Took the weekend off from blogging after kicking off the new website with a streak of 40 consecutive days with a posting.  Was hoping for a Top 5 submission or two to resume posting with the standard Monday update but no go.  I even gave it a shot myself with the first trip of the year across The River but came up rather short of the weight I needed.  I did catch some bass though, so today you get a fishing report in place of an update.  Keep in mind, folks, that I provide a report for every trip, for better or worse, as real life fishing ain’t like the magazines, television or even the internet (except for this website, of course).

Stats
Date: June 10, 2017
Location: Lost Grove Lake, IA
Time: 5:50am-10:05am
Weather: Sunny/windy-very windy
Air Temp: 67F-82F
Water Temp: no reading
Totals: 10 bass
Lures:
Booyah Buzz Buzzbait (snow white shad) – 7 bass
Senko wacky rig (electric shad) – 2 bass
Senko Texas rig (electric shad) w/ 1/8 oz. tungsten weight – 1 bass
Top Bass: two at 11.5” (did not qualify to weigh)
Top 5 Weight: none over 12”

If all else fails and the fish aren’t that big, show the lures.  Buzzbait, Senko wacky rig, Senko Texas rig (bottom)

Notes & Nonsense

Record Quest Round One – One of the resolutions I posted last month revolved around the pursuit of a new Iowa largemouth bass personal best.  Going into this outing, that mark stood at 1-9 with a catch from June 19, 2016.  Following this outing, that mark still stands as I never even fooled one that qualified to hang from the scale (my criteria for weighing “keepers” has long stood at a 12” minimum length).  Now for some of the excuses, I mean challenges, on this body or water.

History and Fishery – While Lost Grove Lake has been in the making for several decades, news reports cite the “public grand opening” as August 2014.  My debut was June 19, 2016 and in three visits, including this trip, I have spent a total of 13.75 hours on the lake and landed 35 bass (2.55 bass per hour).  Decent in terms of rate/quantity but severely lacking in quality bites with only 2 bass at 12” or better (weight 1-9 and 1-2).  I have seen several 3 to 4 pound bass in person and in print so I know they are there but just haven’t gotten to grab one of them yet.  Iowa DNR sampling surveys do make me feel better though as electrofishing results back up my logbook with a population dominated by 8-10” fish.  Ideally, they just need some time to grow up.

6:15am First Bass – Buzzbait, less than 12″ just like all that would follow

Structure and Access – In a post that I wrote last year for my previous gig, I described the lake as “messy.”  This reference pertained to an abundance of brushy timber above and below surface along the creek channels and a great deal of surface vegetation clogging the shoreline and much of the standing timber.  I roll with an 8-foot rowboat and a topographic map (water fried a portable depthfinder I used last year just a couple months after purchase) on the 360-acre body of water so a few challenges on the learning curve there as well.  But hey, the equipment upstairs working on thirty five years of experience is catching plenty of fish here, just not big ones.

Buzzbait Bite – Windy conditions, the structure challenges noted above and only a few morning hours to fish had me committed to a buzzbait presentation.  Not a problem, I prefer to fish fast and if a good one is going to let down its guard, a buzzbait is a good tool to fool it.  Seven out of my ten fish came on the lure and I had two others throw the lure after being hooked along with at least half a dozen other fish take a swipe at the bait without getting hooked.  Overall, it was a weird bite though as nearly every strike was barely a ripple on the surface with several instances where it took a second of two for the brain to process that I actually had a fish on, pretty odd on a morning where I had a significant number of hits.

8:56am – Truth hurts, Top Bass 11.5″ Senko wacky rig.  However, I do like this photo as an indication of just how windy it was out there.  You know it’s windy when you can feel your beard moving sideways.  Then again, maybe that’s a sign to pursue a more manageable look…perhaps later this summer.  Ain’t ditching the lucky hat though.

Despite falling short in my quest this time around, I will definitely be back for further field work on getting the place figured out as those fish keep growing up.  The notes in this posting in no way represent complaints or excuses as I definitely like the lake and the challenges it poses.  Apparently, many others do as well as I encountered many other boats including a few just a little fancier than my setup.  Later this week I will post some more info on Lost Grove Lake from some research I did last year.  And later this fishing season I’m going to get back there with a new plan…stay tuned.  Talk to you later.  Troy

A camping trip to Little John Conservation Club (as described in yesterday’s post) also means some fishing for young and old.  Today we’ll take a look at how the youngsters fared.

A 7:45pm arrival at the campsite makes for a bit of a narrow window of daylight to wet some waxworms with the kids and see what we can fool.  After setting up the tent, that window was even more limited as we didn’t get our first casts in until about 8:25pm.  But it sure didn’t take long to get some positive feedback as the time on the photo of the first fish of the evening showed as 8:28pm.  Three of our four anglers took a shot (Carly, Jayce and Zac) while Helena sat this one out and assisted Julie with settling in.  Here’s a look at some of our haul.

Carly’s first ever crappie followed shortly by first ever bass

Carly wound up as the last fisherkid standing, catching her final fish at a point where we could barely see the bobber.  It was right about the time when the eyes start playing tricks, faking us out numerous times before one last hookset actually produced a catch.  All she needed was a bluegill to complete a sort of fishing “Grand Slam” and our wish was granted, making for a perfect time to call it a night.

Carly completes her Grand Slam with a green sunfish and buzzer beater bluegill, great job!

The next morning the boys each got a boat ride while Carly took another shot from the bank.  She likely outfished us boys as we were pestered by some mighty small bluegill that just stole our waxworms as most didn’t have a mouth near big enough to take even our small jigheads.

The boys getting it done in the boat.  I swear Jayce’s catch was so small and thin you could nearly see through it.

As always, plenty of fish and a good time had by all except the waxworms.  Another fishing report up tomorrow, some larger fish and a larger angler, who is not near as attractive as this bunch who thankfully got some looks from their mama.  Talk to you later.  Troy

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