I was quite excited to get a shot to fish an impressive Peoria County private lake that I had visited several times since 2014. This trip was my first since 2020 and it was made extra special by being able to have three other anglers join forces. Read on to see how it panned out for me, my brother (Brent), my son (Jayce) and our friend (John).

Stats

Location: The Rock – Peoria County

Date: September 17
Time: 7:15am-12:15am
Totals: 70 bass, 1 crappie combined for four anglers
Weather: Partly cloudy/very windy 66-72F
Water Temperature: 73-74F
Lures: Senko wacky rig (various colors) – 35 bass, Spinnerbaits (various) – 25 bass, Mann’s Popper – 5 bass, Chatterbait (white) – 3 bass, Whopper Plopper 110 (Terminator) – 2 bass
Top Bass:2-4 Brent (Spinnerbait)
Top 5 Weight: 8-2 (2-4,1-11,1-8,1-7,1-4)

 

Notes and Nonsense

Meet Up and Meal – As we were bringing a pair of boats, the plan was to meet in Knoxville. Brent, Jayce, and I grabbed a couple of burritos and a hash brown while John brought a batch of cinnamon rolls for each boat. Those cinnamon rolls also provided breakfast for another of my fishing trips and snacks for my folks and kids on Sunday.

Guessing Game – While the rest of the crew were not afflicted with the stat-keeping habit, they were kind enough to play along with my pre-launch prediction activity. As detailed above, the categories consisted of guessing our Top 5 Weight (five heaviest bass combined for all in the crew), Top Bass of the Day (all anglers combined), Top Bass – Individual (each angler predicting their own heaviest bass), and Top Lure (most bass landed on a lure type for all anglers combined). If you are confused, don’t feel alone as I got questions and puzzled looks while soliciting guesses. The circled guesses were the closest to the final results and also included in the grid were the weights for each angler’s personal Top Bass. In the end, the only angler who came up short was the guy who thought this stunt was a good idea.

I guess Jayce’s hat refers to a video game character (Wario) but I think it should stand for Whopper Plopper

Prize Winner – While on a work trip to Wichita earlier in the week, my co-worker and I had made a stop at Bass Pro Shops in Altoona, Iowa. I grabbed a Whopper Plopper to award to one of the anglers at the end of our trip based on some sort of criteria to be determined later. It turned out that Jayce received the prize for staking a claim to Top Bass for much of the trip before his catch was dethroned by his uncle in the home stretch. There were suspicions that our youngest angler was a bit of a shoo-in for the prized lure and my reply was just a grin.

While the Senko was Top Lure, a couple classic spinnerbaits also caught a few (Blue Glimmer and Emiquon Special, left to right)

Good numbers but just couldn’t find the quality bites that call the lake home. No matter, as an enjoyable time was had by all. Plenty of old fish stories were told throughout the morning and many more memories were made.

And my answer is “No” as you have to be on your toes for some hijinks with Jayce and Uncle Brent

And it doesn’t stop there, as my next three days included several more fishing trips. Stay tuned for tales from Lake Storey, The Canal, and the Knox County strip mines. Talk to you later. Troy