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.