After five consecutive trips to the Hennepin Canal, I opted to shift gears and try a public strip pit on a Sunday evening. As my truck has some issues, I borrowed Dad’s truck to haul the little johnboat after a visit and taking in a Cubs victory with my folks. The standard 1:20pm start time left me with about three hours to fish by the time I got to the lake.

Stats
Date: July 19
Location: Knox County public strip pit
Time: 5:20pm-8:20pm
Totals: 10 bass
Weather: Hazy/breezy, 83F
Water temperature: Not available
Lures: Nibble Nation Lures wacky rig (electric gill or gator) – 5 bass, Spro Flappin Frog 65 (nasty shad) – 4 bass, Booyah Buzzbait (white) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 2-10 (Frog)
Top 5 Weight: 7-15 (2-10,1-8,1-8,1-3,1-2)

Winning lures

Tune of the Trip
“Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.”
Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer – Nat King Cole (1963)
The ongoing Canadian wildfires made for hazy skies as the evening wore on. While not particularly healthy in terms of air quality, the lower light conditions were appealing when trying my luck on some clear strip mine water.

New lures from a local luremaker as detailed below

Notes and Nonsense

Nibble Nation – The day prior to this outing, I spotted a post on social media from Nibble Nation Lures announcing an appearance of Rhyis Polenske and his designs at a Rock Island street vendor gathering. The lures are produced by the local teenager and having lost a couple Senkos on The Canal earlier in the day, I figured that it was time to restock. I had a good visit with the young man and his marketing director/mother while picking up three different colors of Senko-type worms and a pack of dropshot baits. Cool to see a youngster not only interested in fishing but also diving into a bit of entrepreneurship as part of the pursuit.

5:59pm – First Nibble Nation wacky rig bass

Field Test, Part I – Forty minutes into my outing, I landed my third bass of the evening and the first on a Nibble Nation wacky rig in the electric gill color. When making the purchases the previous day, I found myself pondering the old fishing adage that “fishing lures are designed to catch fisherman, not fish.” The electric gill color caught my eye as I had not seen anything quite like it and I also added the gator and galaxy patterns. When it was all said and done, I landed five of my ten bass on the new baits. Shout out to Rhyis and his endeavor.

Field Test, Part II – While reeling in a bass on a Nibble Nation wacky rig in the gator color, I spotted a second bass swimming nearby. After releasing my catch, I tossed the gator worm out to see if I could tempt the other fish. As the worm slowly sank in the water column, I gave it periodic twitches. The bass would move near for a look but did not commit to a bite. This prompted me to swap out for an original Senko to see how it would fare and I got the same result. I was actually relieved to not catch the bass as I was rooting for the Nibble Nation bait as kind of an underdog. Another feather in the cap of the homemade creations.

 

Weedy water frog fishing at its finest. Yes, there is a bass buried in there

Second Chance – My Top Bass of the outing was a 2-10 caught on a frog on my second pass along an appealing indent in the bank. The spot features an open channel through the pondweed with a pocket at the shore. It looks to be a muskrat or beaver run that has created a clean trough along the bottom. On my first pass by the area at 6:14pm, I had a blowup on my frog, but the aim of the fish was not true. I always hit the spot twice each trip so I left the fish knowing that I would return for another shot. At 8:19pm, I was back and on my third cast to the pocket, a bass was on target with a strike, and I had my Top Bass of the day. As I had some travel to get back to my truck before dark, I opted to make that my last cast of the trip, ending on a high note.

8:20pm – Top Bass of the trip weighing 2-10 (17.5″) on a frog

A solid evening on the water and rewarding to have success with the new baits barely twenty-four hours after the purchase. I suspect these won’t be the last bass on these lures as they have earned a spot in my wacky rig arsenal. Keep up the good work, Rhyis. Talk to you later. Troy