2024 established a new BYOB (Best Year of Bass) mark with 626 largemouth bass landed. Today’s post is the first of a collection of submissions that delve into various details of those catches.
2024 First Bass – March 3 at 8:55am on the Hennepin Canal
2024 Bass Stats
Bass = 626
Outings = 61 (ranging from 1.00-hour to 8.25-hour trips)
Bodies of water = 47
Bass Fishing Hours = 220.50
Bass/hour = 2.84
First Bass of the Year: March 3 at 8:55am on the Hennepin Canal
Last Bass of the Year: November 17 at 3:10pm on the Hennepin Canal
Comments: Forty-seven bodies of water make me seem like quite the bass fishing vagabond. However, the truth is not as epic as it may seem. Twenty-three spots represent different pools on the Hennepin Canal covering Rock Island, Henry, and Bureau Counties. Twenty-three other spots were Knox County public strip pits. And the other fishing hole was good, old Lake Storey.
First Bass Video below
Top 5 Bass (Weight, Location, Date, Lure)
3-10 Hennepin Canal 9/29 Frog
3-6 Hennepin Canal 9/29 Frog
3-3 Knox County public strip pit 7/20 Frog
3-2 Knox County public strip pit 7/13 Senko
3-0 Hennepin Canal 6/29 Spinnerbait
Top 5 Total Weight: 16-5 (3-10,3-6,3-3,3-2,3-0)
2024 Last Bass – November 17 at 3:10pm on the Hennepin Canal
Access
Bank Bass (Northerner boots, hiking, and biking) = 232 bass
Little Boat Bass (over 40-year-old 8’ johnboat) = 314 bass
Big Boat Bass (1987 Bass Tracker Pro 17) = 80 bass
Comments: Nothing out of the ordinary here with eighty-seven percent of my bass coming via hiking, biking, and rowing. The remaining bass were caught on Lake Storey while fishing out of Dad’s Bass Tracker.
Last Bass Video below
Public vs. Private
Public Water = 626 bass
Private Water Bass = 0 bass
Comments: As best I can tell, this is the first year that all my catches have come from public water. Looking back over the logs, 2009 and 2022 were lean on private water catches but did include a few. I do need to invest more in my Little John Conservation Club membership as I am in the neighborhood when I fish the Knox County strip mines. However, there is something rewarding about catching public water fish where everyone can take their shot. Many of my public strip mine fish require considerable effort in hiking or dragging a boat and one of these years I will have to scale back on such adventures. But so far so good, and I intend to keep chasing those fish in 2025.
Next up is a breakdown of the locations where I caught my bass. Talk to you later. Troy