Originally posted 3-25-15

Only two bass on my first outing, but…

Stats
Date: March 21, 2015
Location: Knox County, IL public/private strip mines
Time: 11:15am-4:35pm (3.75 hours fishing)
Weather: Sunny/windy
Air Temp: 55F
Water Temp: 46F
Totals: 2 bass
Lures: Strike King Red Eye Shad (sexy shad) – 1 bass, Jig & Pig (black/blue) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 5-13 Strike King Red Eye Shad
Weight (2 bass): – 9-4 (5-13,3-7)

First bass of 2015 – 23″ and 5-13 on a lipless crankbait

Notes & Nonsense

First Bass, First Cast, Second Lake – At my second stop, a recent quality producer, I wound up scoring in a big way on my first cast. I had just texted Julie regarding my initial shutout as follows: “Lake number one 1.5 hours on foot = zero bass. Yikes! Starting on lake two with boat.” Her response: “Sorry. Hope #2 yields better.” One cast later I replied: “So far so good. First cast 5-13.”

Wishful Estimation – I have never caught a six pound bass. Got a seven plus and just missed once upon a time with a 5-15. Well, when I saw this fish and lipped it I thought I had it and placed my mental guesstimation at 6-2. I weighed it twice as I customarily do but it stuck right on 5-13; if only it had eaten another bluegill before dining on the Red Eye Shad. No big deal though as it was quite a fish for me and my hand was actually shaking while texting Julie, that’s cool.

Slow Day – I was hoping that I was onto something after moving to the second lake but I wound up with only one more bite for the day. Fortunately, it was another darn good fish that took my jig and pig, weighing in at 3-7. It came off of a tree that is one of the best looking pieces of structure on the lake but rarely seems to produce a bite. Right place at the right time on this day I suppose.

Second bass of 2015 – 19″ and 3-7 on a jig & pig

Have I Become That Guy? – I am not a real big phone guy but on this day I couldn’t resist a little bragging or whatever you want to call it thanks to my device. Now I’ve spent a fair amount of time on the water flying solo over the years so I’ve certainly gotten used to having no one to high five when a good fish is landed. But with this whole technology thing I selfishly fell victim to the urgent need to tell a couple fish stories before I got home. I always used to laugh at all the folks who couldn’t leave their phone alone but look at me punching away in the very place I go to get disconnected for a while. I do at least take consolation that a pair of bass totaling over nine pounds qualifies as something very important to pass along.

A record first bass of the year, pretty tough to top that one, right? Somehow though, I did manage to beat it in March 2017. The story on that bass was the seventh blog entry ever posted here on the website (today’s post makes 629). Click here to read all about it. Talk to you later. Troy