Somehow it was exactly a month since my last fishing trip (July 24) when I set out for my first August bass of the year. I was overdue and hoping that the bass had missed me.

Stats
Date: August 24
Location: Knox County public strip pits (4 lakes)
Time: 6:05am-11:50am (4.75 hours)
Totals: 20 bass
Weather: Sunny to partly cloudy/breezy to windy, 55-68F
Lures: Spro Flappin Frog 65 (nasty shad) – 14 bass, Whopper Plopper 110 – 5 bass, 3.8″ Bass Pro Shops Speed Shad (K’s Magic) with 3/16 oz Owner Flashy Swimmer jighead – 1 bass
Top Bass: 2-12 Frog
Top 5 Weight: 10-9 (2-12,2-3,2-0,1-14,1-12)

Starting lineup

Tune of the Trip
“In The Dark” – Billy Squier (1981)
As the days get shorter, it gets easier to get to the fishing hole before dawn. I left home at 4:20am and was tying lures on in the parking lot on the tailgate by the light of a cell phone. The clear night sky was also pretty cool on the drive, with an alignment of planets and Orion to the east/southeast.

My pic doesn’t really do it justice as I should have snapped it before sunrise

Notes and Nonsense

Topwater Treat – Nineteen of the twenty bass on this outing were fooled by topwater lures (fourteen on a frog and five on propbait). The sunrise topwater bite lived up to my expectations and the continuing bite throughout the morning was icing on the cake. Bright sun did not deter the bass and some chop on the water was just what the doctor ordered as those bass prowled both the flats and the deeper edges of shoreline vegetation.

8:17am – Top Bass at 2-12 (18″) on a frog

 

Wading the Weeds – The area that I fished does not get much attention in terms of upkeep for angler access. And that’s just fine. While I am not entirely anti-social, it is kind of fun to fish and never see another soul. Although with weeds as high as my head in some places, I would not know anyone was around anyway. It takes ample effort to get to most of the fishing holes but as I lipped the 2-12 for my first quality catch of the morning, I said aloud on video, “Well, that makes it worth the wade through the weeds.”

11:48am – Top Bass Runner up at 2-3 (16″) on a frog on the final cast of the trip

Last Cast Bass – I had a plan to meet Julie in Woodhull to pick up the boys and take them to my folks for a visit and watch the Cubs game. My deadline to leave the lot was 12:30pm. At 10:50am, I hit what was to be my final spot and still needed one more quality bite to push my Top 5 for the day into double digits (my weight was sitting at 9-5). At 10:53am, I got a 2-0 to boost my weight to 9-14 but a near hour drought followed. Luck was on my side as I got the fianl bite that I needed at 11:48am, a bass weighing 2-3 that pushed my Top 5 Weight to 10-9. Having a fifteen-minute walk back to my truck, I elected to make that my final cast of a productive outing.

Winning lures

 

The bass treated me well after leaving them alone for a month. Throw in a good visit with my folks and a 4-3 Cubs victory on the road to sweep a three-game series from the Angels and it was quite a Sunday. Talk to you later. Troy

I headed back to the Knox County strip mines for a second straight day on the heels of my birthday trip. These trips can be a workout but I still had plenty in the tank and I was eager to get off the grid, get away from the grind, and create some more fish stories.

6:43am – Top Bass at 3-5 (19″) on a frog

Stats

Date: July 24
Location: Knox County public strip pits (two lakes)
Time: 5:50am-8:35am,9:30am-11:30am
Totals: 19 bass
Weather: Partly cloudy to sunny/windy, 75-89F
Lures: Spro Flappin Frog 65 (nasty shad) – 13 bass, 3.8″ Bass Pro Shops Speed Shad (K’s Magic) with 3/16 oz Owner Flashy Swimmer jighead – 5 bass, 7″ Berkley Power Worm (tequila sunrise) on an Owner 3/16 oz. Shaky Head – 1 bass
Top Bass: 3-5 Frog
Top 5 Weight: 11-5 (3-5,2-13,1-12,1-12,1-11)

Starting lineup

Tune of the Trip
Changes – David Bowie (1972)
“So the days float through my eyes but still the days seem the same.”
I heard this one driving down to and around the Victoria, IL strip mines. I couldn’t help but do some reminiscing as I have been prowling around the area for close to forty years. So much has changed on so many levels, but it’s still fishing and a chance to recharge the batteries.

7:54am – Top Bass Runner-up at 2-13 on a swimbait

Notes and Nonsense

Lake One History – My first stop was a lake that hasn’t gotten a whole lot of my attention over the years with only four visits since 2011. However, this trip marked my second shot this year. Oddly, one of my most memorable fish stories on this lake was a day when I did not catch a single fish. Quite a few years ago, when my oldest daughter, Helena, was in grade school I hit the lake for an outing after getting her to school. I drove a half an hour to the lake, dragged my boat to the water, and was ready to start casting when my phone rang. Helena was sick and needed picked up. So, I rowed back to my launching point, loaded up, and headed home. Been a while as she is now married and a long way from “home” in California.

Lake One Results – Early morning, overcast skies, and a bit of chop on the water set up well for topwater frog fishing and the bass were onboard with the lure selection. Ten bass were landed on the frog including my all-time Top Bass for the lake at 3-5. In addition, a swimbait produced a solid 2-13 on a deep weedline. All told, this trip featured five of the top eleven bass I have ever landed from this lake making for a daily Top 5 weight of 11-5.

