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You Work While I Fish Downtown by Don Dziedzina
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A day of fishing that is so much fun for me is heading down to the Chicago River to fish for bass or whatever else that might be biting.

Fishing the Chicago River in downtown Chicago is such a neat experience. A lot of people are now fishing the river from the banks. But still not that many will go by boat to fish the south branch at State Street or amongst all the skyscrapers. It’s pretty cool to be on the water and look straight up to see a towering Sears Tower. One of my favorite spots on the river is right under Lake Shore Drive. I’ve caught more quality fish there than any other spot on the river.

Catching fish is fun. Catching fish while people who are watching you are wearing suits and carrying their briefcases is really cool. A thought that comes now and again is about them going to work while I’m fishing. Life is good when you’re on the water. When you’re fishing in downtown Chicago, life is great.

Passersby will stop on the bridges and watch you and then comment in amazement when you catch a largemouth or smallmouth bass. Yes they are quite commonly found amongst the hustle and bustle of the big city. There are also rock bass, catfish, white and yellow perch, bluegill and crappie. In the rough fish department you will find carp and drum.

When I go downtown to fish, I usually leave all the crankbaits, spinnerbaits and top waters at home. Plastics are the name of the game for the city fish. You can use tubes, twister tails, plastic worms, Senko type worms and minnows. As of late, I’ve been cashing in on a lot of fish with Gulp worms. There are a lot of snags and hang-ups, so make sure you have a good supply of plastics and hooks.

Last week when I went, I wanted to try something different.

On previous trips to the river, I would use mostly tube jigs or Senko type worms rigged whacky worm style. The fish on the river will hug the walls and corners. Most of the time they will pick up falling baits. At other times, dragging the bait slowly along the bottom away from the walls works well too.

This time I rigged up for drop shotting. I never tried this before downtown. Drop shotting is where you have your weight at the end of the line and a hook about 18 inches up.

I fished with Berkley Gulp Alive 3 inch leeches and caught a lot of rock bass. It was as close to a bite on every cast as could be. So many rockets were caught that I was starting to be concerned about running out of leeches. So I switched over to Gulp 3 inch minnows. I had some in the Boji Blue color.

Like the leeches, with my first cast I had a rock bass on. Three or four other fish fell for the same bait. The Gulp minnows and leeches are pretty hardy and didn’t fall off or get destroyed like live bait or some other plastics.

At one point my boat drifted off into the river channel. I still had my drop shot weight bouncing off the bottom. After just a few short lifts of the weight the line went heavy and moved more toward the center of the river channel. I had something big on the end of the line.

I was fishing with an ultra light rod and reel and four pound test. The rod had a good bend in it and the drag was set just right. A little line on occasion was peeled from the reel. I still had control of the fish.

After what seemed like a long fight that actually lasted about a minute, I was able to land a nice five pound plus channel catfish. This was the first one ever that I caught on the Chicago River. Now I can say that I’ve caught largemouth and smallmouth bass, rock bass, bluegill crappie, white and yellow perch and catfish too.

The Chicago River is a great fishery that is hardly used by boating anglers. Launching from Worth it’s a twenty nine mile ride to the loop by going west on the Cal River to the Sanitary and Ship canal, then east to the Chicago River. You can launch from Summit which is about eleven miles out of the loop (open 9 am – 9pm Wed, Sat and Sun only) and the new ramp at Western Avenue which is about six miles out.

Consider giving the Chicago River a try some day. There is a great variety of fish that can be caught in the heart of the big city and when you tie into your first largemouth, smallmouth or rockbass you will surely agree that great fishing is not that far away.

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