Skunked at Busse!

Woke up extra early this morning to get some fishing in before work. Had a great time in Cleveland, and really enjoyed fishing Lake Erie, but I wanted to fish my "home lake" and get some bass!

Got to Busse a little before 6am, and parked in the line of cars that always forms to get in in the morning. In theory all Cook county forest preserves open at sunrise, but it seems to be one dude who has to go open all the gates, so in practice you're lucky to get in by 6:15am any day.

Seriously Pretty

Went right to my favorite spot, which has produced many large bass this year.. I was really excited to get into some serious fish this morning! It was a seriously pretty morning, steam was rising from the water, herons were flying all over the place, and I think I woke up a duck moving to my spot. It didn't seem to care, and just flopped into the water and went back to sleep.

I immediately proceeded to lose all 3 lures I had so carefully tied on my 3 rods around 5:30am this morning. Tube jig? PING! White spinner? PING! Senko? PING!

Ok, fine, I know there are lots of sticks and logs down there, it's a veritable lure graveyard.. But that's where the fish usually are.

Some plants by my spot

I took a breath and looked around, getting my composure and tying on some new lures. It really was a great morning, just cold enough to need a sweatshirt. Lots of great photo ops, so I pulled out my phone and grabbed some.

Lures tied on, I was ready for round two. Over the course of the next hour, I lost 2-3 more lures on branches and rocks, and didn't get a single bite. I worked my way along the shoreline, as patiently as I could, and nothing. I saw some tiny minnows real shallow, and then some bluegill... A father and son were pretty regularly catching sub-legal bluegill on another side of the lake, but other than that nobody I saw was catching fish.

I wondered if the storm last night shut down the bite. I'm still new to this fishing thing, but everything the internet tells me is fish don't like thunder, and it can freak them out for a day or two after.

I kept working the shoreline, trying to find where all my big bass friends were hiding. I didn't want to hurt them, just pick them up, say hello, and send them on their way! I thought my new senkos would do the trick (I tried both texas rig and wacky worm style) but big fat NOTHING. At one point I cast the senko out on my new 5-piece collapsable rod, and a bird's nest like none I'd ever seen engulfed my rod and my senko went flying into the air, free from it's monofilament leash.

Some deer

It plopped on the surface, sank a little... and then WHAM something surfaced to eat it.

Really!!??

I whipped out another rod and cast to where my senko met it's end, but to no avail.. I wasn't going to be catching any fish this morning. I hoped whatever got my senko enjoyed it (and could digest it or spit it out), and would be there to be caught another day.