Top 5 Update

Posted on by Troy Jackson

Here’s a cool summer addition, one with teeth. Always exciting when you tie into one of these predators.

Weight: 6-4
Angler: Chris Schwarz
Date: June 28
Location: Lake Storey
Lure: Strike King Crankbait
Structure: 10’ of water off a laydown/brushpile
Angler Comments: I hit Lake Storey last week and caught 7 bass in 3 hours. They were all around 2 pounds and in about 7-10 feet of water. I caught all of them with a Strike King crankbait that ran 12 feet deep. I also caught this Muskie, which was a lot of fun!
Top 5 Weight: 6-4

Way to go, Chris. As a longtime Lake Storey angler, such catches always bring a smile, thanks for sharing. Talk to you later. Troy

Shaping Up

Posted on by Troy Jackson

As noted to conclude yesterday’s post, I recently wrapped up a fitness/weight loss challenge at work. Via a substantial amount of roadwork, healthier food choices and some willpower at mealtime and beyond, I managed to finish in the top spot.

Took some work and dedication but got it done and came out on top

Weighing in for the finale a week ago Friday, I wound up posting a 24.5 pound weight loss in the span of six weeks (197 to 172.5, May 17 to June 28). I was pretty steady on the drop from week to week but I must say that I had quite the finish in shedding 7.5 pounds over the last eight days.

And before anybody argues “it’s not healthy to lose that many pounds in just over a week”, I beg to differ. I did it the right way with a high quality/modest portion intake of fruits, veggies and fish while logging close to 25 miles running among the nearly 17,000 steps per day average. Invest as one may in diet plans and supplements it’s all just a waste of time and money when it truly boils down to willpower and effort (disclaimer on heredity in some instances).

Part of the plan is eating better and dialing in the portions

Eating better on fishing trips was part of the dedication and a little dirt don’t hurt as seen in one photo

I’ve long thought of writing a book, perhaps I should start with a weight loss composition. Probably wouldn’t sell though at one page as it would consist of my “3 Es.”

Eat better, eat less, exercise. End of story (I guess that may be “4 Es” but you get the point). Put all of those diet and fitness gurus right out of business and pay for my kids’ college expenses right there if only folks were buying into what I’m selling.

A significant uptick in exercise was also key and yes, a few of those miles were fishing

Anyway, I am currently back in the weight range of that 20 something kid reeling in bass at Lake Storey from yesterday’s Friday Flashback post. However, I likely won’t be repeating the photo op as a 50 year old body doesn’t quite look like a 20 year old body.

Four mile run on a near 90 degree Fourth of July evening will burn a few calories 

Looking in the mirror these days I can’t help but think that I’ve got what I call the “Philo Beddoe body” going. You know, Clint Eastwood in the “Every Which Way But Loose” movie and sequel? Pretty lean and fit but still kind of rough around the edges in a fifty something body.

What other outdoor blog would give you the great Philo Beddoe for comparison? 

Nope, I’ll not be fishing topless anytime soon if ever again but I did have an idea to try out if I ever got back in shape. We’ll see if this fitness thing sticks and I can put that concept into motion.

Stay tuned and talk to you later. Troy

Friday Flashback – July 9, 1989

Posted on by Troy Jackson

So this old Lake Storey outing is kind of fun to look back on for a guy who is a couple weeks from turning 52. I’ve got to say that the soon to be 22 year old fellow in these pictures with those Lake Storey bass was in pretty decent shape back then. Summer days spent pushing a mower around the Galesburg city parks and summer nights knocking a softball around some of those same locations had me kind of dialed in once upon a time.

Original log entry and the data entry database version from the “Computer Age”

Winning lures including the actual Mann’s 15+ crankbait, a newer Zara Spook and a 30 plus year old Tender Tube

It’s also fun to compare a couple pictures from nearly 30 years later with a bass from last fall and a crappie from Mother’s Day weekend this year. Same location, old faithful favorite Lake Storey, but several decades of water under the bridge for both me and the fishing hole. If I do say so myself, neither of us are too much worse for wear.

Lake Storey is still a good fishing hole and I’d like to think that the angler has gotten better with age at figuring it out

And here’s what’s funny and rather timely.

Last week I wrapped up a six week fitness/weight loss challenge at work and managed to pull off the win. Last fall I did the same thing and while I lost exactly 20 pounds (200 down to 180), I wound up losing the contest by under a pound. Well, I was kind of bummed and since I had gained 17 of those pounds back I was poised for another try and determined that I was not going to be runner-up again.

