I made two Sunday stops on the Knox County strip mines, starting with Brent and finishing with a solo shot. A fast start did not translate into a strong finish, but we got a few decent ones while the early morning bite was on.

Stats
Date: May 25
Location: Knox County public strip pits (3 lakes)
Time: 6:30am-11:50am (4.00 hours fishing)
Totals: 23 bass (Troy – 14, Brent – 9) NOTE: I fished an extra 90 minutes
Weather: Overcast/windy, 53-56F
Lures: Spro Flappin Frog 65 (redear or leopard) – 14 bass, Z-Man Chatterbait (sexy shad) – 5 bass, Whopper Plopper 110 (bone) – 3 bass, 5” Yamasenko weighted wacky rig (blue pearl/black hologram) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 2-9 Troy (Frog), 2-8 Brent (Frog)
Top 5 Weight: 9-11 (2-9,2-8,2-0,1-5,1-5)

Troy starting lineup, all produced except the lipless crankbait

Tune of the Trip
Welcome to the Jungle – Guns N’ Roses (1987)
As we near June, the hike to some of the walk-in strip mines gets more interesting. Taller weeds, abundant thistles, ample ticks, and hidden gullies make for tough decisions when choosing a destination.

7:00am – Top Bass at 2-9 (17.5″) on a frog, edging out Brent’s Top Bass by one ounce

Sent Brent a screenshot of my weight as proof that I had an official 2-9 compared to his 2-8

Notes and Nonsense

Chilling Out – At 6:30am, it sure did not feel like Memorial Day weekend and my fingers were bordering on numb. Overcast skies and wind resulted in the “feels like” temperature reading at 47 degrees. And it never got noticeably warmer. Brent commented that when the wind hit the water surface just right it would cause a warm blast as the water was warmer than the air. This year continues to be odd in terms of weather.

Stop One – My first cast bass of the morning resulted in a bass which is sometimes seen as a bad omen. After all, the bass/cast percentage will certainly not remain one hundred percent. For the next thirty minutes or so, the bite stayed hot, but I only landed one other bass from a total of seven strikes on the frog. Such is frog fishing though as hooksets and the aim of the bass can suffer in weedy water. Brent had better hookup success in landing four bass on the frog in addition to fooling five others on a chatterbait.

7:20am – Brent’s Top Bass at 2-8 on a frog

Stop Two – After hitting a pair of lakes, Brent called it a morning while I stuck around as I had some time before heading to my folks to catch the Cubs 12:40pm start. I ditched the boat in favor of a five-minute walk to a productive lake. The lake is odd, however, as there is an incredible amount of little bass mixed in with the occasional quality catch. As I write this report, my largemouth bass total for the year stands at 132 bass and exactly half of them (66 bass) have come from this lake. Unfortunately, only three of the bass have been “keepers” at 12” or better. Those three bass weighed in at 4-14(20.5”), 3-13 (20”), and 1-3(14”). Every other bass measured between 7.5” to 11.5”. Over the last dozen years, Brent and I have posted an impressive all-time Top 5 from the lake of 22-9 (5-4,4-14,4-10,4-0,3-13). But we’ve had to weed through several hundred small bass along the way.

While this trip did not live up to the quality we were looking for, we did land a decent number of bass. The day ended on a good note as the Cubs staged an exciting comeback to defeat the Reds 11-8. Dad and I were a little frustrated at times, but we hung in there. I had to laugh though as Mom said that if I hadn’t come to watch the game with them, Dad likely would have had enough and turned them off after the first few innings. I suppose being a Cubs fan will never be easy. Stay tuned for an impressive Top 5 Update tomorrow and talk to you later. Troy