Urban Fishing or Do I have a New Nickname...

One of my Texas grandsons, Ezra often greets or says good bye using a personal term of endearment. He fondly addresses the person as "Catfish" as in "See you later Catfish." After fishing the pond at Palmisano Park with my Chicago grandson, Wallace and catching google eye perch there is a risk that the next time I see him I will be greeted as "Hey google eye."   

The lake, stocked by the Illinois DNR claims to be the home of bass, crappie and catfish. The google eyes are a good choice because with an aggressive attitude and a bass like mouth they often will strike lures the same size as themselves and bit well this trip. The recipe for catching them on a cloudy 50 degree day was meal worms fished under slip corks about 4' deep. I did not really count but we caught at least a half a dozen with me doing the hooking and Wallace reeling. All fish were (caught/photographed/released) CPRed. (caught/photographed/released.) Bait and a few items of equipment required were purchased at a neighborhood place in operation since 1951 called Henry's Sports and Bait Shop. Henry says about his baits that if he would not fish with it you shouldn't either.  

The lake at Palmisano Park is the former site of a limestone quarry that operated from 1830-1970. The limestone was formed by a coral reef dating back 400 million years to the Silurian Age. That's a significant age for those of us called "catfish." It's when the first bony fishes appeared.

This has been a public park since 2009. Info says there is a wetland trail that feeds the pond and I hope to check that out next visit. Lots of geese, mallard ducks, goslings and chicks on the water. Completely uncrowded on the weekday when we had the best luck and not too many people for a city of 8 million people on Saturday afternoon when we returned.  

It was just Wallace, his dad Peter and me on the initial trip but once she heard the bite was on this "catfish" had to check it out.

Get outdoors, fish, make a memory, acquire a nickname. Do something where you will never be the same.