03/14 — Fish of the Week
March 13, 2012 7:22PM
Updated: April 15, 2012 8:15AM
We usually don’t see smallmouth bass from Lake Michigan like this for
another month or so. But this hasn’t been a usual winter.
Tom O’Malley of Orland Park caught this 5-pound, 2-ounce smallmouth Sunday while fishing with Capt. Ralph Steiger out of East Chicago Marina. He used a Northland 4-inch white grub and a quarter-ounce orange Northland Gum-Gall Jig.
‘‘The water is only 42
degrees, so I went to the last spot [a deep-water one] I caught them at in the fall,’’ Steiger messaged.
‘‘The key for me in that cold water was the VERY slow retrieve, almost like a second hand on a clock,’’ O’Malley emailed. ‘‘It’s still early for them, but they are there if you can present them with an easy meal.’’
They also boated two 4-14 smallmouth and a 3-pounder on the same rigs.
