bass fishing (cook county, il)

Neal was out of town camping with his brother and their girlfriends this particular weekend. I took advantage of the opportunity and took my little boy fishing. Lucas hadn’t been out fishing since the end of the ice season and has been sad every weekend since. At the age of four, I still don’t think he’s quite big enough to be wading in any of those Lake Michigan tributaries (maybe next year?).

6:45 am and we were out the door and on our way. Our destination was a little further then I’d normally like to drive with my son, but a friend had taken me here before and I knew it would be worth it. McDonalds was the first stop, nothing for me but Lucas got hotcakes and a hash brown. Then we stopped for bait, which Lucas really enjoys, and he picked out some lively medium shiners. Eighteen should be plenty, right?

7:25 am we arrive, get the gear out of the car, and get set up. Finally, we are fishing!!! I can say that 55 degrees is a nice temperature as long as there isn’t a consistent strong wind. I took me all of five minutes to realize how cold I was, man how your blood thins quick here in Chicagoland. The wind was blowing straight in our faces, I was so glad we took his winter jacket. After 35 minutes of no fish I could see my son was cold and bored. He had his face tucked into the hood of his winter jacket and hands stuffed deep in his pockets. I needed to focus his attention on something other then just being cold. Time for us to move. Another 30 minutes go by without a fish, at this point Lucas was playing in the rocks. Time to move again.

We settled into a spot on the far opposite side of the pond from where we started. Here the wind was at our backs, we had a raised bank, and even a couple trees to shield us from the wind. Fifteen more minutes go by with no fish and now I’m starting to worry. What happened to all the fish? Was it really that cold? At least Lucas had dug up two worms and a rolly polly bug and gotten his sleeves wet from grabbing minnows.

10:00 am rolled around. As I warmed up so did the fishing. I had just taken my winter hat off when the first bobber went under. I set the hook and passed the rod off to my son. With a couple reminders from dad, about keeping the rod tip up, he lands the first bass of the day! Success!!

lucas with an action shot

bass success

From that point forward it was non stop action until we emptied the minnow bucket. In those last two hours we used all 18 minnows. The best part of the day for me was watching Lucas setting the hook on his own fish and reeling it all the way in with no help. Over a dozen bass caught and the only two fish I caught were the two times we both had a fish on at the same time.

a monster cook county pond bass