Busse, as in bass: Two IHSA sectionals show how good fishing can be at Busse

Busse Woods might have been the biggest winner Monday, the rescheduled day for all 10 Chicago-area sectionals for IHSA bass fishing.

Joel Donaldson caught a 4-pound, 7-ounce largemouth bass from Busse Main Pool to take big-fish honors.

Busse yielded lots of big bass. It was quite the display from the high school anglers at two sectionals there.

Lake Park senior Zachary Buckley and junior Nick Granata won the Busse Main Pool Sectional with a limit of largemouth at 14 pounds. Donaldson’s bass carried Harvest Christian Academy to second with 10-3.

Downers Grove North sophomores Eddie Payne and Max Dvorak won the Busse South Pool Sectional with a limit at 11-11. Glenbard South was second with 9-9.

Payne anchored the Trojans’ winning bag with a 3-15 bass caught in the first hour.

‘‘I threw into a patch of weeds,’’ he said. ‘‘As soon as it hit the water, it ate it.’’

They were throwing buzzbaits and ChatterBaits.

‘‘Constant action,’’ Dvorak said.

You might say that. They caught 20 fish, 15 of them keeper-sized.

‘‘These kids had their limit by 9:30 and just kept plugging away,’’ boat captain John Zyck said.

Each boat has an adult captain/driver. Each boat may weigh its five heaviest black bass (largemouth or smallmouth), 12 inches or longer. The top three boats at each sectional qualified for the state finals May 17-18 on Carlyle Lake.

Buckley anchored Lake Park’s winning bag with a 3-6 largemouth.

‘‘I caught it on a custom swimbait,’’ he said. ‘‘I made it myself.’’

Buckley, who will study business at the University of Florida, is already in business with Buck’s Custom Lures (buckscustomlures.com).

They had nearly constant action. Granata caught a nearly matching 3-pounder. They also described something I found a bit odd: They were throwing frogs all day.

As people milled while the weigh-in wrapped up, Zyck cracked: ‘‘I might keep fishing. It was that good.’’

Click here to read my recap and observations of all 10 Chicago-area sectionals.

Hunting

Illinois hunters had harvested 13,353 turkeys through Sunday, well ahead of the 12,550 at the same time in 2018. Click here for a fuller breakdown.

Wild things

I’m hearing many more reports of ticks than usual, even from Chicago parks. . . . I found my first wild asparagus Monday. It was already bolted. . . . Ed Safiran emailed last week: ‘‘This morning, [I] had five orioles, five grosbeaks, hummingbirds, goldfinches, bunnies and squirrels at the feeders. Felt like I was in a scene from ‘Bambi’ for a minute.’’

Stray cast

Twitter is piranhas feeding. Instagram is winning goldfish at a county fair. Facebook is bass corraling shad.