The never-ending wait for spring is about over
After all these years, I still don't get it.
I'm unable to pinpoint the exact reason why friends and some off-the-wall relatives have a need to call me and brag how good their weather is during winter and early spring.
Maybe they're miserable where they live and miss Chicago-style hot dogs.
Barry the boaster couldn't resist twisting the knife into my very fragile psyche a day or so ago.
He sits there in northern Florida bragging how he's out every day in his jon boat catching bass and crappie like there's no tomorrow. I let him expound on his drivel while sipping on another cup of my extra-tasty, Kenyan jet-fuel coffee.
"You need to get smart and high-tail it back down in my part of the country, lad," he declared. "It's summer here every day, and besides I've got better freshwater fishing than what you experience up north."
Just what I needed to hear now as I sat in the kitchen watching the never-ending rain do its seasonal onslaught.
I'm ready to sit on my new deck with a pitcher of iced tea, a good book and some excellent recordings.
There is no such thing as "normal" here in the Chicago area.
Mother Nature is a cruel task master. Instead of just caressing us with a gentle sprinkle, she decides to roil our rivers and saturate our rich soil with torrential downpours.
She floods our streets and knocks on the outside walls of many basements, trying to squeeze some moisture into the lower levels.
The air temperature went over the 60-degree mark the other day, and I rejoiced as I left my home without the need for a jacket. I headed into a local forest preserve to check a pond I planned to fish in the coming weeks.
The song birds were practicing their arias, the squirrels were sitting on logs and didn't seem to exhibit any frenetic behavior, and the Canada geese had their internal GPS systems pointing them northward instead of their usual escape routes.
The three white tail deer I saw were busy munching on new sprouts creeping ever so slowly out of the ground.
We all know spring is coming. All my ice fishing equipment went back in to storage.
We expect to be greeted with not just a single flash of warmth coming up from the Gulf, but rather continuous waves of sunshine and heat promised to us by the sages of the sacred boob tube.
But no, we are constantly teased and fooled by false signs.
Petros the Warrior plumbs the open-water shallows of the Fox River, observing and subsequently catching crappie like the end of the world.
Daniel the mechanic gathers cleaned bluegills into his large jars and begins his annual ritual of making pickled fish.
Prince Benny, the Wisconsin self-anointed king of pikers, has already assembled five dozen iron clad leaders and will be ready when the flag drops for him to show the world his prowess with the toothy critters.
The retail stores are showing their spring and summer ensembles, complete with brilliant colors, and I sit in front of the line winder telling myself the fresh mono I'm loading on the reels will be used before I know it.
And yet as I day dream of bass on the fly rod, I hearken back to April 1975, when we got hit with a blizzard of mammoth proportions.
Come to us oh Goddess of Warmth and Sunshine. We await your arrival to celebrate another fresh season of growth and eager fish.
Please send a sign, an omen if you will, that I can put away my down coat and heavy boots.
Fishing report
We knew it was coming, but the new onslaught of frigid air was a major shock to our systems.
It also put a crimp in the plans of some area anglers who were planning to "seize the moment" regarding pond and stream fishing for crappies and bass.
In the meantime, you can bet the farm that a number of anglers will be out on the Fox Chain this weekend looking to the "warmer" channels for crappie and feeding bluegills.
And if the skim ice is all gone at the necked down areas to and from Pistakee Lake, you may be able to find some pre-spawn walleyes looking to make the run to the gravel areas.
Fox River: If you can find a dry spot along the shoreline, especially in the vicinity of Elgin, take some minnows and small hooks and start targeting smallmouth bass that could be close to the banks.
Lake Michigan: South side perch action appears to be a tad better than the fishing on the north end. There are some trout being caught in the Waukegan Harbor, including browns and rainbow.
• Mike Jackson's radio program can be heard from 6-7 a.m. Sundays on WSBC 1240-AM.