More on that tomorrow. Talk to you later. Troy

Top 10 Trip Tunes – 6/21-22/19 Part II

Posted on by Troy Jackson

An interesting blend of the 70s graces our Top 5. Per an internet search it appears that we have, in order, the following genres: Soft Rock, Baroque Pop (never heard of that one), Hard Rock, Jazz Fusion and Rock. Perhaps a little too categorized but suffice to say that 70s radio still rules in my book.

5. I’d Really Love to See You Tonight – England Dan & John Ford Coley (1976) – I always liked this mellow tune and find it fun when a song features one side of a phone conversation (see also “Operator” by Jim Croce or “Telephone Line” by ELO). I also enjoyed the late “England” Dan Seals as a solo artist who had great success on the country charts in the 1980s with tunes like “Bop”, “My Old Yellow Car” and “Everything That Glitters Is Not Gold” among others.

4. Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) – Edison Lighthouse (1970) – Kinda hip, kinda groovy, kinda 70s, this one has always struck a chord with me. It’s one of those songs that I could listen to over and over and always leaves me wishing it was a little or a lot longer. No doubt it could use an additional verse or even another round of the same stuff. An interesting detail on this cut is that the singer, Tony Burrows, contributed vocals to a batch of other one hit wonders including “Beach Baby” (First Class), “My Baby Loves Lovin’” (White Plains) and “Gimme Dat Ding” (The Pipkins).

3. Beautiful Girls – Van Halen (1979) – Now if you say that the Van Hagar incarnation of this band was better, we’re going to have an argument and I give you Exhibit A to begin my case. “Well, I’m a bum in the sun and I’m having fun…” Rock and roll at its finest and funnest, classic VH with a shout out to lovely ladies. “On top of the world” indeed. Hey, wasn’t that phrase recycled down the road? Not bad, but not as good.

2. My Old School – Steely Dan (1973) – There’s no such thing as a bad Steely Dan song, some are just better than others and this is one of them. Clever as always and an entertaining blend of ambiguous and obvious in the lyrics. I’m always entertained by unique words in songs and the fellows work in “Oleanders” and “Guadalajara” into this tune, pure genius.

1. Blinded by the Light – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (1976) – Written by Bruce Springsteen and recorded to perfection by Mann and his troupe. Darn near gibberish at many spots along the way making me wonder not only exactly how one would write something like this but also how it works on the ear and beyond. Took me many years to get that “revved up like a deuce” thing right too.

Another fun tangent for me and coming your way tomorrow is the regular Friday Flashback. Hope you’ll tune in and talk to you later. Troy

Top 10 Trip Tunes – 6/21-22/19 Part I

Posted on by Troy Jackson

Here’s another batch of trip tunes gleaned from several hours of surfing the airwaves during the back to back round trips to the fishing holes on June 21 and 22.

10. Legs – ZZ Top (1984) – So, ZZ Top of the 80s had the trademark coupe in several of their frequently played MTV videos, including this cut. Never really been a car guy so luckily this video also featured some attractive young ladies. Which, as a 17-year old guy, were more my speed. Always liked the older ZZ Top stuff better but hard to deny the impact of music videos on selling some records. 35 years later I still find the video a treat and even sport a modest ZZ Top look of my own from time to time.

9. Enough Is Enough – April Wine (1982) – It’s always fun when you hear a cut on the radio that makes you say, “Wow, I haven’t heard this one in ages!” And even better when you think, “Oh man, is that April Wine?” And it is. A fun tune and rewarding to know that my musical memory is still pretty spot on.

8. We Didn’t Start the Fire – Billy Joel (1989) – Somewhat panned by critics, I particularly enjoyed this song being a trivia, history, education, encyclopedic kind of guy. The entertaining ride through 40 years of world events, pop culture and personalities was not only a hit with this listener but also managed to top the charts for two weeks in December of 1989. Although this song would likely not crack my Top 20 Billy Joel favorites it’s always worth the stop on the radio dial just to see how well I can sing along with the rapid fire history lesson. Quick, name the first and last individuals mentioned in the lyrics.

7. Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – Gordon Lightfoot (1976) – Speaking of history lessons, this somewhat haunting tune was a favorite of a nine year old kid intrigued by the tale and honestly a little creeped out by the musical interpretation of the tragic event (my original 45 pictured above). A legendary song from a legendary Canadian artist, the tune narrowly missed reaching the peak of the Billboard chart hitting number two behind Rod Stewart’s “Tonight’s the Night.”

