Last Tuesday, I extended the holiday weekend to a four day “vacation” by taking a needed day off of work. My recent role as fishing guide for the kids had exacerbated the itch to go fishing so I selfishly decided it was time to fly solo while the youngsters trudged through their next to last day of school.
Stats
Date: May 30, 2017
Locations: Knox County, IL strip mines (3 public, 2 private)
Time: 5:55am-3:00pm (6.25 hours fishing, the rest walking/driving)
Weather: Sunny-partly cloudy/windy-very windy
Air Temp: 53F-77F
Water Temp: no reading
Totals: 20 bass, 1 green sunfish
Lures:
Booyah Buzz Buzzbait (snow white shad) – 15 bass
Zara Spook (black shore minnow) – 3 bass
Senko weighted wacky rig (electric shad) – 2 bass
Top Bass: 2-5 Buzzbait
Top 5 Weight: 9-9 (2-5,2-0,1-14,1-11,1-11)
8:01am 16.5″ 1-11 Zara Spook Me and the Spook go way back, still produces
Notes & Nonsense
Old School – A bright and early start, a run of stable weather and late May had me preparing for a topwater bite to start the day. For one weapon of choice I opted to go old school and tied on a Zara Spook in the black shore minnow pattern, we were real tight back in the 80’s and 90’s. It produced my first two bass and three overall with the last being the best, solid in terms of size (1-11) but more so in a technique meets location scenario. I had a nice narrow finger in this particular strip pit that featured a solid weed mat clogging the back end and a couple pieces of brush for a lure to pass in open water as it headed back to the boat. I’d made a couple casts with a buzzbait to no avail before deciding that I needed something that would dance a bit more near the weed mat and not buzz through the area too rapidly. Turned out to be the right decision as a cast within a few inches of the weeds followed by a handful of twitches in a walk the dog retrieve and I had a taker. Nice when it works like that.
Recuperated and Rejuvenated – My best estimate on my haul on this day was a definite post-spawn mood. Plenty of bass were willing to bite so it seemed like they had shifted their focus from rejuvenating the lakes to recuperating via strapping on the feedbag. Most of the bass were on the skinny side as well indicating that they had recently spent most of their energy on restocking but were now on the road to recovery as evidenced by a positive activity level. Did still see several bass on beds but much less than during my last outing.
8:41am 15″ 1-11 Buzzbait 12:08pm 16.5″ 1-14 Buzzbait
Clouds – “I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now. But now they only block the sun…” – Both Sides, Now – Judy Collins (written by Joni Mitchell)
And, boy, was blocking the sun just what the doctor ordered. The combo of a sustained chop on the surface from a stout wind and brief windows of lowlight conditions each time a cloud bank passed between me and the sun was the key to a sustained, day long buzzbait bite. Once the predicted clouds showed up about 11:30am (an hour late) the bite was on whenever the sun disappeared. Nine buzzbait bass from 11:41am-2:25am with none in the sun had me convinced that clouds were key. Also had me tweeting as follows.
11:41am and 1:38pm (left to right) – it took fishing to make a tweeter out of me…and have also found some “Friends”, still a recluse in real life though.
No Kicker – While I definitely landed some decent fish I just couldn’t fool what the pros call a “kicker.” Nope, the big one eluded me even when able to successfully wield a bait all day long that can certainly get a lunker to make a mistake. Fifteen of my twenty bass came on the buzzbait with twelve of those fish coming in at 12” or better. Quality was not that surprising as the buzzer is a fairly large and fast moving bait typically lending itself to a bigger bite. However, quantity exceeded expectations due to the unusual strong afternoon finish.
A good day on the water as I covered a lot of ground which is pretty normal for my strip mine trips. I’ve always enjoyed hopping around the collection of modest sized waters that I have at my disposal. An hour or two on most of these fishing holes is plenty to make the rounds to my spots and then it’s time for a change of scenery to do it all over again. Look forward to doing it again soon. Talk to you later. Troy