Jim Schaefer of Mt. Prospect marvels at the unseasonably warm late autumn and early winter weather the Chicago area has experienced, and he is kicking himself for locking his boat down for the year in mid-November.
“I winterized my boat,” Schaefer said. “It’s up on jacks. It’s sleeping. I could have been out fishing. The weather has been so nice.”
Schaefer, a 56-year-old retired teacher, thinks of all the Lake Michigan fishing time he could have put in as he has coped by fishing at the pond at his condominium building.
“It’s not frozen,” he said. “It’s one way to cure my blues.”
Schaefer was one of many anglers at last weekend’s Northwest Chicago Sports Show at Arlington Park who one way or another, despite a miscalculation or two (like believing there really would be a winter) did not quite stop open-water fishing at the end of last summer.
The warmer-than-normal temperatures have pretty much put ice fishing on hold, but fishermen who otherwise would recoil at standing outdoors in freezing weather have been blessed by 50-degree readings.
Dan Basore, who possesses perhaps the world’s largest collection of fishing lures, had a display at the show and is putting the finishing touches on a Lake County Discovery Museum exhibit that is scheduled to run at the Wauconda facility from March 3 to Sept. 21. But in between he goes fishing.
“Almost every day,” Basore said. “You don’t have to drill holes in the ice. Some of the bass I’m catching are so fat.”
Typically, January brings ice to Lake Michigan harbors and ponds, and small lakes and shallow rivers are frozen solid. Many fishermen do revel in ice fishing, but many hibernate until spring. Not this year.
In the mind of Mark Kubal, a Naperville middle school teacher, it might as well be July. In recent trips he has fished Lake Michigan for perch at Navy Pier, Belmont Harbor and Montrose Harbor. He has fished the Illinois River for sauger and Lake Geneva for small-mouth bass.
“It’s kind of nice to go to the harbors in Chicago and not have to dress real warm,” Kubal said. “I love it. It’s quite awesome.”
To Darrell Baker, who operates Midwest Guide Service on the Chain O’ Lakes, a steady run of days in the 40s and 50s as the Chicago area has experienced for a month, means adjusting. At this time of year he guides ice-fishing trips. No ice? How about open water?
He is taking clients to Lake Marie and other lakes on the chain to fish for walleye, white bass, stripers and muskie.
“The fish are down on the bottom,” Baker said. “It’s cabin fever. People are ready to go out. I’ve had five open-water trips. We should be ice skating on it. Fishing is alive and well.”
Brian Mellonig, 26, of Chicago, and his father, Tom, 63, of Highland Park, are happy to take advantage of the mild weather.
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They have fished at Waukegan Harbor, Busse Woods and the Wolf River, among other places. The younger Mellonig said he plans to catch a fish at least once a month until forever. The Mellonigs also put their boat away for the winter in October but have considered putting it back in the water.
“We could be using it a couple of times a month,” Brian Mellonig said.
The Mellonigs are eating up these fishing opportunities because they do not ice fish. Tom said he went ice fishing once and dressed warmly on the suggestion of a friend. Except for his foot wear.
“My friend didn’t tell me the real hazard was frostbitten feet,” Tom Mellonig said. “That means I’m never going again.”
Lucky for him he has been engulfed by temperatures that would leave him sweating in ice-fishing garb. However, he did have another kind of footwear handy in the closet.
“I went golfing yesterday too,” he said.
Face it, Tom Mellonig is just a warm-weather guy.
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