Just over a year ago, I made my final visit of 2025 to Lake Storey. As the winter then passed into spring this year, the annual fall drawdown remained in effect due to a construction project. In March, I made my first 2026 visit to Lake Storey. At that time, I decided that I’d shoot for the goal of at least one visit per month from March through October as the prolonged drawdown was a unique occurrence. With this outing, I accomplished that goal in the unusual surroundings of the lake at full pool in the fall. I also shared the boat with my son, Jayce, as we had done on a May trip to Lake Storey when the lake was lowered.

1:00pm – Top Bass #4 weighing 1-10 (14.5″) on a crankbait

Stats
Date: October 24
Location: Lake Storey, Knox County, IL
Time: 11:50am-3:35pm
Totals: 8 bass (Dad – 5, Jayce – 3)
Weather: Sunny/windy, 68-73F
Water temperature: 63-64F
Lure: War Eagle Spinnerbait (chartreuse/white) with BPD Double Tail Grub trailer (Houdini) – 5 bass, Bomber Deep Flat A (mad craw or mud craw) – 2 bass, Z-Man Chatterbait (black/blue) with swimbait trailer – 1 bass
Top Bass: 2-2 Spinnerbait (Troy), 1-12 Chatterbait (Jayce)
Top 5 Weight: 9-1 (2-2,1-15,1-12,1-10,1-10)

Winning lures

1:20pm – Top Bass #3 weighing 1-12 (15″) on a crankbait

Notes and Nonsense

Hot Hand – Jayce opted to start out casting a chatterbait while I chose a spinnerbait. We also had a lipless crank and some mid-depth flat-sided cranks ready to go. The chatterbait was the right choice as Jayce had our first bass in the boat less than fifteen minutes into casting. As we moved to a few pieces of rocky structure, we shifted gears to cranking and Jayce proceeded to have me down three bass to zero with a pair caught on Bomber Flat A models. But whose counting? Honestly, probably both of us.

3:07pm – Top Bass #2 weighing 1-15 (15.5″) on a spinnerbait

3:11pm – Top Bass weighing 2-2 (16″) on a spinnerbait

Solo Shot – Jayce opted to split his time in Galesburg between fishing and visiting as my folks picked him up at The Pavilion about two hours into our trip. I remained for another hour and a half and managed to fool five bass before heading out to grab supper and visit as well. Along with Jayce’s two “keepers” (1-12, 1-10), I managed to fill out our limit for a respectable combined Top 5 Weight of 9-1 for the day.

 

Lake Storey certainly was not on fire, but we plugged away and had what I would consider a fair day. Fishing the lake in the fall at full pool is a different look and I have to say that I really miss the drawdown. Part tradition, and part the potential uptick in the bite, I sure hope that the skipping the annual drop in a one-time deal. Not satisfied with the haul, I headed back for another visit the following day. Stay tuned for that report and talk to you later. Troy

I have been a member of Little John Conservaton Club near Victoria, IL for over thirty years. That membership came courtesy of Mom and Dad who have been members going back nearly forty years. Plenty of memories, and just a few fish caught out there over all those years during fishing, camping, and day trips to the area. A number of those adventures have also included a third generation as my kids, nieces, and nephews have lined the shorelines, roamed the grounds, and gathered around picnic tables or firepits through the last twenty-plus years.

2013 Flashback – same lake with Natalee in foreground, Jayce the guy in the green shirt and Papa providing guidance

Mom and Dad have eight grandkids, and on October 10, a couple of them came up with a plan for a fishing trip. My niece, Natalee, had been wanting to fish for a while but life gets different when those kids aren’t little anymore. As teenagers to twenty-somethings, they are pulled in many directions and half of them are far (and farther) from home. At any rate, the group of eight was whittled down to a dynamic duo of two for this trip, Natalee, and my oldest boy, Jayce.

And I got to play fishing guide, while Mom and Dad had a front row seat on the bank and observed. We launched Dad’s 1987 Bass Tracker mid-afternoon armed with Senko wacky rigs which are typically a winner in the clear strip mine waters of Club Lake.

I’d rate the fishing as fair as the duo landed five bass in roughly a two-hour cruise. We hit productive spots with a proven winner in the Senko but just couldn’t get anything going. We pondered shifting gears to other presentations but those two have had success with our offering so they opted to go all in with the wacky rig.

While I do not have any sort of post-trip survey to rate my guide service, I was a little disappointed in not being able to put them on more (and larger) fish. Even so, they both seemed to enjoy the time on the water and indicated that they would consider my “services” again.

As we headed for home, Dad and I hopped in his truck with the boat in tow while the two kids rode/drove home with Mom. While there were new memories created on the water on this day, there were also old memories shared on the drive to and from the fishing hole. I dig reminiscing about those “fish stories” as that is what it is all about, no matter the results. And boy, do we have a few tales. Now Natalee and Jayce have another one to add to their repertoire. Talk to you later. Troy

While I still have one pool remaining in my quest to post double-digit Top 5 weights on a stretch of twenty-five contiguous pools, I chose to give the pursuit a break for this outing. Instead, I selected a pair of pools connected via a tube that each had starting weights in the ten-pound range. The aims were to knock any of the one-pounders out of the creels and boost the Top 5 weights beyond the ten-pound range.

