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Played the hand that was dealt for my day off and heade to the best area I know to fish on a stiff north wind. Ran 6 rods in relatively calm clean water and finished 7 for ten or twelve. Best rod by far was the starboard dispel out 20ft with a orange j-11. I duplicated the set up on the port side and tried to match it with a board and a rigger but just could not get anything going. Took 5 fish and missed at least 3 others on that set up, other two to the boat were on a thinfin 30ft behind a board and a j-11 orange gold down 5 on a riggger. Not an ideal day to fish, but beat the socks off working. Water was clean inside the break walls at Cal Park, but really churned up outside the walls, 6 footers were rolling into Hammond and everything east from the Fog Horn. Most of our fish came on the first pass from the fog horn heading North/West along the detached wall and into the slips. after that it was just a hit here and there scatterrred.

Wow atleast u got out I really wanted to go to cal park after work but chickened out thanks for the report

Nice work making the most out of the lake conditions. Sounds like the fish are spread from Cal Park all the way to New Buffalo.

Thanks for the report southshore. Glad you could find a spot to fish with lake conditins as they were.

Nice Job. Was the launch at Cal Park still like $20 bucks? When I trailered it was and it received little activity for a safe haven to fish a north wind like you said.

Tmik34 wrote:

Nice Job. Was the launch at Cal Park still like $20 bucks? When I trailered it was and it received little activity for a safe haven to fish a north wind like you said.

I think it was around $26 or $28 when we launched there earlier this year in January and February. Half the guys were begrudgingly paying the machine and half ignored it.

Once Hammond Marina opened, I've never gone back to Cal Park to launch. By then I was in a 21' aluminum boat but even when I had an 18 footer, many days I could have safely headed out from Hammond to fish Calumet Harbor. The nice thing is as you head NE from Hammond, on a NE wind, each wave you bounce over or slosh through is slightly smaller than the previous one. Depending on the boat, most will negotiate the run to the Cal Harbor walls just fine. Do bundle up! That NE wind is blowing 300 miles across 32 degree water.

I've seen what I assume are trailered boats come out of the river at Cal Harbor. Where are they launching? Might be an option for some of our Illinois/south suburbs guys.

Cal Park is a last resort. We've only used it early in the year when Hammond and EC are still frozen. CalPark is usually the first open launch on the lake early in the year.

We launched at Hammond. In the past Hammond charged and Cal Park was free so we'd launch there. As Bro said, it's a rough ride heading out of Hammond on a N orN/E wind but they usually get smaller on the way and riding them in isn't bad. It would take a ton of upgrades to the launch at Cal Park for me to consider paying what they charge. I know there's a launch up river but it's past the locks.

Anyone launching out of Hammond on a north east please be very careful you have approx 1 to 2 mile ride with absolutely no protection. So don't think you are going to make it to calpark on let's say a 8 foot wave day. If it's a 4 foot day and you can handle it for a short time you are good to go. On a North the calpark wall will give much better protection and the farther you go the better it will be but use your best judgement. To be honest if the lake is blowing 6s out of any direction of north you are much safer to launch straight out of calpark and just pay an extra few bucks. Then be very careful. Northwest and north you are completely protected on the inland wall out of east Chicago which is the safest place to be on the lake. Unfortunately we can not launch there yet.