Original log entry from 10/13/2008

Back to Lake Storey and only one day shy of exactly ten years ago. This outing was one of the annual visits to the “home lake” with Dad. I too had a solid handle on being a dad but kind of only half the dad that I am these days. Only two little girls at the time, didn’t know that they’d have a couple little brothers on the way. Much has changed on the family front, but in regards to the fishing hole it still resides at the top of the list thanks to the angling challenges, exciting rewards, aesthetic appeal and personal history. Read on for a sample of these characteristics as conveyed via excerpts from the original 2008 fishing report.

This outing and the actual lures from the trip are older than this boy (and his big brother)

10-13-08
Lake Storey (with Dad)
Time: 8:40am-2:10pm
Weather: Overcast/breezy
Dad – 12 bass 1 Muskie (20”)
Troy – 8 bass 1 walleye (4-14)
Lures
Bomber Flat A in baby bass pattern (also 1 muskie & 1 walleye) – 9 bass
Zoom Super Hog (watermelon seed) – 9 bass
Quad Shad Spinnerbait (white) – 2 bass
Top Bass – Dad 3-0 Troy 1-13
Top 5 weight 8-3 (3-0,1-13,1-4,1-3,0-15)

Solid 4-14 walleye but three pounds lighter than another Lake Storey catch a week and a half earlier

Challenge and Reward, Part I – The second quality walleye “accident” of October tipped the scales at 4-14; a very good fish that kind of paled a bit in comparison when following up a near eight pounder.

Top Bass for the day was Dad’s 3-0 on a Zoom Super Hog creature bait

Challenge and Reward, Part II – This outing and a series of earlier fishing trips produced a handful of new entries for the record book. Eight bass gained entry with Dad’s 3-0 taking Top Bass honors. All eight came from Lake Storey as the strip mines just couldn’t compete with Galesburg’s “home lake” when it was in the midst of the annual fall drawdown.

Aesthetic Appeal, Part I – The drawdown drops the lake level several feet leaving a great deal of structure (trees, stumps, rockpiles, weeds and docks) high and dry. This drastically limits the amount of hiding places for smaller forage fish and allows the larger predators to stock up as we head towards colder weather. Theoretically, this management tool will help sustain a healthy fishery. For the angler, the drawdown provides a glimpse under the surface that can be helpful in targeting the fish when the lake reaches its normal pool in the spring. In addition, it makes any remaining subsurface structure a potential magnet for baitfish which, in turn, attracts predators such as bass, walleye and muskie. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to reap the rewards and I would say the practice is working just fine.

I like pics of any toothy critter so Dad humored me for this juvenile catch (cool drawdown background too)

Aesthetic Appeal, Part II – During my trips to Lake Storey I observed a pair of our most impressive birds of prey. First up was an osprey that I watched as it plummeted to the water’s surface while harvesting an unsuspecting fish for lunch. Next was a bald eagle, the first I’ve seen at Lake Storey. I have also spotted a few at Lake Bracken and Snakeden over the years, testimony to the marked recovery of the species.

Personal History – Twice I ran out of battery power and had to utilize the gas motor to get back to the ramp. While it’s against regulations, desperate times call for desperate measures. Ain’t the first time I had to pull the stunt as one other time Brent and I had to fire up the big motor to escape a storm that snuck up on us.

Chalk up another successful outing and a few more fish stories from Lake Storey

Actually, this stuff all fits under the personal history category and cool when it overlaps with Dad’s personal history in this case or other fishing partners in other instances. Stories to be told again and again and always a treat when you share the adventure as each person recalls some different aspect of the same tale. More than a few such stories from Lake Storey. In fact, another Friday Flashback from the lake coming next week. Hope you’ll tune in and talk to you later. Troy

Some more good bites as fall kicks into gear including a young angler joining our Top 5 in posting a new personal best.

(Note: experienced some technical difficulty in uploading pics for a pair of the catches below resulting in data only.)

Weight: 2-0
Angler: John Kirkemo
Date: October 5
Location: Lake Storey
Water Temp: 65 degrees
Lure: Wacky Worm
Structure: Ten feet off shore in about five feet of water
Angler Comments: This is the best of seven fish caught Friday afternoon between 1:00 and 3:45pm. The other six fish were in the 10-12” range.