10:51am – Top Bass #3 weighing 2-1 (16″) on a spinnerbait

Stats
Date: October 4
Location: Hennepin Canal (2 pools)
Time: 10:50am-2:25pm
Totals: 7 bass
Weather: Sunny/breezy, 55-72F
Water temperature: Not available
Lures: War Eagle Spinnerbait (chartreuse/white) with BPS double tail trailer (Houdini) – 6 bass, Booyah Buzzbait (white) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 3-8 (spinnerbait)
Top 5 Weight: 11-0 (3-8,2-13,2-1,1-5,1-5)

Winning lures

Notes and Nonsense

The Hennepin Hundred – The first full weekend of October sees an ultramarathon along the historic waterway called “The Hennepin Hundred.” The top tier of the race covers one hundred miles along The Canal with the finish line being in Colona. The race begins on Saturday morning and for several years I have tried to be on the water Sunday morning to observe participants as they work their way towards the goal. I got a late start on this trip and ventured a bit further from home, but I did get to observe one runner plugging away with over a dozen miles to go. Impressive, and a little crazy.

12:03pm – Top Bass #2 weighing 2-13 (18″) on a spinnerbait

Pool One – The starting Top 5 Weight on this stretch stood at 10-1 (2-8,2-2,1-14,1-13,1-12), so my aim was to see if I could land three two-pounders to knock the one-pound fish out of the creel. On my fourth cast of the morning, I had one of them in the boat, a solid fish weighing 2-1 on a spinnerbait. Roughly an hour later, with three more one-pound fish added to the log, I had my second two-pounder hooked on a buzzbait, but it wrapped me on a lily pad stem and got loose. That one stung but ten minutes later a 2-13 would ease the disappointment and establish a new Top Bass for this pool displacing a 2-8 caught in 2024. I left this stretch with five bass in two hours and one two-pounder shy of meeting my goal. All good though as I got a significant boost to end with an all-time Top 5 on the pool of 11-6 (2-13,2-8,2-2,2-1,1-14).

1:31pm – Top Bass weighing 3-8 (19″) on a spinnerbait

Pool Two – Heading through a tube, I took a shot at an adjacent pool that had a starting Top 5 Weight of 10-12 (3-0,2-5,2-0,1-14,1-9). In an hour and a half, I would only land two bass but the first of those catches would establish a new Top Bass for the pool tipping the scales at 3-8. A bonus aspect of the catch was that it came with an audience of two shoreline anglers, one of whom was quite congratulatory about the catch. We had an entertaining, shouting conversation from about fifty yards across The Canal but it was loud and clear that we were both enthused by the catch. The bass knocked the 1-9 out of my existing Top 5 creel for a nearly two-pound boost up to the current weight of 12-11 (3-8,3-0,2-5,2-0,1-14).

 

Well, I didn’t quite knock out all the one-pounders, but I will take these results any day. A daily Top 10 exceeding ten pounds and establishing a new Top Bass on each of the pools was a winner. The seven bass for this trip pushed my 2026 total to 474 bass and set my sights on hitting the 500 mark for the year. Stay tuned as there are more fishing reports to come, including a pair of guest anglers. Talk to you later. Troy

 

My streak of monthly visits to Lake Storey continued as I squeezed in a late September outing. Fall of 2026 looked different on the old lake as the traditional drawdown was not implemented since the lake was lowered for the first half of the year due to a construction project. While the unique situation had me intrigued, there was also some disappointment as chasing bass in the low pool conditions has been a tradition for many years. And speaking of disappointment…

Stats
Date: September 28
Location: Lake Storey
Time: 9:00am-1:15pm
Totals: 4 bass
Weather: Sunny/calm to breezy, 56-72F
Water temperature: Not available
Lures: War Eagle Spinnerbait (white/chartreuse) with BPS double tail trailer (Houdini) – 3 bass, Bomber Deep Flat A (mad craw) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 1-2 (Spinnerbait)
Only one bass at 12” or better

Notes and Nonsense

Bass #700 – At 9:32am, I landed my first bass on a spinnerbait retrieved along a bit of shoreline wood cover. Right on target for my expected pattern for a fall day. While the catch was not the most impressive specimen at nine inches, it represented Lake Storey Bass #700 since the advent of continuous record keeping back in 1997. Including the four bass landed on this trip, two hundred and thirteen of those have come in the last two years. This is a result of an uptick in time invested on the lake, primarily due to the extended and increased drawdown.

9:32am – First bass and Lake Storey Bass #700 since “modern” record keeping

Confidence Bait Collapse – As noted in the previous paragraph, my thoughts were that I could find plenty of bass around wood cover that would take a liking to a spinnerbait. After one hour, I had three such bass in the boat. Over the next three hours, I would not get another fish on a spinnerbait. In fact, I would only catch one more bass with that fish coming on a flat-sided crankbait. The lack of success on my go to baits left me scrambling and I could not put anything together. I hit many of my spots, but the bass were either not home or not interested.

