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Potawatomi Bass & one more time in Wooland

4K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  crankybass 
#1 ·
Drove my granddaughter to preschool Tues & Wed this week. This time I decided to give the pond at Potawatomi Woods in Wheeling a try.

For whatever reason I also decided to go lighter with an old 6.5' Abu Conlon ML & a 200-size Lews Speed Spin with 8 lb mono.. I'd forgotten how much I like this setup.

On Tuesday I started out with a pearl gray Keitech on a 1/4 oz jighead. Caught I nice bass on the west side of the pond by a laydown. Zip for the rest of the morning.

So I drove up to Daniel Wright Woods to give it another try. Walked around the pond throwing the same Keitech. Nope - nadda. So I walked through the woods to the pond west of the DPR, tied on a small, white buzzbait and caught a nice bass.

Wednesday I pretty much repeated the pattern but with different results. Started at Potawatomi throwing a buzzbait then switched to a hula popper. Nothing. Tied on a 1/4 oz white spinner bait. On the south side of the pond I hooked a nice bass - maybe 2 lbs. A few minutes later I hooked a bigger one - maybe 3 lbs. A guy walking by with his dog said, "I didn't know there were fish that big in this lake". Me neither. I handed him my phone & he was kind enough to take a picture.

A note about the original owner of this rod. He was my wife's aunt's husband. He and I fished together several times years ago. He was a dedicated bait fisherman & made fun of me with my lures. When he passed my wife's aunt asked me to look over his fishing gear & take what I wanted.

Back when my wife & I started dating we were at their house down in Homewood. He & I were talking - getting to know each other - and he said, "so you like history? I've got an old photograph you might find interesting." He left the room for a bit and came back with an old black & white picture taken with a Kodak Brownie. There he was in the uniform of a USAAC master sergeant, kneeling with a bunch of ammo boxes and other paraphernalia. On the runway behind him was a B-29. On its nose it said, "Enola Gaye". I was stunned. I said something like, "holy shit!". He said, "yeah - I was on her ground crew in the Pacific".

Sometimes we're standing face-to-face with history & don't even know it.
 

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#6 ·
joetrain said:
Garcia Conlon is going back a ways. I still have one paired up with an old Ambassador reel. I use it for cat fishing.
They're good rods considering when they were made. I heard somewhere Abu's bringing them back as a high-end rod.

Grain said:
For reals?! That's amazing! I stop by there about once a year because I live 5 minutes away, but I've never seen a sign of anything larger than 3" bluegill. And it had that fishkill a few years ago.
Yeah - that last one knocked my socks off. I saw lots of movement in the water but I thought they were all probably dinks. That's why I went with lighter gear & that small spinner bait. The guy who took the picture was fishing too (sort of). He walked around the pond stopping here & there & dropping a line in the water - no casting. He'd stand there for a few minutes looking in the water (it's really clear) and then move on. Didn't bother to look at what he had on his line.
 
#10 ·
Skifish1 said:
That lake was slammed by fish kill a few years or so back.
Clearly a 'fish kill' doesn't mean all the fish died. And it probably means (have to check with biologists about this bit it makes sense) there's more room for the survivors and they grow to fill the void.

Here's another shot.
 

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