Weight: 2-3
Angler: John Kirkemo
Date: October 6
Location: Lake Storey
Water Temp: 65 degrees
Weather: Overcast with a stiff wind
Lure: Weedless Wacky Worm
Structure: Aquatic vegetation and wood along the shoreline
Angler Comments: Fished from 1:30-3:50pm with a fisherman new to the sport. We landed four fish. This was the largest. The rest were 8-9” and not weighed.

Weight: 1-3
Angler: John Kirkemo
Date: October 7
Location: Lake Storey
Water Temp: 65 degrees
Lure: Weedless Wacky Worm
Structure: Shoreline aquatic vegetation and wood
Angler Comments: Fished from 2:15 to 4:30 pm with Avery Yung, Reed Yung and Landon Hannam. Reed and Avery were in kayaks while Landon and I were in my boat. Heavy overcast and warm but no rain. No other boat fisherman and maybe one or two shore fisherman west of the pavilion. I caught two other fish but they were a pound or less. We caught nine bass all on wacky worms among the four of us.
Top 5 Weight: 10-3 (2-7,2-3,2-0,2-0,1-9) culls 1-6 and 1-2

Weight: 2-1
Angler: Paul Kessler
Date: October 6
Location: Banner Marsh
Lure: White spinnerbait with dual blades
Top 5 Weight: 14-0 (3-10,3-9,2-12,2-1,2-0)

Weight: 1-5 (13”)
Angler: Landon Hannam
Date: October 7
Lure: Weedless wacky worm
Location: Lake Storey
Water temp: 65 F
Structure: Aquatic vegetation
Angler Comments: Fishing with my uncle John and my cousins Avery and Reed. Biggest fish I have ever caught.
Top 5 Weight: 1-5 (1-5)

Way to go everybody and congratulations to Landon on his new personal best, more to come I am sure.  Thanks all for the continued casting as the days get shorter and 2018 fishing heads into the home stretch. 89 bass submitted at present, let’s see if we can make it 100 before the 2018 edition comes to a close. Best of luck and talk to you later. Troy

Fall transition is in full force, both in terms of some cooler weather and those bass strapping on the feed bag as we head into the last several months of 2018. Quite a collection for this update as it was a stellar weekend.

Weight: 3-12
Angler: Jim Junk
Date: September 22
Location: Banner Marsh
Lure: Wacky rig
Angler Comments: Just went out for a couple hours this morning, 3-12 and 2-9.

Weight: 3-13
Angler: Jim Junk
Date: September 23
Location: Banner Marsh
Lure: Wacky rig
Angler Comments: Went out this morning and got a 3-13 and 3-8. Sure is hard to cull. Hope to get one or two before end of year though.
Top 5 Weight: 22-5 (5-2,4-9,4-5,4-4,4-1) no culls but a tall order to do so at this point.

Weight: 3-2 (18″)
Angler: Troy Jackson
Date: September 23
Location: Knox County IL public strip pit
Lure: Strike King KVD 2.5 Rattling Squarebill crankbait (sexy shad)
Structure: Ledge
Angler Comments: One of those “well-placed” casts that either landed on the bass or it tracked the incoming lure like a centerfielder (up for debate on what actually occurs). Hit as soon as the lure hit the surface and the fight was on.

Weight: 4-8 (20″)
Angler: Troy Jackson
Date: September 23
Location: Knox County IL private strip pit
Lure: Booyah Buzz Buzzbait (snow white shad)
Structure: Hump
Angler Comments: My first bass in 57 days proved to be a real winner. And also proved to be the biggest I would fool on the day. All good though as it is also my Top Bass of 2018…so far.
Top 5 Weight: 15-9 (4-8,3-2,3-0,2-9,2-6) culls 2-3 and 2-0

Weight: 2-2
Angler: Brent Jackson
Date: September 23
Location: Knox County, IL public strip pit
Lure: Spinnerbait (Emiquon Special)
Structure: Point/weed edge

Weight: 2-3
Angler: Brent Jackson
Date: September 23
Location: Knox County, IL public strip pit
Lure: Senko wacky rig (smoke)
Structure: Point/weed edge

Weight: 3-7
Angler: Brent Jackson
Date: September 23
Location: Knox County, IL public strip pit
Lure: Spinnerbait (Emiquon Special)
Structure: Point/weed edge
Angler Comments (actually his brother’s): Brent put on a clinic over the course of about 45 minutes without ever leaving his spot at water’s edge on a proven spot. Half a dozen bass came ashore with a Top 5 in that time span of 11-8. Pretty cool to watch from my less productive spots on the same body of water.

