The Chicago Fishing Advisory Committee reconvened on Sept. 21, after the usual summer hiatus, on a fall morning so beautiful that the meeting was held outside at 31st Street Harbor.
The meeting went long because many points needed to be touched in the months since the last meeting.
One of the key points came near the end.
A discussion ensued on getting a representative from the mayor’s office at the committee meetings. A formalized letter was sent to Mayor Brandon Johnson. For background, the committee formed in the 1990s under Mayor Richard M. Daley (who occasionally hosted events with the committee). Mayor Rahm Emanuel continued the tradition of having a representative chair the committee meetings, generally with Tom Gray of the mayor’s office of special events.
Things went asunder under Mayor Lori Lightfoot. She maintained zero contact with the committee in any way at all. At that point, the Chicago Park District began chairing the meeting, generally with Matt Renfree or Carl Vizzone. The hope is that the Johnson administration will resume the interrupted tradition of having a representative chair the meetings. If that happens I would expect the name to change back again to the Mayor’s Fishing Advisory Committee or to Mayor Johnson’s Fishing Advisory Committtee.
Renfree, who oversees the Nature Oasis Environmental Education program for the Chicago Park District, chaired this meeting.
Among the updates he gave on his programming, he said, “We are putting in a floating garden and boardwalk at River Park. . . . As to the fishing jetty on the Riverwalk downtown, Renfree said, “We’re kicking the crap out of this year.” Quinn Wunar, who assists with that program said that up until Bears season opened they were averaging just under 500 people a day on weekends. It will be interesting to see the totals for the year. Renfree is hoping to run some salmon seminars with Wunar. Renfree said it looks like the jetty fishing program will receive funding for next year.
Renfree also gave the update for Vizzone’s fishing programs for the park district. Over the summer, they had 6,200 people through summer programming. . . . Work is on pace for the pier-pass program to start in mid-November. . . . Additional containers for disposing of fishing line are being added.
Daisy Villarreal gave the update for Chicago Harbors. They are working on increasing awareness of invasives and the need for power washing and draining before moving boats. . . . Harbors will close Oct. 31 with Burnham remaining open until Nov. 15 for the late boats. . . . Pier-pass signage will be up.
Vic Santucci, Lake Michigan program manager, gave the update for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
He gave an update on the finding of the invasive starry stonewort at Jackson Harbor, which I mentioned in yesterday’s column:
Work by Loyola graduate student Alex Quebbemann and Prof. Reuben Keller led to confirmation of invasive starry stonewort (starrystonewort.org/about/) at Jackson Harbor. One patch covered at least several hundred square meters. That’s a sharp reminder to clean your boat thoroughly before moving to another water (transportzero.org).
Santucci said one problem with starry stonewort is that it “can cover the bottom and keep other plants from growing” and that is the first time it was found in our waters in Lake Michigan.
My favorite comment from Santucci was that field work went “pretty good” with few spring washouts. “We got a few perch in weekly seining, no totals yet.”
Santucci said that Kevin Irons, Illinois’ assistant fisheries chief, said two positions were posted for the Urban Fishing Program. including someone to fill Brenda McKinney’s position (open since the end of last year) as Chicago Urban Fishing program coordinator and someone to fill the northern Illinois coordinator (open for years). Don Evans, who worked in the program for years, filled in for McKinney this year. Maybe those positions will be filled by next month. . . . Steve Robillard’s biologist position with the Lake Michigan program, open for years, has the posting closed and hopefully that means it will be filled. There is also a coordinator/technician position posting open. . . . Stocking numbers looked were on target: 230,000 Chinook, 120,00 lake trout, 300,000 coho, 60,000 Arlee rainbow, 75,000 steelhead and 110,000 brown trout. . . . They are starting fall harbor salmon and trout surveys. . . . I mentioned that the guys at Jackson Park were already complaining about illegal snaggers at Jackson Park and wondered where the conservation police were. I suggested it might be nice to have a CPO representative at the fall meetings. Otherwise, it is best to call the tip line at (877) 2DNRLAW, which is (877) 236-7529.
North Side angler Carl Pickett asked about drum, Vic said they don’t survey them, but said that sometimes drum are as abundant as brown trout in creel surveys and they see drum out on Julian’s Reef when they survey there. Rock bass are most abundant sunfish in summer surveys. You can find the details at ifishillinois.org if you go to the Lake Michigan button, then https://ifishillinois.org/lmich/index.php, then population assessments.
Steve Silic was unable to attend for the Forest Preserves of Cook County, but Santucci noted that inland trout season will go as usual the third weekend of October; and Skokie is adding a launch on the North Shore Channel.
Park Bait’s Stacey Greene-Fenlon said they need more work on more security on the North Side after recent incidents. That led into a discussion of the now closed illegal Friday morning swim club, where people jumped en masse into Lake Michigan off the south side of Montrose Harbor. . . . There was a discussion of the bad condition of the portable toilets, especially the ones at Montrose Harbor. It continues to piss me off that that discussion has been going on virtually since the committee started.
Someone mentioned there might be an IHSA sectional added on the Chicago River, which I think would be outstanding.
Pickett asked about having a sticker for seniors so they can park on lakefront for fishing. The problem with that is that other user groups would expect the same treatment. Best to speak with your alderperson.
In other notes, the fish cleaning station is open at Burnham. If not, ask the harbor master. Hope is to expand fish cleaning stations, even basic ones, on the lakefront.
Quinn brought up the unexpected results of the violent rhetoric in regard to a couple viral violent incidents on the lakefront (“it leads to terrible consequences. What we don’t want is somebody taking it into their own hands.”) He absolutely right on that.
Beside Wunar and Pickett, other visitors were Jessica Prescott-Smith, who works with Renfree, Jerry Figliulo of Trollers Unlimited and other groups, and Daniel Crespo, assistant manager at Fish Tech, who came with Hall-of-Famer Don Dubin.
