Illinois Bass

  Our journey has brought us to Edwardville, Ill.  Ian has a few friends here that are welcoming two smelly ass fish bums into their homes.  We left North Carolina early.  Drove west through Knoxville and Nashville, TN.  Through west Kentucky over the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers into Illinois.  It's so humid here. I cant imagine summer in this neck of the woods.  We drove 9 hours to Springfield, Ill. To Ian's sisters home.  For three days we drank, and laid low.  We were feigning for more fish.
  Ian's college music teacher, Rick, has a pond behind his home near Edwardsville.  He has maintained this pond, which is shared by a few other neighbors, by himself for a couple of years.  This pond holds largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie, and a few carp.  When we first walked onto Rick's dock we spooked three carp that had to have been up to four feet long.  And thats no fish tale!
  We set sail onto the calm, reflective pond in Rick's canoe.  Right off the bat we were catching bluegill.  Then bass, then bluegill.  It was too easy. A size 12 fat albert beetle was all we needed.  We lost count at two.  Fished all afternoon and into the evening.  From reds to rainbows, brown to bass we have been f*#king up fish across america.