Busse

[amason]

So forest preserves tend to be a jumping off point for me when I'm looking for a new place to fish. I haven't really fished here before but I know there are fish to be had. I don't have to work until later in the day on Mondays so I tend to venture out if I don't have much else going on.

Forest preserves during the day are always a little bit of a weird scene because there are frequently other cars in the area but I'm generally the only person fishing, in the water at least....

I walked the shore from the southeast corner and found a lot of shallow water and weeds. I don't know why I started there, as I have the depth maps, but hindsight and all that. It was cloudy and occasionally misty but not actually really raining, so I wasn't complaining. If for no other reason, I wanted to go out today to test a bait casting reel I picked up off a guy for a decent price. I started the year with a clearance combo spinning set up from BPS that is working well as a light duty, but I wanted something that was more on the medium side to throw heavier spinning jobs etc. This reel instantly felt better than the very inexpensive baitcaster I had been using to supplement my spinning setup. I can see why people go down the rabbit hole of gear and money.

I started by throwing a lipless crank only to lose it caught on something underwater. Not a great way to start the morning. It took me a bit of shore walking to finally get to some deeper water. Eventually I made my way to what seemed to be the north west corner of the main pool. The water was deeper and calmer. I saw quite a bit of activity on the surface 100 yards out or more. Looked like a combination of bass and carp hitting at flies. I finally had a hit on a green tube, didn't set the hook, tried again but I was having trouble throwing weightless anything without getting birdsnests. Is that due to 12# mono? I know I had my cast control set. Maybe just bad technique? Anyway, I switched to a white buzz bait since there was so much surface action. Slow retrieve and had it break the surface a bit on the way back. A few casts in I landed this.



Nothing earth shattering, but it felt good to catch something in a new place, even if that was the only fish.

That ended up being it for the day. Turns out it was a good time to call it because almost as soon as I got to the car it started coming down. I'm looking forward to the times where I can just go to a place and start fishing instead of spending more than half of my day trying to find the spot.

[Ken G]

I think catching anything on a heavily fished lake is a bonus. Bought a baitcaster once. Made five casts that resulted in two birdsnests. Took the whole setup back and swapped it out for decent spinning gear. Never tried using a baitcaster again. No patience for them.

Grew up on the southwest side of Chicago. Favorite hang outs as a teen were all the C.C.F.P. down around Palos. You learned real fast to never go near cars that were backed into parking spots.

[Nick]

Throwing weightless on baitcasting gear takes a practiced thumb and a decent reel. My favorite weightless baitcaster is undoubtedly the Curado 201e7. The mono line shouldn't be the cause, but it's certainly possible. Is it cheap line or old line that has a been sitting on the reel without much use for a while? If yes, then you may want to throw some fresh stuff on there.

Busse is pretty tough lake for new comers because its quite large and gets a bucketload (pun intended) of pressure. With that said, great job on catching some fish! There is guy on one of the other forums who goes by busse jim. He seems to be killing it there, but I believe he fishes it several times a week and has been for years.

I wish I had some better details, but I've only fished it a couple of times with only moderate success.