{"id":2291,"date":"2025-09-01T13:03:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T13:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=2291"},"modified":"2025-09-01T13:03:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T13:03:18","slug":"desparately-seeking-spotted-bass-and-other-quixotic-quests-around-the-outdoors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=2291","title":{"rendered":"Desparately seeking spotted bass and other quixotic quests around the outdoors"},"content":{"rendered":"


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CHARLESTON, Ill.–<\/b>Just past the Blakeman Bridge over the Embarras River, I turned into a gravel inset off Route 120. As I pulled out fishing gear, a young couple parked behind me, then disappeared. They were not going fishing.<\/p>\n

I was. For my first spotted bass in Illinois waters. <\/p>\n

Climbing down the rocky bank, hoping not to split a shin, I thought, \u201cI\u2019m getting too old for this.\u201d But, to live well, doing quixotic quests should never get old. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big fan, even if pointless. After all, the term comes from Miguel de Cervantes\u2019 novel \u201cDon Quixote,\u201d where the hero (of questionable mental stability) tilts at windmills at one point. The picaresque novel is also considered the first modern novel. <\/p>\n

My aim was more mundane. Spots captured my attention years ago fishing with my late father-in-law. When smallmouth and largemouth bass were slow, he took us to points where spots stacked up on Table Rock Lake in Missouri. It made sense. Spots, also known as Kentucky bass, don\u2019t grow as big as largemouth or fight as hard as smallmouth, but they bite more readily. <\/p>\n

Spots, largemouth and smallmouth are the three black bass in Illinois. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources posits that spots \u201cmay be found in creeks and rivers of east central, southeastern and extreme southern Illinois.\u201d <\/p>\n

When doing a story on Lake Shelbyville a few months ago, I asked biologist James Garavaglia about spots and he suggested my best chance for my first in Illinois would be on the Embarras. The Embarras–pronounced (AM-braw) according to the Illinois Pronunciation Guide by the Illinois Agricultural Communications Program and WILL Public Media–begins near the University of Illinois then joins the Wabash River 195 miles later to the south-southeast. <\/p>\n

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Photo of the Embarras River sign at the Blakeman Bridge in Charleston, Illinois.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

I knew our daughter and her partner were moving near Riverview Dam, so I had three spinning rods–rigged for live bait, a jig and plastic, and a small inline spinner–stashed with our daughter\u2019s final stuff when I dropped her off in early August. She gets the idea of quixotic quests. <\/p>\n

I come across those quests regularly from readers. One of my favorites is Stephanie Swieca and Emma Magrady, spurred by Covid shutdowns, on a quest to visit all of Illinois\u2019 state parks, then share their experiences, including visits to breweries, eateries, wineries near the parks, on multiple social media platforms through Fresh Air Friendship (https:\/\/freshairfriendship.com\/).<\/a><\/p>\n

Nearly 20 years ago Ken Schneider pulled off one of Chicago\u2019s great fishing feats, documenting catching a fish every day for a calendar year from Chicago waters. Feb. 9 and 10 that year were the hardest. <\/p>\n

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Ken Schneider, holding a a crappie caught around the Chicago area in 2012. Six years before, he completed a great quixotic quest of catching a fish every day of the year in the Chicago area.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

”They won\u2019t let me out of the hospital,\u2019’ he said. ”My wife and doctor thought I was having a heart attack.\u2019’<\/p>\n

He had caught his fish for Feb. 9 before going into the emergency room. Late on Feb. 10, he talked himself into a release. His wife, Joann, met him at Rush North Shore with his rod and maggots for bait. <\/p>\n

”On the way home, I stopped at one of my [Chicago River] hot spots,\u2019’ said Schneider, who caught a 9-inch rock bass. <\/p>\n

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A pair of bald eagles \u201cMeghan\u201d (left) and \u201cHarry\u201d at Afton Forest Preserve in 2024.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Last year, Tom Schrader pulled off a feat I admire, photographing an entire nesting season of a bald eagle nest near Hinckley: nest maintenance and construction, laying and incubation of the eggs, hatching of the eaglets, their fledging in the summer. <\/p>\n

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Tom Schrader with the Hinckley eagle nest he chronicled in 2024 from start to finish.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve done one major quixotic quest, first to thru-hike the 250-mile Tuscarora-Big Blue Trail more than 40 years ago, a bypass from Virginia to Pennsylvania for the Appalachian Trail. <\/p>\n

By comparison, catching my first spot in Illinois is minor, but it mattered to me. <\/p>\n

When I reached the river bank, I found a rock stable enough for me to stand on. After a few misses, alternating presentations, I caught a 5-inch spot on a jig and red worm.<\/p>\n

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A small spotted bass, one of two Dale Bowman caught from the Embarras River below the Riverview Dam in Charleston. One hit a jig, the the other a spinner.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Bassmaster.com had a good breakdown for IDing spotted bass: \u201cBack edge of the mouth does not extend beyond the rear edge of the eye\u201d \u201cConnected dorsal fins.\u201d \u201cTooth patch on the tongue. It\u2019s a dark, roundish blob in the center, and it feels like sandpaper.\u201d \u201cProminent rows of horizontal spots or blotches that form a line below the lateral line.\u201d <\/p>\n

Though mine was small, two keys matched, the connected dorsal fins and mouth to the middle of the eye. It was too small to check the tongue patch and coloration wasn\u2019t clear as in an adult. Seek app doublechecked it as a spot. <\/p>\n

After dinner, my daughter (who caught a green sunfish) and her partner made it special by joining me. <\/p>\n

As the sun set. I caught a smaller spot on a spinner. <\/p>\n

It was time. <\/p>\n

Tilt on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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CHARLESTON, Ill.–Just past the Blakeman Bridge over the Embarras River, I turned into a gravel inset off Route 120. As I pulled out fishing gear, a young couple parked behind me, then disappeared. They were not going fishing. I was. For my first spotted bass in Illinois waters. Climbing down the rocky bank, hoping not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}