6. Centerfold – J. Geils Band (1981) – Well, you’re a fourteen year old boy and this video hits your favorite channel, MTV. Instant favorite, one of those drop what you’re doing clips. Runners-up to the lovely young ladies that grace the screen are lead singer Peter Wolf’s dancing and the drum surface actually being milk. Distant runners-up, by the way, but entertaining and memorable nonetheless.

Top 5 up tomorrow with a full dose of the 1970s. Talk to you later. Troy

Strip Mine Report – June 22

Posted on by Troy Jackson

Driveway departure to lakeside launch

On the heels of the successful “100 Year Trip” I decided to try my luck again the next day at some more public strip mine ground with the same wheel in the boat approach. While the walk wasn’t near as arduous, it was still a mile in and a mile out. Between the back to back trips and pushing myself for the final week of a fitness challenge (more on that later this week) my legs were shot. In addition, I couldn’t find any big bites on my first lake and couldn’t find suitable fishing conditions on the second lake so the day wound up a bit frustrating.

6:54am – First bass, gotta start somewhere but didn’t get a whole lot bigger the rest of the morning

Stats

Date: June 22, 2019
Location: Knox County, IL public strip mines (2 lakes)
Time: 6:35am-9:50am (2.25 hours fishing, the rest walking)
Weather: Partly cloudy/windy
Air Temp: 62-66F
Water Temp: not available
Totals: 8 bass
Lures:
Booyah Buzz Buzzbait (snow white shad) – 5 bass
Strike King Red Eye Shad (sexy shad) – 2 bass
5” Yamasenko wacky rig (watermelon/crème laminate) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 1-0 (Red Eye Shad)
Top 5 Weight (only 2 at 12” or better): 1-13 (1-0,0-13)

7:02am – the first of two “keepers”, this one on a buzzbait

Notes and Nonsense

Stop One – The plan was to hit two spots with the first lake being the farther of the two walks. I’ve done well on this lake in terms of numbers over the years but have yet to find any big bites. My brother, Brent, has a 4-15 and a 3-2 from the spot over the last several years and I know of some others over three pounds but I just can’t find them. More of the same on this outing with only two qualifiers for a Top 5 trip weight and they barely made the cut.

No such thing as boat ramps where we’re going, this one is about a three foot drop into the water

Stop Two – After an ill-advised “shortcut” I found that the water and wind conditions make the lake essentially unfishable from my eight-foot johnboat setup. I made one lap around the main body of the lake with only a handful of casts before packing up and heading home a couple hours earlier than anticipated. Sore, tired and second guessing my choices of fishing holes left nothing in the tank by the time I got back to the truck. I hate to leave early when I get a chance to fish but the prospect of coaching an early afternoon baseball game in the quickly rising temps also had me thinking a little bonus rest could do me good.

Arsenal – I went in with the mindset that a limited morning on the water was custom made for a buzzbait as my primary weapon of choice. Got enough bites to keep me interested but once again, not the big ones I’d hoped to find. I did catch one on a Senko via the follow up cast to a missed buzzbait strike as demonstrated on video in another recent fishing report. This lake features a corner where I can usually get a lipless crankbait bite and a pair of bass came through here for me again. The picture below is one of those that was particularly greedy on this morning.

7:48am – Top Bass for the day and a greedy one at that as it already had a crawdad breakfast

So the big bites continue to elude me for 2019. I do have a couple items in the works to see if I can turn that around but those will be reports for another day should things turn out. In the meantime, tune in for another round of Trip Tunes combined from this outing and the previous day’s “100 Year Trip” along with the regular Friday Flashback. Talk to you later. Troy

Top 5 Update

Posted on by Troy Jackson

More bass for this week’s update starting with a couple that I neglected last week for my brother as I was too intent on getting out the scoop on our “100 Year Trip.” And once again Jim Junk comes through with two more quality Fulton County catches.

Weight: 1-0
Angler: Brent Jackson
Date: June 21
Location: Knox County strip mine
Lure: Mann’s 4- crankbait (wounded alewife)
Structure: Deep flat

Weight: 1-1
Angler: Brent Jackson
Date: June 21
Location: Knox County strip mine
Lure: Spinnerbait (white)
Structure: Weed edge/drop
Top 5 Weight: 6-9 (1-12,1-10,1-2,1-1,1-0)

Weight: 4-1
Angler: Jim Junk
Date: June 28
Location: Banner Marsh
Lure: Texas rigged Senko
Structure: Outside weed edge/pocket

