Warning - if you don't like my rambles about past experiences stop reading now.
I spent Friday wandering around the Palos forest preserves. Started in the early AM fishing at Maple Lake. Tossed a 1/4 oz green & white swim jig with a green & black twister. It was cold. After an hour or so I couldn't deal with it anymore so I headed back to the car to warm up.
Decided to spend some time checking out other places. It's not that I haven't been there before - just good to remind myself of what's where.
Went up to the upper lot at Bullfrog. The new campground is such an eyesore. I used to enjoy walking around in the field on the side of the esker where it is - can't do that anymore. Drove over to Columbia Woods & thought about fishing for pike. Decided against it since I didn't have my pike setup along & drove down to the Sag Quarries.
By the time I got there it had thankfully warmed up. Walked along the north shore of the east quarry tossing a #3 Mepps Black Fury. At one point I thought I heard birds chirping out over the water. I couldn't spot any so I began wondering what the sound was. There was a thin skim of water on the lake. The westerly winds had pushed it up against the east side of the lake and the sound was the edge of the ice 'singing' as the wind worked on it.
It put me in mind of the first time I was at the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. I was driving from the Grand Canyon to Denver in April 1973. I camped out and got up early the next morning for a hike in the dunes. It was a beautiful, crisp, clear morning. Typical of Colorado in the early spring. As the sun came up over the Sangre de Christo I walked across the dry creek bed that separates the campground from the base of the dunes.
After a morning of hiking in the dunes I headed down. Strangely, whenever I was on top of a dune I heard the burbling sound of water. It's a weird sensation to be surrounded by miles of sand and hear water running.
When I got back down to Medano Creek I found the reason. When I'd hiked across it that morning its waters were frozen far upstream & the bed was dry. The sun had melted the water and it was making its way slowly down the bed soaking in and burbling as it went along. I spent some time walking down the bed in front of the little wave of water before heading back to my car and leaving for Denver.
Funny how the wind playing on the ice of a frozen lake can take you back so many years.
As far as the fishing on Friday was concerned, I got skunked. Had a great day anyway.
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