By this time next week, September will have arrived. That can mean some good fishing, but it also means that it is crunch time as weather, activities and access are all considerations when looking to get on the water. As we look to the home stretch of 2022, today’s flashback looks back on the “fall” kickoff from five years ago this week.
Excerpts below from the original September 4, 2017 blog post.
Stats
Date: September 2, 2017
Locations: Knox County, IL public access strip mines (7 lakes)
Time: 7:00am-1:45pm (5.0 hours fishing, the rest walking or driving)
Weather: Partly cloudy to sunny/calm to breezy
Air Temp: 47F-74F
Water Temp: no reading
Totals: 27 bass
Lures:
5” Senko wacky rig (pumpkin/black flake or green pumpkin) – 10 bass
Strike King KVD 2.5 Rattling Squarebill crankbait (natural pumpkinseed) – 7 bass
Booyah Buzz Buzzbait (Snow White shad) – 5 bass
Strike King Red Eye Shad (sexy shad) – 4 bass
Zoom Baby Brush Hog (green pumpkin) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 3-8 KVD 2.5 crankbait
Top 5 Weight: 12-12 (3-8,3-5,2-5,2-1,1-9)
7:02am – First bass and Top Bass at 3-8 on a crankbait
Notes & Nonsense
Great Start – On about the third cast of the morning with a buzzbait I was rewarded with a large blowup. Unfortunately, I was not rewarded with a bass as it had poor aim. Another cast with the buzzbait failed to get a repeat so I fired out my Strike King KVD 2.5 crankbait instead and hooked up with a 3-8 which would set the Top Bass bar pretty high. In fact, that first bass wound up being Top Bass for the day although I had one later that gave it a run for the money. Anyway, a couple casts later I landed a 2-1 and then a 1-9 less than ten minutes later. So, after thirteen minutes of casting I had three of my Top 5 in the log at 7-2 and was excited about the solid start. Things slowed for the next several hours in terms of quality bites but that would eventually take a turn for the better with a 3-5 and 2-5 joining the creel to finish the outing.
Odd catch, a “brokeback bass”
Lure of the Day – It felt good to nail a few on a good, old crankbait for a change. The KVD 2.5 squarebill that did the trick runs to a depth of about five feet. I’m typically a little leery throwing these things from the bank, especially on unfamiliar waters as I am cheap and don’t want to get snagged on any underwater structure when I don’t have the means to get the lure back. On this morning, the bass just wouldn’t commit to a topwater bite, and I was comfortable with the lakes I was fishing being snag-free so this bait was my choice in finding a sub-surface bite without having to slow down my presentation. It was indeed a winner, producing four of my Top 5 bass when worked with an occasional rip and pause in the retrieve.
One final note from this trip is that it marked the first Top 10 Trip Tunes feature.
10. “Bad Medicine” – Bon Jovi (1988)
9. “For What It’s Worth” – Buffalo Springfield (1967)
8. “Talk Dirty to Me” – Poison (1987)
7. “Moondance” – Van Morrison (1970)
6. “Goodbye Stranger” – Supertramp (1979)
5. “Hey, Hey, What Can I Do” – Led Zeppelin (1970)
4. “Anyway You Want It” – Journey (1980)
3. “Don’t Look Back” – Boston (1978)
2. “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” – Bachman Turner Overdrive (1974)
1. “Burnin’ For You – Blue Oyster Cult (1981)
Hoping to revisit the Top 10 Trip Tunes concept, got another Hennepin Canal report from August, and hopefully one more trip this month. Stay tuned and talk to you later. Troy