Weight: 3-15
Angler: Jim Junk
Date: June 29
Location: Banner Marsh
Lure: Texas rigged Senko
Structure: Outside weed edge/pocket
Angler Comments: Two really nice fish but can’t cull.
Top 5 Weight: 21-4 (4-8,4-6,4-3,4-2,4-1)

The dog days of summer sure kicked into gear in a hurry in the area so it will be interesting to see if the catches continue to roll in. Those bass are still out there but sometimes get a little harder to find and fool. Regardless of the bite, there is a full week of posts coming your way with a fishing report, Trip Tunes and a Friday Flashback to get us through Fourth of July week. Talk to you later. Troy

500

Posted on by Troy Jackson

Today’s post marks post #500 since kicking off my own website back on May 1, 2017.

Perhaps you’ve caught a few of those posts over the last 790 days (that equates to a rather prolific rate of content creation, by the way).

Well, whether you have or whether you haven’t, here’s a look at some of what has graced the internet in that batch of stuff.

Fishing Reports = over 75 posts
These are definitely my favorite posts to put together as the first step in creating them is actually getting out there on the water to chase some fish. From there, anything can happen. And even if hardly anything happens in terms of the bite, I can always find something to write.

Top 5 Updates = over 50 posts plus monthly and year-end stat updates
A close second to the firsthand fishing reports are the contributions from fellow anglers. These posts pretty much write themselves thanks to your submissions. Basically, I have a template and your reports fill in the blanks. Whether I’m catching them or not, it is always good to get some fish stories. And since every fish has a story, thus far we’ve had a look at nearly 250 of them along the way.

Flashbacks = over 60 posts
Between the Friday Flashback feature and something I called “Trapping Tuesdays” we’ve taken a lot of weekly trips back through the last 40 plus years. Outdoor tales are meant to be retold and relived and a blog is a wonderful forum to do just that.

Tunes = over 150 songs
The “Trip Tunes” feature as well as a few other scattered posts have allowed me to work my fondness for the radio and it’s musical offerings into an outdoor website. Not much of a stretch in my book as the drive is just another part of the adventure and as a guy with a soundtrack in his head there’s always an apt lyric for every situation. Besides, I love music and I write the blogs.

 

Of course, there’s also been a fair representation of sports figures, particularly baseball players, that have managed to work their way into a purported outdoor post. Just a few are featured below and a search on the website for “Around the Horn”, “Le Grande Orange” or “MLB” will take you all the way if you need some late night reading.

 

Beginning in March of 2018, I also introduced some homemade video into the blog offerings courtesy of the GoPro and iPhone. And did you know that you can do a Category search on the website for “Video” or several other categories to find just what you’re looking for?

Then there was a Bigfoot series, some Emiquon posts (more to come), wish lists, resolutions, park reviews, 12 Days of Christmas, Blog Banner recaps and more.

And, oh yeah, there’s the monthly “Lyric of the Week” feature that is tucked away at the bottom of the homepage. In fact, tune in tomorrow for the yet another timely selection. Some make more sense than others but they all make sense to me. If that makes any sense.

Been a wild ride. And it doesn’t stop here! On to post #501 and beyond with a Top 5 Update tomorrow along with a fishing report, a Trip Tunes batch and the weekly Friday Flashback to come. Talk to you later. Troy

Friday Flashback – July 6, 2014

Posted on by Troy Jackson

Presenting the “Misfit Tacklebox” 

Quite a few years ago, I came up with this idea to take a batch of old lures that I just had to have or that somehow wound up in my tacklebox and see if they could actually fool a bass. In an excerpt from the original 2014 intro post here’s a little background (along with some of the original photos passed along in each of the 14 posts in the series as there was a separate post for each lure).

Sometime back in 2010 I got this brilliant idea for a fishing experiment. Emiquon was at its peak, I was getting in tune with being a blogger and I had more than a few utility boxes full of must have lures that had never caught a fish. It dawned on me that the dumb bass of The Emiquon Preserve could provide a perfect opportunity to finally get some return on my investment in that batch of “can’t miss” lures. Well, I wound up missing my window of opportunity as I got too carried away catching Emiquon bass on stuff I liked to throw and the next thing I knew those uneducated bass started to wise up to public angling pressure.

         

Fast forward to late September 2013 when I found a remote batch of dumb basses on some public Knox County strip mine ground. Forgive me, but I can’t resist resorting to an old comedy standard regarding these fish.

Okay, so I say, “Those strip mine bass are so dumb.”

You inquire, “How dumb are they?”

