Chain O’Lakes

Had a great paddle this past Tuesday! I tested my fishing gear and rigs and the weather was very nice!

My buddy Mike had the day off and we had both been thinking about paddling Chain O’Lakes soon. It was a good choice for a paddle and no headaches figuring out where. There is plenty of open water and the Fox River was nearby, which we didn’t explore much. The lakes proved to be the perfect place for me to work out my anchor and rod holder rigs and the rod and reel my wife got me for my birthday.

We put in at the Park launch area and paddled out. We were going to paddle up the Fox River, but we mistakenly passed it up for a something else. We ended up coming out onto Grass Lake and staring right at the islands. One of those islands houses a bar/restaurant. Of course, it’s still early in the season and it was a weekday, but with the amount of docking space on the island, it would be easy to imagine how busy the place is during a summer weekend.

We paddled NNE & NE from there toward a peninsula surrounded by rocks or a breakwater structure. We guessed it was to preserve the peninsula from waves, as it looked to have been eroding away. The water was like glass and the birds, mostly Canada Geese, were abundant.

From there we decided to shoot South toward Fox & Nippersink Lakes under Grass Lake Road bridge. That was quite a stretch of open water paddling. I suppose “Open Water” has a slightly different meaning on most of these lakes. Grass Lake has a maximum depth of 5 or 6 feet. Standing, if not for the muddy bottom, wouldn’t be too much trouble.

As we approached the bridge, I became anxious to get the rod and reel out to start fishing and Mike needed a snack. We agreed to anchor just past the bridge and to the right. I pointed out a spot that seemed to have potential as a fishing hole, but I had not fished in over 20 years, so it was purely a blind guess. I dropped my anchor, testing the rigging I had put into place. Most of the research I did online showed complex trolley systems attached the side of the kayak, but I wasn’t prepared to do all of that drilling for a simple anchor. We’ll see if I feel the same after I use my current system in current on a river. In any case, the anchor went in, held and came up fine.

I fished for awhile. Nothing. I felt bad for Mike, who had finished his snack and was waiting patiently, so I handed him the rod and reel to give it a whirl. I could relax a little, too. Mike’s FIRST cast - with my NEW fishing pole - landed him a nice White Bass! I was floored. I mean it was awesome, and Mike felt kind of bad about being the first to catch anything on my new setup, especially since I’d been fishing for awhile and didn’t catch anything but weeds. I’m a grown up…I can take it…honest! It was when Mike caught the SECOND Bass on MY pole after only a few minutes after letting the first go that I started twitching a little bit. I’m kidding. But damn! Well, I got the credit for picking the spot and Rachael gets credit for picking the gear and tackle!

After all of that excitement, we continued to paddle South, more into Nippersink Lake. It was along this stretch I had been trolling and BANG! my line “got stuck” and I had to stop paddling to turn around and get unstuck. The reality was I had successfully caught the 3rd White Bass of the trip! I had always been a bait fisherman, if you could every call me a “fisherman”. Catfish mostly. Easy, boring, non-sporting fish. I’m changed as far as the kind of fishing I’ll be doing from now on. I love trout - to eat, so I’ll be working on skills and information to land some-o-doze. I wish I had the time, money and devotion to fly fish. That looks like an awesome way to fish. Well, we turned ‘em all loose. We couldn’t have kept them very long anyway. No cooler. BUT we DO have pictures to prove it.

We paddled a bit farther and decided to turn back. It was getting late and it was well past lunch time.

We decided to stop at Culver’s for Butter Burgers (my first; not better than In-N-Out, but good) on our way to REI and Cabela’s.

Good paddling and fishing day!

Get out there!