On the heels of a solid Saturday, I had a chance to try my luck again on Father’s Day Sunday. Hey, my day right, so what’s wrong with ditching the family for some “me” time? Actually, nobody hardly missed me as I left before anybody even dreamed of being awake and returned before the girls ever rolled out of bed. A couple hours of solitude, a few bass and another fishing report.

Stats
Date: June 18, 2017
Location: Lost Grove Lake, IA
Time: 5:55am-7:55am
Weather: Sunny-overcast/windy-very windy
Air Temp: not sure
Water Temp: no reading
Totals: 8 bass
Lures:
Booyah Buzz Buzzbait (snow white shad) – 7 bass
Booyah Blade Spinnerbait (salt & pepper) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 1-9 Buzzbait
Weight (only 2 at 12″ or better): 2-7 (1-9,0-14)

6:15am First Bass and Top Bass 14.5″ 1-9 Buzzbait

Notes & Nonsense

First Bass – Twenty minutes into casting a buzzbait I had my first catch, tipping the scales at 1-9 equal to my former Iowa personal best. Fortunately, the 1-11 from the previous outing had pushed the mark up a couple ounces. Otherwise I may have had to stoop to weighing the latest catch multiple times or perhaps even holding it up in the wind hoping a gust would boost the scale that needed ounce. Okay, maybe not that desperate just in need of something in the two-pound range to make the record at least a little more respectable.

No Repeat Performance – My hopes to duplicate the positive strides I’d made in figuring out some fish the previous day just never materialized. While this trip was just over an hour shorter, a different day just had a different feel.
June 17 = 3.25 hours, 18 bass, 5 at 12” or >, Top 5 Weight of 6-9, Top Bass = 1-11
June 18 = 2.0 hours, 8 bass, 2 at 12” or >, Top 2 Weight of 2-7, Top Bass = 1-9
That’s fishing as no two days are the same. Reasonable production on day two but my excuse this time around was the couple dozen bass with sore lips from Saturday including a handful that got off the first time around. Rarely discouraged though and was back at it two days later, fishing report to come.

7:23am 12″ 0-14 Buzzbait

Three Days in One – The weather continues to be all over the place like much of the rest of 2017 to date. I launched at 5:55am to sunny skies and temps rapidly climbing to the mid-70’s. By 7:00am a massive cloud bank was rolling in with the winds really beginning to pick up. When those winds finally forced me and my little boat off the lake at 7:55am the skies were dark and the temp had dropped a dozen degrees into the low 60’s. In the ten minutes it took to load and leave, the sun had reappeared, the wind had diminished and the temperature had stabilized. I took a drive around the lake to check out the crowd and by the time I decided to head for home it was back to the conditions like when my morning began. I was tempted to launch again at another spot but thought better of it and hit the road to share the remainder of the day with my family.

Stick around the lake after the front moved through or head home to this bunch? I chose the goofballs over a few more bass.

Crowd Count – In a previous post I mentioned that one news outlet had referred to Lost Grove Lake as “Iowa’s newest jewel” and it sure seems to have the attention of more than a few anglers. Similar to last year, I took a drive around to all of the access points (three ramps and three walk-in areas) to check out the crowd. All told, I counted 34 trailers along with sixteen other vehicles, indeed a popular destination but still enough water for everybody.

Back to back trips last weekend to my new area have produced an overall better quality of fish than my previous three stops elsewhere on the lake so why stop now? Stay tuned for another Lost Grove report to see if the trend continues or the well runs dry. Talk to you later. Troy