Kyle Danhausen of Kankakee, Ill. launched his Ranger bass boat into Lake Michigan shortly after daybreak on April 24 at Chicago’s downtown Burnham Harbor. He started fishing an area he knows well in about 20 feet of clear water not far from the ramp. He was alone, but other small boats were nearby with anglers casting for bass.
“There are a bunch of rock piles in that region, and I started casting a 3/16-ounce 3-inch swim bait in a baitfish color,” the 54-year-old tackle representative told Wired2Fish. “The water was cool at 51 degrees, but it was a bright, sunny, 80-degree day. The fish were right on bottom, and I worked my swim bait super slow to get strikes.”
But the hits came fast and furious for the lifelong angler and tournament fisherman, who had strikes almost every time he cast.
“I started catching bass so well that I put my trolling motor Spot-Lock on to hold my Ranger in position,” he said. “I’d just made longer and longer casts, and in different directions. There were smallmouth bass everywhere.”
Danhausen says he caught about 30 bass during his four-hour fishing trip, and none were dinks.
“There’s nothing out there less than 12 inches,” he explained. “Most of the bass I was catching were 3- to 4-pounders, some were 5 pounds. Then I made a cast, and hooked a fish that was so strong I knew it was a much bigger one.”
The Windy City Big Bite
The fish jumped once soon after being hooked, and when Danhausen saw it, he went for his landing net. Up until then, he’d just been grabbing caught bass and releasing them on he spot. But he knew a net was needed for this fish.
“I’ve caught big smallmouths in other areas, some of them 7 pounds, so I knew this bass was a giant,” he said. “It got it in my net and quickly weighed it on my scale in the boat. I didn’t zero the scale, but it showed 6 pounds, 11 ounces, so I put it in my boat’s livewell to keep it frisky.”
Danhausen knew the Illinois record smallmouth was a 7-pounder, so, after he regained his composure following catching the big bass, he decided to weigh the fish again and get some photos.
“I zeroed my scale, and weighed the fish,” Danhausen said. “It weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces, and I knew I had to get it weighed on certified scale, because it could be a record bass for Illinois.”
Finding a Certified Scale Near Old Cominsky Park
With the egg-laden bass safe and lively in Danhausen’s tournament-grade Ranger aerated livewell, he ran his boat 10 minutes to the Burnham Harbor ramp. There he loaded his boat onto his trailer and drove 10 minutes to Bridgeport Bait and Tackle near Comisky Park II (officially Guaranteed Rate Field) where the Chicago White Sox play baseball.
At the tackle shop, the 21.75-inch smallmouth officially weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces on certified scales — just shy of the current state record 7-pound, 3-ounce bass caught in 2019 at Chicago’s Lake Michigan Monroe Harbor by Joe Capilup on a Ned Rig.
After Danhausen’s bass was weighed and measured, he returned to the Burnham Harbor ramp. He launched his boat, ran out into Lake Michigan, and released the very much alive and healthy bass where he caught it. Today, he sings the praises of smallmouth bass fishing along the northern Illinois Lake Michigan area.
“The number of big smallmouths available in Lake Michigan these days is incredible,” he said. “I honestly believe that Lake Michigan is destined to become as good a smallmouth fishery as that found anywhere, including Lake Erie.
“I have no doubt that another bigger smallmouth than mine will be caught there soon. The state record is sure to be broken by a Lake Michigan bass.”
