I am definitely feeling the impending end of my fishing year as we head into the home stretch. My annual aim is to end with a November bass and folks, it ain’t that far away. In the meantime I was able to work out back to back mid-October days on the water. Day One was reported earlier this week and read on for my Day Two quest to beef up my Top 5 weight as it has been a tough year for me to find big bites.
11:07am First bass, on the board but hoping they get bigger
Stats
Date: October 14, 2019
Location: Knox Co. IL private strip mines (2 lakes)
Time: 10:50am-3:00pm (3.25 hours fishing, the rest relocating)
Weather: Sunny/calm to breezy
Air Temp: 48-52F
Water Temp: not available
Totals: 8 bass, 1 crappie
Lures
Zoom Baby Brush Hog (watermelon seed) – 4 bass, Strike King Red Eye Shad (orange craw) – 2 bass, Booyah Blade spinnerbait (snow white shad) – 2 bass
Top Bass: 2-11 (Spinnerbait)
Top 5 Weight (only 4 at 12” or better): 8-8 (2-11,2-9,2-1,1-3)
11:53am 17.5″ 2-9 Zoom Baby Brush Hog
12:50pm 13.5″ 1-3 Zoom Baby Brush Hog
Notes and Nonsense
Accident – Every once in a while as a bass angler you happen into a bite from a different species. Prior to this trip, my lone “accident” was a stout bluegill that took a liking to one of my crankbaits. This time around it was a nice 12” crappie that grabbed my Baby Brush Hog as I jigged it around a downed tree. I’ve caught the occasional crappie on a crankbait, jerkbait or spinnerbait but I believe this is the first one on such a creature type bait.
An interesting accident
No need to pack a ton of tackle, even though I usually do
Arsenal – No surprises here with the trio of lures that fooled my fish. My hope was that I could get away with the rapid pace of a lipless crankbait or the moderate speed of a spinnerbait or crankbait but I just could not find a consistent bite in the regular right places on my first stop. Instead, it took some slowing down with a Texas rigged creature bait to fool some fish.
2:05pm 17″ 2-1 Spinnerbait
A Day (or two) Early – The old saying references being “a day late and a dollar short” but in this case it sounds as if I would have been better off delaying my Monday trip until Hump Day. Need proof? Well, my buddy, Jim Junk, reported in with a Wednesday afternoon/evening outing where he “recorded 10 bass over 2 pounds and landed over a dozen others…hitting spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and lipless cranks. Actually think they just attacking anything and anywhere.” Another flurry as daylight faded resulted in “5 more bass landed on a chatterbait in about a half hour.” Definitely what one would call a fall feeding frenzy and always cool when you are there when conditions are just right.
2:28pm Top Bass 18″ 2-11 Spinnerbait
For the Birds – Overall, I managed a reasonable haul and bumped up my Top 5 a few ounces but the outing just didn’t live up to my initial expectations. Once again, that darned sun got the best of me. I know a guy shouldn’t complain about a sunny day, especially in October, but sunny conditions just don’t lend themselves to a good bite on these fishing holes. And what really stinks is the fact that I am now locked out of roughly 50 public strip pits because of the dang geese. No offense to any waterfowlers but such closures have always been a thorn in my side.
“No bass for you!” as October 13 was actually the last day to fish Snakeden Hollow, game over for 2019.
Okay, I’ll shut this one down before I come off as a bit too whiny. In the end, I did have several good spots to fish and just couldn’t fool any big bites this time around…or for most of 2019 for that matter. I’m not done quite yet though as Lake Storey beckoned this weekend. Full report next week. Talk to you later. Troy