Found Lure

I found this guy on the upper Illinois River last week.  My day started with trout fishing on the lower Illinois River, then I headed up river to launch my canoe and fish for bass and what not.  I caught a hand full of trout but couldn't quite get with the program.  The trout that I did catch, took a bead head something or other.  I wasn't using a strike indicator (bobber) and was having difficulty seeing the strikes. For the strikes that I did see, my reaction time was just too slow and I was missing fish left and right. To compound the problem, I don't think that my fly was getting deep enough fast enough.  Just as my frustration level was getting to the point of throwing a tizzy tantrum,  some old lady came up to the spot that I had just been fishing and proceeded to fling worms on a rod that looked better suited for tuna from a lawn chair.  Within 10 minutes I suspect that her arm was wearing out from all the fish she was catching.  As for trout fishing this day, I was ill prepared and not in the right frame of mind.  As I left I heard someone yell "Make sure that stringer is tied down good,  there are a lot fish on it!" It was definitely time to go.

At this juncture on the fishing trip I felt that paddling away from people would put me in a better place mentally and physically.  I decided to hop in my car and travel upstream a good ways and launch my canoe north of Tenkiller Lake on the Illinois river and then paddle upstream for about a mile.  This suited me better.  The water was warm enough that I didn't need waders, which is much more comfortable and the paddling was great.  The feeling a being miles away from everything just adds to the sense of adventure.  After paddling upstream I found a nice sandbar in the middle of the river that had a nice 50 yard run wedged between the bar and the shore.  The run had several deep holes and loads of cover.  This was perfect and I beached my canoe and fished on foot from the sand bar.  I caught several smallmouth, largemouth,  sand bass (one was near 2 lbs), and dang near a gozillion bream.  Just as I was headed back downstream to go home I found this lure.  Also, I forgot to mention the deer, red belly woodpecker, and osprey that I saw.   The day finished up nicely.