Winning lures

Fellow Angler Feedback – Just over midway through this outing, I encountered another bass angler who wasn’t having much more success than my creel of four bass at that point. We had a good chat about bass fishing in general as well as covering some specifics on Lake Storey. On this day, he had been pitching a jig or creature bait and had four bass in his creel with the largest in the two-pound range. I’d also tossed these baits in several spots during my time on the water without a nibble and his report did not prompt me to change up my routine. I did throw around a pair of crankbaits as I have seen an angler online reporting great success with the baits both in terms of numbers and size. My offerings consisted of a squarebill, a flat-sided model, and a deep diver with a Bomber Flat A landing my lone crankbait fish. I couldn’t get anything going with those lures, either.

10:00am – Top Bass weighing 1-2 (12″) on a crankbait

Conclusion – Dirty water did not help me as there had been a great deal of rain leading up to this trip. Lake Storey typically has a green hue which was lacking throughout the entire lake. Instead, the water had a brownish tint and got progressively dirtier the farther uplake I progressed. The drawdown also tends to put fish in more predictable locations on or around the cover that would typically be in the 8-10’ foot depth at normal pool. With that said, it seems that my focus on beating the bank meant that many of my fish remained beneath me or behind me.

September 28, 2002 – Happy Anniversary (Julie had to work and could not accompany me on this September 28, 2026 outing)

My intent is to get on the lake once in October to complete my goal of a monthly visit March through October. The precipitation has diminished as I write this report in mid-October, so I am hoping that the lake will trend towards a more natural clarity. In addition, I aim to spend a fair amount of my time probing some deeper water than I typically fish. We’ll see how it works out. Talk to you later. Troy

This outing started out with the goal of boosting a pool into double digits. If that goal was attained, the next step was to hop back a couple of pools to a spot that already had a ten-pound limit but that I had not fished for over two years. Kind of a change of scenery thing and a break from the double-digit quest. Well, a good start got me thinking that it might be my lucky day and I made a change in plans. Read on for the rest of the story.

Winning lures

Stats
Date: September 26
Location: Hennepin Canal (3 pools)
Time: 7:25-8:55am, 9:30-10:30am, 10:40am-12:25pm
Totals: 11 bass
Weather: Partly cloudy to sunny/breezy, 53-65F
Water temperature: Not available
Lures: War Eagle Spinnerbait (white/chartreuse) with BPS double tail trailer (Houdini) – 8 bass, Booyah Buzz Buzzbait (black) – 3 bass
Top Bass: 2-12 (Spinnerbait)
Top 5 Weight: 11-1 (2-12,2-4,2-1,2-0,2-0)

Notes and Nonsense

8:04am – Top Bass Spot One weighing 2-1 (16″) on a spinnerbait

Spot One – First stop was a pool that I was visiting for the fourth time this year and featured a starting Top 5 Weight of 9-10 (2-5,1-15,1-13,1-13,1-12). Fifteen minutes into casting, a 2-0 on a spinnerbait provided a boost of four ounces to get me tantalizingly close to my mark at 9-14. Just over twenty minutes later, the same spinnerbait fooled a 2-1 to push my weight to 10-2. Mission accomplished and a dilemma on the prospect of leaving a good bite to visit another pool. I hung around for another half hour before leaving the spot. An hour and a half had resulted in a total of five bass with a daily Top 5 weight of 8-2.

9:33am – Top Bass Spot Two weighing 2-12 (16″) on a spinnerbait

Spot Two – Feeling lucky, I opted for a change from my initial plan and headed for the two remaining spots that lacked a ten-pound Top 5. Starting weight on this pool was 6-7 but only featured four bass. Therefore, the entire weight of my first “keeper” would be added to the creel. On my fourth cast, I found that bite and it would represent the largest bass I’d caught in the pool weighing 2-12. With every ounce of the fish contributing to the Top 5, the weight bumped up to 9-3. Twenty minutes later, I added a 1-9 for a two-ounce boost and followed up with a 2-4 to push the weight to 10-3. With the double-digit bag in the books, I headed for the other side of the tube to see if I could post a trifecta of successes.

11:54am – Top Bass Spot Three weighing 2-0 (15″) on a spinnerbait

Spot Three – Similar to Spot Two, this was my second visit to the pool, and I had yet to fill my five fish limit. Starting weight consisted of only two bass totaling 3-2. Thus, the full weights of the first three “keepers” would provide a boost. In an hour and forty-five minutes, I found those three bites, one of which established a new Top Bass for the pool weighing 2-0. The others tipped the scales at 1-6 and 1-7 to bump the Top Weight for the area to 7-15, short of my goal but a solid boost.

 

As Meatloaf sang, “Two out of three ain’t bad.” The results leave only Spot Three lacking a ten-pound Top 5 among the twenty-five pools on my checklist. In tallying the daily results, a batch of five bass at two pounds or better is a winner and the total weight of those five fish at 11-1 meets my ultimate daily goal in exceeding double digits. I’ll take that any day on the water. Talk to you later. Troy