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Beck Birthday Bass, Sunglasses Try-Out

1K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  GEO 
#1 ·
Well, after a chaotic trip to Busse to start the week (with a shocking pre-Memorial day week kill :oops: ) I scratched off another early week trip and the headed Thursday for Beck for my birthday.

While I thankfully had no tick issue it was a nonetheless challenging outing. To start off a stiff breeze was (as seemingly always) in my face limiting casting distance. Then there is the standard mat of weeds reaching 10 ft from shore that made retrievals rough and again cut clear 'working' distance from shore. Final the lake is covered with a major blitz of cottonwood covering most of the lake. Plucking those damn things from your line 5 or 6 times a cast gets realllly frustrating after a while. Ahh the trevails of a shore fisher...

The answer to the wind issue was to head to the far side past the dock. When I reached there however I saw it was the epicenter of cottonwood activity. Great! One thing that made me laugh in an 'only in a CC Forest Preserve will you see __ " way was that there was a table umbrella oh 15 or so feet out from shore. I wish I knew the events surrounding the umbrella making it's way into the lake and then not retrieved! I pulled it in on the second cast. Not difficult. It even had the full post and open/close crank still attached. Someone with shorts on could have walked out and grabbed it. Instead they abandoned it completely. Why??
Sky Plant Cloud Natural landscape Flag


Anyhow, I had my usual collection of spinners in my bag and I noticed casting kept the cottonwood attack mostly at bay, while throwing plastics was a nightmare given the line laying on the surface for stretches. Led me to walk back toward the other edge deciding to throw a white/chartreuse unit. That would bring my first bass in (and only my second damn bass at Beck this season) and while he was in that 12" standard size range I snapped a birthday bass selfie:
Goggles Sunglasses Fisherman Fish Tree


So there ya go... at least it was a great day out there when the breeze died down after a bit. Seeking a respite from weeds and cottonwood I kept working along and ended up on the far side when I added another bass on my green/yellow senko. Not a large bass for sure. When I set the hook I pulled him straight out of the water. ;)

Not the worst birthday afternoon/early evening I've ever had though... I've gotten assorted birthday monies that I'll be putting toward the new Maui Jim's I'm wearing above. I have been using the grey (lens) pair that I got in Florida back in my twenties, when we used to head down to tarpon fish for my birthday. They have a slight scratch/pit on the right lens that is enough to create a bit of a distortion/spot that lets in more light. While you don't really notice it after a while every time I put them on I swear I'll replace them some day. So the day has come.

If anyone wants to try out a couple pairs of different brands and be able to take them out with you to see how they work in action I highly suggest Amazon. The have a ton of brands of sunglasses in differing tints etc. they will send you up to 7 pair I think it is and you have a week or so to decide which you'll buy (or not) and you return the rest with a given return shipping label. I tried out the fairly recently released Oakley 'Shallow Water' which are more of an amber lens and then the amber and grey variants of the Maui Jim's. I know people prefer the amber for fishing but I guess I'm just used to using the grey lens my whole life so I'm going with a grey lens again. If I get the same duration of wear from them I'll be quite an old man :cool:
 
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