The sun was out accompanied by a pleasant southernly blow of warmer air this afternoon. Around 3pm I really got the itch to get out and fish and make the most of it.

I was joined by friend Geno who met me at the office for some post work fishing. Our destination – Independence Grove in Lake County. Geno was quite impressed with the quality of a Lake County forest preserve. There is quite a contrast compared to a Cook County FP

Bait 1 of choice was a lipless crank. After not getting bit for the first 20 casts, I switch over to a slash bait and got absolutely hammered on a short pause by this toothy critter.

A pleasant surprise pike

Geno switched over as well to a #4 Mepps and got bit pretty hard shortly after. I thought he had hooked into a nice little bass, but it turned out to be another pike. This was Geno’s first career pike – congrats man! The fish absolutely inhaled his mepps, but I was able to open her mouth and successfully remove the bait with minimal harm. She swam off with a fury.

Geno is on the board!

Back to chasing baitfish...

So where were the bass? Out deep! Munching on bait fish in 8-10 foot of water. I decided to put on a heaver jig and stick some gulp on the hook. After launching a cast past the shoreline weeds, I got this little chunker to take the bait.

We soon wrapped things up and made a visit to Bass Pro Shops for more necessary fishing gear.

While cleaning my fly reel on Thursday evening, I decided to wake up a little earlier than usual on Friday to get a line wet and hopefully get a steelie or two. I went to bed at probably the earliest time I have in like four years (9 pm) for this idea of mine.

I woke up, felt charged up, and was ready to feel the brisk 26 degree air that was waiting for me outside. Upon arrival of my destination, I put on my waders, grabbed the fly rod, and wasn’t long before I was swinging.

I managed to hook into a fish relatively quickly. I saw a few flashes of silver, and it appeared that I had a decent female. After a quick burst upstream towards some rapids, she became unbuttoned.

Spent another 45 minutes swinging and I knew my pre-work fishing time was reaching expiration. Suddenly, a bruiser male shot through and nailed my fly. The fish was peeling some drag and had the rod buckled over, and all of a sudden… SNAP! 8 wt rod snapped in half, but the fish was still on. Determined to land this fish, I held a piece of rod in each of my hands and somehow managed to land the thing.

Looks like this male has been in the river for a while. He was full of battle scars

Satisfied with the accomplishment, I went in to work!

Saturday’s adventure was a mini road trip of sorts. My friend Tim joined me for Round 2 with “Kenny Pond Bass.”

The weather wasn’t great, but we had a plan to fish, so we went for it. Upon arrival of spot #1, we were greeted with strong, blustery winds. I managed to hit a bass relatively quickly on a trap. Tim followed shortly after with a shallow diving crank.

Tim showcasing another fine Daiwa product

Then the bite went dead. I mean.. non-existent. We continued fishing and offered all we could to this pre-spawn bass. Cranks, traps, jigs, plastics, spinners, craws, worms…you name it, we probably tried it.

Frank of FHQ and his friend Tony would later stop by and get a few casts in with me. Their day sounded like it was pretty brutal as well.

Around the time of their arrival, I switched gears and went with a smaller jerk bait. LONG pauses triggered a handful of severe blows. After landing a few fish in a short time frame, I thought I was onto something.

Jerkbait bass

However, that bite lasted very briefly. I caught another smaller bass before calling it a day. We quit at a good time because soon enough the winds really began to kick. There were some serious white caps on a 4 acre pond!

Sunday’s adventure was local. A friend of mine was fishing the Chicago Lakefront, and I decided to join him for some spring time powerlining activities. I brought one setup and a rod. After blasting a rubber band out, I worked a smaller crank.

The winds were kicking right of the lake, and staying warm was pretty tough. I retired the idea of casting because of this.

My friend picked up a nice steelie before shutting down.

As I was walking to my setup to put away, my bell went off. I gave it a quick hookset, and landed a nice little spring brown trout.

A nice mixed bag for the weekend… Time to watch some college basketball!