Anglers find fish, fun at DuPage Hard Water Classic
A frozen lake at Blackwell Forest Preserve near Warrenville was dotted with huts and riddled with holes Saturday afternoon, and that's exactly how hundreds of ice fishers liked it.
About 200 anglers were competing in the third annual Hard Water Classic sponsored by the DuPage County Forest Preserve District, aiming to catch the biggest fish or to win a prize for the longest bluegill, crappie, or largemouth bass.
Word on the lake had it that Joe Radford of Brookfield was leading an hour into the tourney with a 21¾-inch northern pike he got measured at one of five check-in stations.
"I'm just glad to be out for my first trip of the year," Radford said as he checked ice holes he was fishing with his brother and father. "This is the first time I've fished this tournament."
In the end, the winner was Carl Mentzer, who caught a 28½-inch northern pike.
A few hundred feet away, Gerald Lewis of Chicago was ice fishing for the first time in 10 years and enjoying the process, though his first catch - a 6½-inch bluegill, wasn't a potential winner.
Anglers were using topographic maps of Silver Lake or small machines called "flashers" or "sonar flashers" to find good fishing spots based on areas where the lake's bottom drops out and the water gets deeper.
"I'm starting shallow and I keep working deeper," Lewis said, outlining his strategy. "I'll see how the bite is in the shallows and then head out toward the island."
Ice was six to eight inches deep, said Bob McNeel, assistant manager of site operations for the forest preserve. Temperatures were in the teens, but the sun disappeared around 1:30 p.m.
"Last year we had all slush, and this is probably better than that," he said.