A little shore fishing

[keithdog]

The temp today was a balmy 70 degrees so I decided to head out to Loomis Lake and do a little shore casting. The city has a nice park there with plenty of shoore to cast from. It was warm but man oh man was it windy! At one point I was walking down the pier when a gust of wind sprayed water from the lake all over me and literally knocked me down. Needless to say casting was almost impossible unless you had the wind nearly at your back. But it sent your lure flying when you did! I tried, stick baits, lipless cranks, spinnerbaits, Bruces chatterbaits, and shallow cranks along with jigs. I didn't catch anything, but did loose a whopper. I was casting a 3/8 oz jig with a craw trailor from a ridge at the edge of the lake. The pictures show you the exact spot. It's about a 8-10 foot rise from the water to the top of the bank. From there I could work the jig as though I was in a boat. The wind was at my back allowing me to nearly cast across this inlet which feeds into a bay. Old lilly pads are still there along with some grass. They are of course thinning fast this time of year. It was nearly impossible feeling the jig with the wind, waves, grass and leaves along the bottom, etc. At one point I thought I had hung up on a glob of grass. No motion in my line, just a lot of weight. I was lifting the "grass" upwards towards me and something didn't feel quite right. I set the hook but still didn't feel any fight, just heavy weight comming along with my jig. Just then I saw the bass, guessing about 6 pounds from what I could see, came to the surface with my jig in it's mouth, rolled on the surface and dived. Out popped my jig and I just stood there in disbelief. I hated loosing that pig, but it still was a pleasent experience to have just before things freeze up. The forcast for tomorrow is only 37 degrees for a high. Only in the midwest do you drop from a high of 70 to a high of 37.