Lake One Top 5 Update – My all-time Top 5 for this lake sat at 9-15, meaning that I needed a one-ounce boost to reach double digits. That one ounce would require landing a 1-14 to knock out a 1-13 as the lightest bass in my creel. My 3-5 (frog) and 2-13 (swimbait) provided quite a boost and the current Top 5 stands at 12-6.

11:09am – Top Bass #5 (tie) at 1-11 on a frog

Lake Two History – Thirty-five years ago, when I first fished this lake, it was part of one long, winding narrow strip pit. Over the years, a walking bridge was built over a constricted part of the lake allowing easier walk-in access to a batch of interior lakes. Eventually, a land bridge was constructed, and the one lake is now divided into two separate bodies of water connected only by a shallow culvert.

Winning lures

Lake Two Results – The frog bite was not as impressive as I moved to the second lake at mid-morning. Really no surprise there, as the clouds dissipating and relatively clear water did not present ideal conditions. In addition, the lily pad growth had exploded to cover the entire shoreline up to nearly thirty feet from the bank. The key was to find pockets or channels for the frog or to work a worm or swimbait around the deep weed edges. I caught enough to keep me interested but nothing to boost my Top 5 weight for the day.

Lake Two Top 5 Update – A 1-11 (frog) and a 1-4 (frog) boosted the lake Top 5 from 5-10 to 6-9 by culling a pair of one-pound fish. Always a success when getting a boost but still plenty of work to do to hit double digits.

 

A second consecutive successful morning on the water with back-to-back days breaking the daily ten-pound Top 5 mark. Not bad for the dog days of summer and what would be the end of my July fishing. Time will tell when I get to hit the water in August but stay tuned in the meantime for a Trip Tunes post. Talk to you later. Troy

I took a vacation day on my birthday to fish in the morning and then have family time later in the day. On such summer days, I get up around 3:30am to finish a few pieces of preparation with the aim of reaching the water right around sunrise. I get a solid morning of fishing and return home by about 1:00pm to take a nap and enjoy family time in the evening.

Stats
Date: July 23
Location: Knox County public strip pits (two lakes)
Time: 5:40am-11:45am
Totals: 15 bass
Weather: Partly cloudy to sunny/windy, 74-89F
Lures: 7″ Berkley Power Worm (tequila sunrise) on an Owner 3/16 oz. Shaky Head – 10 bass, Spro Flappin Frog 65 (nasty shad) – 5 bass
Top Bass: 3-6 Frog
Top 5 Weight: 10-6 (3-6,2-4,2-3,1-5,1-4)

Starting Lineup

Tune of the Trip
Iron Man – Black Sabbath (1971)
“Has he lost his mind?
Can he see or is he blind?
Can he walk at all
Or if he moves will he fall?”
As expected, there was a spate of songs on the radio in tribute to Ozzy Osbourne considering his passing the previous day. The first line above applied to being out in the heat and nearly undertaking a lengthy portage before coming to my senses. The last two lines hit home at the end of the trip after dragging the boat back to the truck. A nap was in order once I returned home.

6:05am – First bass at 2-4 (16.5″) on a Spro frog

Notes and Nonsense

Ten-Pound Top 5 – My top goal when I hit the water is to post a double-digit Top 5 (five heaviest bass weighing ten pounds or better). I had hit the mark on an April 19 trip (10-4) but otherwise it had been close but no cigar on May 16 (9-15) and July 12 (9-11). For this trip I was able to reach the mark again with a birthday creel weighing 10-6. Which just so happens to be the heaviest bag landed on July 23.

8:21am – Top Bass at 3-6 (20″) on a Spro frog and the all-time birthday bass runner-up

Top Birthday Bass – These days, I like to get on the water for a while on my birthday to just kind of get away from it all. And, because I just like to fish, I guess my birthday is a day like any other day in that regard. Several years, Dad and I would hit the creek chasing catfish, carp, or whatever else would bite a dew worm. In more recent years, the birthday trip has been strictly bass fishing. Anyway, I have birthday fishing data dating back to a July 23, 1985 bass landed at Lake Bracken. Among those birthday bass, the 3-6 fish landed this year represents the Top Birthday Bass runner-up to a 3-8 caught at Little John’s Moose/Elk Lake on July 23, 2017.

Winning lures

Top 5 Update
The 3-6 culls a 3-4 from what I call Discovery Lake bumping the all-time Top 5 on the water to an impressive 19-8.

Shaking Things Up – I tried a new presentation called a “Shaky Head” worm and it was my top producer of the day. Now, I am a creature of habit so time will tell if this approach gets further use on the strip pits, but it seemed like a good fit on paper and did not disappoint when put into practice.

Birthday bass thumb means it was a successful morning on the water

More to come with another strip mine report from the following day but I will conclude with a thought that was running through my head at one point on this outing. I had visions of significant portage to reach a remote lake, and I scouted it out at one hundred and thirty-six steps through tall grass, uneven terrain, and a stand of shoreline reeds. Throw in full sun and temperatures pushing ninety degrees and I wavered a bit. After roughly thirty steps of dragging the boat and gear, I wised up and turned back around. As I eased the boat back into the main lake, I heard Nemo’s dad, Marlin, chiding me, “You think you can do these things, but you just can’t, Nemo.” Granted, it was a little hard to take but solid advice on a hot, July day. Perhaps another time, perhaps not.

Here’s to another trip around the sun. Talk to you later, Troy