Weight: 5-1 (22.5″)
Angler: Brent Jackson
Date: September 23
Location: Knox County, IL private strip pit
Lure: Spinnerbait (Emiquon Special)
Structure: Point
Angler Comments (also his brother’s): Perfect timing for this bass to show up as I was just telling Brent that “the point over there” had produced a 5-0 and a 5-10 over the last several years. Add another five pounder to the story going forward.
Top 5 Weight: 16-1 (5-1,3-7,2-12,2-10,2-3) culls 2-2, 1-14, 1-9

Definitely happy that some old familiar faces were able to give Jim a hand on the Top 5 update this week. Speaking of that guy, he’s still knocking ‘em so definitely like to add his latest catches as I appreciate the challenge of having to fool a four plus to get a bump in weight (a little envious here by the way). And always cool to team up with my brother on some of our regular haunts as well, look for the full report as this week progresses. Talk to you later. Troy

How about nearly ten pounds of bass for our leader, Jim Junk, for this week’s update? Already over the 20-pound mark, he cashes in on an early onset of a fall feeding frenzy to up his haul by nearly two pounds. Not an easy feat and even more impressive while doing the casting from the bank.

Weight: 4-9
Angler: Jim Junk
Date: September 6
Location: Banner Marsh
Lure: Senko wacky rig
Structure: Weed edge, stumps
Angler Comments: A couple hours fishing last night produced two smaller bass and this beautiful 4-9. He came out of a little highway that runs between bank weeds and some semi-submerged stumps that has been very productive this year.

Weight: 5-2
Angler: Jim Junk
Date: September 8
Location: Banner Marsh
Lure: Texas rigged Senko
Structure: Weed bed
Angler Comments: Well, the extremely strong wind was both a curse and a blessing today. It was so strong that I could only fish banks with wind at my back. The areas that I intended to fish were futile and I was cursing the wind. Went to a bank that had been sporadic at best. Had produced fish before but no big ones. There was a lot of water though and with the wind at my back I was able to cast to places I had never been able to reach before. Went with a weightless Texas rigged Senko because there were semi-submerged weed beds mixed in open pockets of water. Fished for a couple hours and managed three solid 2 to 2.5 pound bass. Then I was reeling in another very long cast and was slowly working through a weed bed. Twitched off a small snag and felt pressure. Thought the hook had been exposed and caught more weeds. As I began to put more pressure on the line I felt a tug so set the hook. At this point I thought I had a nice fish and a lot of weeds. Had no idea that I had a real nice fish. Got him to the bank and landed with no problem.
Top 5 Weight: 22-1 (5-2,4-9,4-5,4-1,4-0) culls 3-15 and 3-14

Way to go Jim and thanks for a great start to September. Don’t put those poles away quite yet folks as plenty of good fishing remains for 2018. Talk to you later. Troy

More Fulton County bass via a summertime favorite, the buzzbait. Always exciting and dangerously addictive when you land a couple of this caliber.

Weight: 2-12
Angler: Paul Kessler
Date: August 4
Location: Banner Marsh – Johnson Lake
Lure: Buzzbait with dark purple trailer

Weight: 3-10
Angler: Paul Kessler
Date: August 4
Location: Banner Marsh – Johnson Lake
Lure: Buzzbait with silver trailer
Angler Comments: I didn’t get on the water as early as I had planned so may have missed a couple of early daylight bites. Only had three bites on the day all on the buzzbaits.
Top 5 Weight: 11-13 (3-10,3-9,2-12,2-0)

A pair of solid additions to our project in spite of less than ideal conditions variously described by Paul as “very cloudy” to “pea green” to “muddy due to grass carp.” Kudos to getting out there and fooling some quality bass during what has been a challenging summer bite on a lot of area waters. Keep ‘em coming and best of luck. Talk to you later. Troy