I respond, “Those bass are so dumb that I would take a bite of my sandwich, cast out twice, catch and unhook two bass while I chewed and entered them in the log, take another bite, repeat…”

That’s a true story as I wound up catching 12 bass in 15 minutes during my first visit to the spot while eating a sandwich and documenting my catch.

So, as it turned out I gave 14 lures a shot in a project that I called “The Island of Misfit Lures.” In terms of numbers it was a rousing success as all of them landed a bass (one of them even fooled a double). In terms of quality, however, all were of the less than stellar size in a spot that I call Cottonwood Lake.

 

Perhaps someday I’ll dust off that old Misfit tacklebox again but for now I’m intent on sticking with the tried and true. Talk to you later. Troy

100 Year Trip Report – June 21

Posted on by Troy Jackson

The first day of summer was reason for the investment of vacation days for me and my brother, Brent. The objective was to try our hand at a stunt I’d long considered. As described in an earlier post I thought it would be fun to do it at a time when our combined ages totaled 100 years (I’m 51 for about another month and Brent is 49). If you checked out that prior post you already know that we pulled it off without hurting ourselves. Here’s the fishing report part of the adventure.

Chronology and distance – driveway to parking lot to first steps to fishing hole

Stats

Date: June 21, 2019
Location: Knox County, IL public strip mines (3 lakes)
Time: 5:45am-12:15pm (5.25 hours fishing)
Weather: Sunny to overcast/breezy to windy
Air Temp: 63-71F
Water Temp: not available
Totals: 62 bass (Troy – 33 Brent – 29)
Lures
Troy: Rapala DT10 (parrot) – 16 bass, 5” Yamasenko wacky rig (watermelon/crème laminate) – 13 bass, Booyah Buzz Buzzbait – 4 bass
Brent – Mann’s 4- crankbait (alewife) – 15 bass, Tandem Spinnerbait (white) – 10 bass, Senko – 4 bass
Top Bass: 2-4 (Buzzbait)
Top 5 Weight: 6-4 (2-4,1-1,1-0,1-0,0-15)

First bass with both on the board by 6:00am

Notes and Nonsense

Trailblazers – The most significant unknown of the trip was a cattail choked expanse of marsh that connected our smaller portage lake to the larger ultimate destination. From a distance, things didn’t look so good. However, we found that apparently we were not alone in our ambition as a manageable path had been blazed through the hundred plus yard jungle. It took a steady amount of push poling with our oars and nearly getting stuck once but we made it. Had it not been for some bushwhacking Daniel Boone’s of the strip mines it wouldn’t have been possible. Many thanks to whoever you are.

Truly “nowhere” after a few initial forays into live social media posts, fun to be out of reach

Impressions – As we emerged from the cattails on the shallow lower end of the lake it was pretty cool to get a view of the enticing expanse that lay before us. It had been thirteen years since I’d seen this water and that adventure was from a steep perch on a limited stretch of accessible bank. Things started out slow but I was confident that we would find a decent batch of bass before it was all said and done. The only down side was an impending batch of thunderstorms predicted about six hours out. And remember we had a significant row, push, row, carry and drag return to the truck on the way out.

Always good when both anglers have one in the boat at the same time

Emiquonesque – Scattered bass throughout the first hour kept us interested as they say but a spot along the upper end of the lake really kept us busy. In a span of just over a half hour we would end up boating 18 bass between us as we ran into a stellar crankbait bite on what appeared to be some sort of expansive flat in maybe 8-10 foot of water. It was reminiscent of one of the old Emiquon days when it seemed as if someone flipped a switch and the bite was on. Not near the quality of those Emiquon bass but still a blast including a couple instances of two in the boat at once.

Top Bass and get out the field guide for these bass fishermen, one ambitious bluegill

Lone Lap – With the potential for bad weather and over two miles of row and haul from the far end of our destination back to the truck we only completed one lap around the larger lake. We got our fill but sure would have been nice to have spent a little more time and perhaps slowed down our presentations a bit in some areas. But the run and gun approach did find plenty of cooperative bass and certainly fit the styles of the guys sharing the boat.

Our last bass before the weather sent us scrambling

Strange skies ended up soaking us as we loaded our trucks and a welcome case of “bass thumb”

When it was all said and done we were no worse for wear just a little poison ivy on a finger, some soaked clothes, bass thumb and tired. In fact I fell asleep sitting on the couch for about an inning and a half of the Cubs game after stopping by my folks.

So, was it worth it?

Would I be willing to pull the stunt again?

Bet there sure would be a good bite in the fall…talk to you later. Troy