Plans to head to the northerly harbor in search of kings were detoured when I drove past a lake I had seen a few times in the past, but never tried. Called Andrew around 5:15, only to find out he was going to wimp out of going, but no worries…I was still going to get a line wet.

230am – 730am – Fished waukegan with the girlfriend looking for any am bite. We had given it it a try the day before, but action was limited to a couple of bumps. I did get a sold tug, only the have the line pop almost instantaneously. I’m stubborn about checking weak spots, but that’s how it goes… Skunk and a skunk. Could success be achieved for the rodeo…

So anyways, back to the lake… Keith and I pulled off and circled it via side roads. Found a spot to park, and upon a short hike, found a sign that read “catch and release only.” This told me two things – 1. There were fish in the lake 2. We were allowed to be here, as long as we followed the rules.

Not knowing what to expect, we geared up with swimjigs skirted in blue black with creature trailers, and Keith hooked up almost instantly -

This lake had some weeds along the shoreline, but I found a nice dock that allowed me to walk out on and cast almost parallel to a weed edge. Since I am a fan of crank, I threw on a red eye blue chrome shad, 3/4 oz. First cast, got a good thump, set, and fish on! My first though was, “Hmm, decent bass…” but the thing never surfaced until I got it to the dock. PIKE! This thing was a huge pike for a small lake, and I got her in pretty quickly without putting too much stress on the guy. Hook was out in a hurry, and Keith snapped a quick shot of this big girl. I didn’t bother to get a measurement, but I’ll guess she was around 34-36″.

Got her back in the water, and it didn’t take long before she thrashed off and swam back into the depths.

Keith ended up catching a smaller pike on his swimjig setup -

After about 45 mins of scouting/fishing, we decided to try one last point on the lake and Keith picked up a decent bass.

And then we were off to meet up with John (Salmon58) and try for some salmon

We casted for a couple hours, but I was drained at this point. My motivation was dwindling, so I decided to pack it up and call it a day. John hooked up later in the night, but that was it.

Salmon fishing has been tough this past week. I’ll probably give it a week before I get back out on the lakefront and try for those fall kings. If not, I have a new spot to try for pike and bass