Top 5 Update

Did somebody say, “Don’t put your poles away just yet?” Well, several of us took that advice and hit the water with October drawing to a close. Three anglers, three waters, and six submissions make for a quality late season update this week.

Length: 12”
Angler: John Kirkemo
Date: October 26
Weather: Partly cloudy, gusty northwest wind, air temp 60s
Water Temp: Unknown
Location: Devils Kitchen Lake, Makanda, IL
Lure: Four-inch floating Rapala (black/silver)
Structure: Open water

Length: Less than12”
Angler: John Kirkemo
Date: October 26
Weather: Partly cloudy, gusty northwest wind, air temp 60s
Water Temp: Unknown
Location: Devils Kitchen Lake, Makanda, IL
Lure: Seps Colorado Pro Flasher with a No. 2 Roy Self brass colored spoon with mirrored red head
Structure: Open water
Angler Comments: These are hatchery raised fish recently released during the fall trout season. Fish were active on the surface often jumping several feet in the air. The twelve-inch trout was taken casting the Rapala in open water. The smaller trout was caught trolling the Roy Self spoon
Top 5 Length: ~48” (12”,12”,12”, <12”)

Weight: 1-10
Angler: Brent Jackson
Date: October 29
Weather: Sunny/breezy
Location: Lake Storey
Lure: Spinnerbait
Top 5 Weight: 18-9 (5-4,3-9,3-8,3-3,3-1)

Weight: 1-13
Angler: John Kirkemo
Date: October 30
Weather: Overcast skies, light breeze from the east, air temps 50s
Water Temp: 55F
Location: Lake Storey, Galesburg, IL
Lure: Spinnerbait
Structure: About five yards off the dam
Angler Comments: The fish hit the lure near the boat in deep water. Only one other smaller bass caught in 3.5 hours of fishing.
Top 5 Weight: 15-11 (4-2,3-5,2-14,2-11,2-11)

Weight: 2-3 (18”)
Angler: Troy Jackson
Date: October 30
Weather: Overcast/breezy, 60F
Location: Hennepin Canal
Lure: Booyah Blade Spinnerbait (bleeding shad) with Zoom Creepy Crawler trailer (root beer pepper green)
Structure: Log
Angler Comments: No wonder this one hit my lure as it looked like it was starving. Long but scrawny, it should have been pushing three pounds. It wasn’t, but still a good fish.

Weight: 2-4 (17.5”)
Angler: Troy Jackson
Date: October 30
Weather: Overcast/breezy, 60F
Location: Hennepin Canal
Lure: Booyah Blade Spinnerbait (bleeding shad) with Zoom Creepy Crawler trailer (root beer pepper green)
Structure: Logs
Angler Comments: This one hit right next to the boat with about two feet of line out. I had to disengage the spool to make landing the bass more manageable.
Top 5 Weight: 16-10 (3-10,3-5,3-5,3-4,3-2)

It’s always cool to see a species beyond our bass make an appearance. And while our bass did not give us a boost, we are getting to that “icing on the cake” period headed into the last two months of the year. I don’t know about anybody else, but I have my sights on my annual goal of a November bass (or more) before I call it quits. Stay tuned and talk to you later. Troy

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