NNE mild winds, sunny. Fished south 'spot' from 6:15pm to 7:30pm. Threw out senkos, sluggo, spinner and lizard thingy with no results. Brought second set up for slip bobber worms just to improve odds a bit while practicing plastics. Glad I did, got a nice 16" LM (we're getting a camera, I swear!).
Two interesting side notes: 1) Old Man park guy came around checking fishing passes. I thought he was gonna have a stroke going after some kids! (he'd told them several times they had to have passes), 2) a gentleman (who was presumably mexican-american) came running up as I pulled in the LM, totally excited. He couldn't believe that I was gonna through the fish back and stood there dumbfounded after I did. His wife couldn't believe it either. Super nice guy, names Shawn (also met Moses), asked about fishing there and around the area, we had a great conversation. My point is he was completely unaware of size limits, passes, IL state fishing licenses, etc. I say all this (and his ethnicity) to simply point out that I think most anyone is willing to play by the rules if they know the rules and are approached in a friendly fashion, and I also think that keeping the fish and being so shocked about catch & release is at least partly due to a cultural thing. After I explained why I do (that smaller fish especially need time to grow, then spawn, etc. keeping the fish population going he was much more understanding, but still a bit perplexed. I think he was more excited about me catching the fish than I was!) Let's all try to further the sport fishing concept in and out of the water!
Two interesting side notes: 1) Old Man park guy came around checking fishing passes. I thought he was gonna have a stroke going after some kids! (he'd told them several times they had to have passes), 2) a gentleman (who was presumably mexican-american) came running up as I pulled in the LM, totally excited. He couldn't believe that I was gonna through the fish back and stood there dumbfounded after I did. His wife couldn't believe it either. Super nice guy, names Shawn (also met Moses), asked about fishing there and around the area, we had a great conversation. My point is he was completely unaware of size limits, passes, IL state fishing licenses, etc. I say all this (and his ethnicity) to simply point out that I think most anyone is willing to play by the rules if they know the rules and are approached in a friendly fashion, and I also think that keeping the fish and being so shocked about catch & release is at least partly due to a cultural thing. After I explained why I do (that smaller fish especially need time to grow, then spawn, etc. keeping the fish population going he was much more understanding, but still a bit perplexed. I think he was more excited about me catching the fish than I was!) Let's all try to further the sport fishing concept in and out of the water!