Dupage Forest Preserve: First Bass of the Season

I had another afternoon to get out in between spending time with Nathan and finishing my quarterly grades.  I decided to go back to Mayslake, in Dupage County, to hit the bass up before the heavy pressure arrived.

Conditions:

The week had been clear from rain after the major storm we got last weekend.  The day was slightly warmer than normal, in the mid 50′s, with few more warm days in the future.  The pressure was very slowly falling, with a slight breeze out of the west.  It was high skies and sunny.  I fished from 1:00 pm to about 5:00 pm.  The water was still pretty dirty, but improving, with a visibility of about 3 to 4 feet.

I arrived at Mayslake armed with a small peanut butter and jelly pig-n-jig on one rod, and a Rapala DT Sure Set Chartreuse Purple crank bait on the other.  I was hoping that the brighter colors of the crank bait in the murky water would get more strikes.  When I arrived, I was the only fisherman there and had both sets of lakes to myself.

I immediately started off for the Northeast corner of the lake, as the sun was shining bright upon it, and I was hoping that the bass would move closer to shore for some sunning.  There is also a little current over there as water drains out of the lake through a ditch.  I worked various baits here and found nothing, not even bait fish or gills.  I continued to work the Northern shore without signs of fish anywhere.  I finally reached the Northwest corner after about an hour or so of work. In the Northwest corner, about 100 ft from shore, I noticed some very large floating bushes that had probably come loose during the storm.  On my first cast just past the bushes, using the DT Sure Set, I hooked up with a bass almost immediately on the crank.  The fish quickly dove into the bushes and gave a decent fight for a cold water bass.  After a little finessing, I finally got him out and landed him on the shore.  He wasn’t a very large fish, but he was chunkier than most the fish I get out of this lake.

Here is another look, as I was by myself and did not get a good picture:

After this fish, I was hoping that I had established a pattern.  I continued to work different areas of Mayslake and Trinity, but could not get on to any other fish.  As time went on, more anglers showed up, and the spots for fishing were becoming scarce.  It seemed like this fish was the rogue one of the day, as the other anglers also claimed that the fish were not biting.

After Mayslake, I decided to make a move to Hidden Lake Forest Preserve.  The conditions were almost the same, except now, I was battling a falling sun.  There was also a strong presence of fisherman at both lakes here, but the fish were not around.  I worked both lakes for a few hours, with multiple types of baits.  I was unable to come up with anything.  Once again, it seemed like I was not alone.  Fisherman came and left without fish to show.   Even the panfish anglers, with live bait, did not seem to pick up any.  With the warming weather this week, I am sure things will change.  I did enjoy the scenery and the wildlife, as I finished my first true day of fishing for the spring of 2009.

Trip Totals:
1 – 15 inch largemouth

Year to Date:
3 Trips
15 Keeper Perch
1 Largemouth Bass