Northern Ill fishing report

[Pan Fish]

Hey Matt & Pete Happy belated new year to you guy's & the rest of the RFRG Brother's & Sister's , Last Month was a goofy month of fishing down here in the Fox Lake chain area . We got early ice for once ! Two week's before Christmas , Ye Hah all geared up an let's Go !! Fishing started out decent with marginal result's an Then SNOW & then More SNOW wet heavy stuff , Made it hard to get to the good fishing spot's truckin thru that stuff pulling your portable pop up shack & gear , Made you wonder what the #^(*#^ you were thinking at time's , an the fishing was slow !! Looking down at that ice hole an vexlar trying to coax a bite any kind of bite , even moving around did'nt help much , with one weather front after another had the fish all whacked out with a bad case of Loc Jaw but the bottle Bass were biting good , Tasty !! Then Came the Big Thaw !! With heavy rain's , Snow disappeared & freed up the lake's for Passage,, An then stable weather patterns !!! Man that turned the fishing around fast , Blue gills ,Crappies ,& Walleye's Oh Boy, Now that's a slice of Heaven. {YE HAh} Thing's have been good for about a week an 1/2 now , Funny how that goes is'nt it ! Well I got's to go the fish are calling my name , Just thought i would share this fishin report with you Guy's , I hope this stable weater pattern hold up a while longer , Thank's for all your fishing update's an stories that get shared on your sight ! See Ya Pan Fish

[Jeremy Hopland]

Nice to see another report, it's been way to quiet around here... Way to go Panfish, it sounds like you're tearing them up. Continued good luck!

[Muskie Matt]

Thanks for the northern IL RFRG chapter update, that's the kind of stuff we want to hear about, fishing all over, not only our area. Thanks. Heck, give the show a call sometime and give us an update...

Remember, there'll not be a show this coming Sunday (the 11th) due to all of us being down at Harper College doing the Muskie Expo. Stop by and see us! We WILL be back Sunday Jan. 18th for a full show, doing updates and all the other craziness that goes along with RFRG Outdoors.

Thanks again for the post.

[Jay Jay]

Hey Panfish, I have been to the northeastern meetings out your way a few times on Tuesday nights. You must not be rolling the ball this year because I haven't seen you there. Anyway I noticed your report. The times we have met we never discussed fishing the hard water. If I knew that maybe I could come and hang out with you out there. I tried it once or twice but that's about it. I do enjoy a few bottle bass myself. I could just hang out and watch you catch some eye's sometime if you don't mind.
Have a nice day! JJ

[Pan Fish]

Hey all , fishing down here has tapered off a bit , We had a hot steak going when we had the thaw two week's ago , Then got hit by the figid weather that came thru an slowed thing down, The fish have moved out to the deeper water on the outside of deep weed edges in 14 to 20 ft of water hanging close to the bottom. we have been using waxies , spike's & smaller crappie minnow's seem to be the preferred bait , for gill's an crappies , Using light line between 2 & 4 lbs test . Lure's have been small marmusk , spin glo's an the sort's even up to 1/32 oz jig's they seem to prefer pink/glo's char/glo , green / white . best time's have been late afternoon just before an after sun down an hour an 1/2 either way ,with small feeding frenzies during morning an mid day period's just have to be there when they turn on , Walleye have slowed also we have been fishing mostly tip up's with bigger fat head's an med roach's close to the bottom in the same 14 to 20 ft water. weed's have pretty much died off an starting to lay down so were getting to were you have to try an find current areas or start to look deeper were oxygen level are better ? well that pretty much it in a nut shell fishin been up an down just like the weather, gotta go the sun setting, give another update later. Hey Jay/Jay I got your phone # an I'll give you a call an we can get together an do some fishing soon ! see you later good luck to All. Pan FIsh