Carrie Steinweg
Times Correspondent
Summer is almost officially here according to the calendar. But it already feels like summer. School is out for the year in most places, the sun is shining and after the past year, everyone is ready to slip into long, lazy days by the pool. Start off your summer by making a summer bucket list for your family and have fun checking things off one by one. Here are a few ideas:
Go fishing. If your kids have never dropped a pole in the water before, why not pick up some poles and introduce them to this pastime? With rivers and lakes small and large in the region, there are plenty of places to snag a fish â from the Kankakee River to Cedar Lake to the shores of Lake Michigan.
Dr. Atul Mallik turned a family outing on the Massive Confusion Monday into a moment of history by catching the next Illinois-record lake trout; plus notes and the Stray Cast.
Lake trout on Lake Michigan as well as crappie, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and flathead catfish on inland waters, and an update on the Shabbona Lake concessionaire are highlighted in this sprawling raw-file Midwest Fishing Report as summer seems to be coming.
Outdoornews
May 27, 2021
Captain Laura Petreikis
In LaSalle County, CPO Kaufman was checking fishermen at the Dayton Dam, Fox River near Ottawa. The fishermen had all their fish on a stringer and in a bucket. CPO Kaufman told them if they caught any smallmouth bass they would have to throw them back since it was a closed season. The fishermen said they knew that. When CPO Kaufman asked for their fishing licenses they said they were up in their car. CPO Kaufman and the fishermen starting walking back to the parking lot when a hydro plant worker at the dam approached CPO Kaufman. The worker said the fishermen had been putting fish in a bag in a backpack nearby. CPO Kaufman walked over to the backpack and looked in the bag. Inside the bag was 6 smallmouth bass and a 13 ½ inch walleye, all illegal fish. Each fisherman was issued 3 citations.