I cupped in just 3 small balls of groundbait at the start and 1 bait dropper full of corn and maggot and just fed a small ball of groundbait after each fish for thr rest of the match.I also cut down to a smaller hook too (size 16) and it all seemed to pay off.I hooked into 12 fish and landed 8 to win with 74 lbs 5 ozs and lost 4 includinga large fish well into the high teens .Still a little short of the magic 100 lbs in 3 hours yet but we are getting closer !...All my fish fish were caught on the pole at 10 mts with single corn tipped with a red maggot.Paul Wells was 2nd with 1 fish for 18 lbs on the bolo rod at 6 mts with corn and maggot and was unlucky to loose a few including one near the net after a long battle which was well into the 20's and maybe a 30 even,well done to Tracy who recetly started matchfishing with us here and finished 3rd on his first outing of the winter with us.
I think this venue will fish alot better after it gets fished a little more and the weather warms up a little
full results
1st Dara Finnegan (MAC)peg 4 .....74 lbs 5 ozs (1 point)
2nd Paul Wells (CBA)peg 2 ......18 lbs (2 points)
3rd Tracy Jourdan(MAC)peg 5.....7 lbs 4 ozs (3 points)

some pics here also
photobucket.com/albums/d136/irishangler/winter%20legue%20leg%202%20jan%2015/

[Liquidized]

What a cracking venue. Beautiful pristine fish too
Well done on the result
I Look forward to seeing your next results

[Paulscatt]

Its amazing that such quality fishing is virtually ignored over there. The weights / fabulous fish would obvously lead to massive angling pressure if it was available here in the UK which would lead to a downturn in sport. I don't think that will happen in US anytime soon so enjoy it ! I bet a 200lb weight will be on the cards in the summer for one of your guys.

Great photos / report , look forward to seeing more !

[MALC]

I do like that River wish we had a few like that here i might just start to fish moving water again.

Great to see the net of Commons.

Well done all.

[Gary]

Well done Dara, great result!! The river doesn't appear to be that deep close in and doesn't seem that wide, do any boats navigate it?

Great pics mate keeping em coming.

[royst]

That looks great fun. Well done mate,

[matchanglingndausa]

hi guys
the river is shallow in close out to about 2 to 3 mts where there is a drop of to about 3 to 4 ft deep...it then slopes deeper to the middle to about 7 to 8 ft deep..as for wide its prob about 15 to 20 mts to the far bank....i fished 10 mts the last day in the middle which was the deepest place i could find as it started to shallow up again at 12 mts...i did see some fish roll under the trees in the shallows on the far side early in the match but started catch at 10 mts so didnt even try across there...i tried just over the drop off at 3 mts but had nothing ....i think there will be other fish like bluegills and catfish there when it warms up...there is a little boat traffic in the warmer months i would think but am not sure as i have only started fishing there this winter really since all the stillwaters froze over and sometimes a maintence boat goes thru during the week once or twice a day...most of the anglers seem not to fish here for dec and jan ...it can get really cold in the winter sometimes but at the moment it is usally mild with the temps staying above freezing for the last 2 weeks or so...who knows if it stays for another week or so the lakes will start to thaw and we might get to fish them a little earlier...

[royst]

Why do you only fish for 3 hours

[matchanglingndausa]

since tice was our first winter league here and the temps were well below zero we decided to just fish for 3 hours....the wind chill in chicago can push the temps well below freezing.... ....but if this mild weather continues for our next match we will prob go to 4 hours...

[Dotteddown]

Great pictures keep them coming.Well done Dara,cracking weight.

[matchanglingndausa]

cheers Dotteddown
yup its a cracking river here...i had 19 fish for over 160 lbs last weekend in 3 hours at another section of the river a little downstream....there are only 4 pegs there so we cant really hold a match on it....we are working with a river assoc here about getting a proper match stretch developed at the moment so hopefully we will get something sorted with that....alot of the banks are over grown and tree lined here ....i have yet to blank here all winter on it despite the severe cold winters here either in a match and pleasure sessions are all 70lbs to over the ton in a short time easily....