Joey Bass

That's a good question. I haven't made it down there yet but am interested as well. I know there are a couple rental homes I checked out on homeaway.com on that lake. I look forward to others feedback also. Good fishing on the lake?

COME ON SPRING!!! Tough day here in Illinois. Can't wait to get back out there. Good luck with the spinnerbaits.

Excellent post. Really good starter info. This type of post is so helpful to the new folks as they first come into this great forum. Thanks!

Zoom Watermelon Seed trick worm was excellent this year on a 3/0 offset hook. I was using a tungsten sinker as well most of the time.

Went out after the Bears game for about an hour today at a local pond and caught 5 largemouth bass on a 3/4oz lipless crankbait. Nice to be able to do that in December without any gloves or coat. COME ON SPRING!!!

Looking to use the polarized sunglasses on the boat in lakes and fishing some local ponds from shore. What type of polarized lens would work best in those situations? Just looking for best option for best visual in the water. Does Oakley make a prescription set? If so, do you just provide them with your eye Drs prescription they gave you? How long should I expect to wait to receive? Not that I'm fishing right now in Illinois

For all of you that need to wear glasses, and have prescription polarized sunglasses, what are you using? From your eye dr or do you order from somewhere else? I had lasik surgery 15 or so years ago and have noticed my right eye is not as good as it once was. I went and made an eye appointment and found I could use glasses. Not terrible but enough I would see an improvement

I also agree with the BPS Carbonlite. Have really enjoyed.

I find myself when shoreline fishing, taking more time than I want to (or should) to record my catch. One of the places I fish a lot has a slight slope. I am fishing by myself so I try to measure and photo quickly, but takes longer than I would like. How much time on land is too much for the bass? Am I being selfish in trying to get a good photo and weight? I surely want to be able to get him back in the water and have the chance again down the road to catch him or allow the same for anyone else. Let me know your routines.

I'm in Sandwich. Been fishing some local ponds, etc. lately.

Lol. Now that is fricken funny!

Thanks Scott - I was thinking about those two as an option. How is the the bass fishing? And are the boat launch areas easily accessible?

Just bought my first boat

I hear you PapaJoe. I feel like I have been snow plowing and shoveling for days...oh wait, I have!!!

Unfortunately, I can't speak to how it is recently. I grew up in Sturgeon Bay many years ago and it was terrific Salmon fishing.

It would be nice to have the state of Illinois in this group, not the Northeast group as I would like to bounce around between topics on Wisconsin and Illinois. Not sure why Wisconsin would not be considered Northeast if Illinois is. I understand it is not a huge deal, it just would be easier to get around and probably should be looked at again;)

That's pretty funny. I actually graduated high school in Plano. Have quite a few friends that work at Plano Molding including my brother. He just gave my son a tackle box for Christmas;)

Great site! I live in Sandwich, about 50 miles SW of Chicago. Looking to get back into the fishing seen this spring. Grew up in Door County fishing salmon with my dad. Now excited to do some bass fishing and reading some great info on this site as the game is quite different from what I grew up on (in the 70's) and need to learn a lot.