[fishrman]

This Saturday is Blackwell Trout open. my son and I have been going every spring and fall in my little 14' Smokercraft. I sold the boat this spring. I was hoping to get my brother to let me use his Jon Boat, but it looks like he sold that one too. We are going to have to fish with all the yahoos from shore this year, Bummer. Good luck to all who go out. usually limit out in the first couple of hours of daylight. Anyone in a boat need a couple of guides, let me know.

[sea nile]

I usually catch my 5 limit from shore and am on my way home B4 the boat yahoo's even get on the water. You don't need a boat there.

[Maliboo]

Just how crowded does it get on shore? I'm thinking of trying it this year, but wondering if I should wait until Monday morning. Will all the fish be gone by then?

[twade]

Boo the fish will not be gone by then. How crowded does it get? Very.

I will be there with my daughter just not in the morning. Hopefully we can squeeze our way in some how.

[sea nile]

Boo, It's not so terrible. You can always find a spot. There will be fish left on monday. Check it out and have some fun. If ya catch a couple it will be even more fun. Saturday and sunday will be pretty crowded but the lake is big and I have never seen it where ya can't get a spot. Mike

[ShoutNgAnderMnT.]

Just imagine being at a concert on a lake and everyone has fishing poles and if you catch a fish better believe some will cast 2" from your line but i know a good spot for spring and fall were i limit out every time were there are no yahoos and you can actually enjoy fishing with your kids at black well. just watch out for the yahoos on there boats though....I do love the little old Asian lady i see there every year that crosses 5 lines at a time on purpose and the guys that bring there wife's that have never fished before and then get mad at them cause they either loose a fish or they tangle up the line..... thanks god I'm not married......

[bassassassin27]

Anyone hear that they are postponing the opener because of high water temps??

[Bearsfan]

bassassassin27 wrote:

Anyone hear that they are postponing the opener because of high water temps??

No.

I don't know why that would make a difference. These are put and take trout. It's not like folks are fishing catch and release.

I buy the trout stamp every year. Never use it.

[sea nile]

Well I got there at about 6am yesterday and the crowd was the largest I have seen. I was laying on the couch at 8am with my 5 packed away in the freezer. Took a ride back there about 10am. One german/russian kind of guy smoking a cigar got busted for open liquor (a flask)in the forest preserve. Warden fined him $120. Another guy had 7 fish on his stringer and got fined $240. for having 2 over the limit. There were so many people on the floating fish dock I thought it would sink. One young kid got his 5 and then wanted to show off and was catching and releasing them. I told him he should not do that and should just give them away. well an hour or so later I spotted about 6 dead trout floating in that area. What a waste. Oh well. What do I know? The fish were much smaller than they were in the spring stocking. I was going to go this morning but thought it would just be to crazy.

[Maliboo]

Hey sea nile, what time did Blackwell open? If they're supposed to open one hour after sunrise how did you get home by 8 when they're supposed to open at 8?! I wonder if they just opened early on opening day and will go back to regular on Monday when I'm planning to go. I figured I'd be there by 8, but now I don't know.

So, what were the fish caught on? I heard a lot of people didn't do so well.

[dylanapollo]

Maliboo wrote:

Hey sea nile, what time did Blackwell open? If they're supposed to open one hour after sunrise how did you get home by 8 when they're supposed to open at 8?! I wonder if they just opened early on opening day and will go back to regular on Monday when I'm planning to go. I figured I'd be there by 8, but now I don't know.

So, what were the fish caught on? I heard a lot of people didn't do so well.

I think it opens an hour before sunrise and closes an hour after sunset. In any case it's usually open between 6 and 630.

SeaNile, I think my buddy and I fished beside you. Is your name Mike? At least I think that was the name? It was awful early and crazy to remember.
I had the blue backpack and we had the yellow stringer? We ended up being out of there by 830ish.
As I was walking up to the spot I saw this trout jump and right behind it was this BIG ol Pike. That was COOL.

We got our limit in about 15-20 minutes. These little guys were coming up asking how we caught them. We decided to just let them use our rigs so they didn't get bullied from the area. Right after we caught ours it kind of slowed for a minute (about 5minutes actually). Then they both got hit at about the same time. When they got the fish in we asked where their stringer was. One runs off to his dad and comes back saying they weren't going to keep them cause they had went the day before and gotten a whole bunch . Why on earth would you fight that crowd and not keep the fish? We gave them to the family sitting there and packed up and left. With the small size any hooking just tore them up. Went back Sunday morning and they had been dissimated. Dead ones all over and only a few being caught here and there. I ended up 2-2 from 7-10.

[twade]

Nice seeing ya Dylan..

We had a different kind of luck. I scouted out the lake and with zero live bait at 8ish hoping to cast some in-lines and kill some time. But the casting just wasn't going to work with the weed line. I left about an hour. I had other plans with my sweetheart on sweetest day.

I came back around noon with my sweetheart, my daughter, and met up with SpecialEd and his son with a boat. The kids had a blast, the dads had a heck out of time getting fish.

We knew the hot area but with a boat full of five year olds (present company included) we decided to fish some other spots. We left with two trout an OK number of nice sized crappies a couple of decent blue gills hits and the surprise of the blue bird day being a walleye that my daughter reeled in. Seeing as this was the first "big" boat trip for my daughter I was excited that she loved it so much. The kids were good and place plastic creature baits made great toys to play when passing time.

[sea nile]

Yes Dylan that was me. I wish I would have known you were a chitowner. How kool. We could have talked. Yes Boo, they did open the gate an hour b4 sunrise. If you go at 8am it seems like the trout were goin deeper or under the floating dock to avoid the sunlight. Harder to get. Lets face it, they are farm raised and after they stock the lake they shut it down for 2 weeks. Them fish are pretty darn hungry. As the days go by it gets harder. I was using berkley power bait in chartruese color but guys were getting them on worms too. I caught all 5 in less than a 1/2 hour. I could not even get a second line in the water they were hammerin the one pole. My friend went out again on sunday and he told me it took him a long time to get another 5.

[fishrman]

Saturday, they opened up just before 6:00 am. There was quite a long line by the time they opened. My son and I hit the area just east of the handicap pier. We had our limit in 15 minutes. There were a lot of smaller fish this time. We managed to get 3 around 18" and 4 that were 14" the other three were under a foot. We had more fun watching all the Yahoos on the pier. in one corner there had to be 15 people fishing an area about 6' x 10'. I asked if anyone had any bandaids for when someone gets a hook in the eye. I would say that the fish were biting better than they have been on most opening days. It is kind of a joke watching everyone. Went back on Sunday after the Bears loss. The fish were close to the boat ramp. I caught one on the handicap pier.

[dylanapollo]

I didn't feel it warrented a new topic but I wanted to share a picture or two of my catch this weekend. Pan fried with cornmeal, crushed almonds (thanks to a buddies recomendation) and some lemon pepper stuff from Pampered chef my wife bought. Add a baked potato, some mushrooms and a garden onion and you now have a very full fat man ready for a nap.

They look like they just swam onto the plate!




The aftermath! Grabbed the tail and all the bones came right out.