I got wind that some of my Knox County public strip ground had received a “hair cut” making bank access much more angler friendly. That looked too good to pass up even though hiking and biking is getting to be more of a workout with each passing year. Read on for the recap.

Stats
Date: September 6
Location: Knox County public strip pits (7 lakes)
Time: 2:05pm-7:25pm
Totals: 14 bass
Weather: Sunny/very windy
Lures: Z-Man Chatterbait (sexy shad) with a BPS Speed Shad trailer (pro blue) – 7 bass, Strike King Red Eye Shad (red craw) – 2 bass, 5″ Yamasenko wacky rig (blue pearl/black hologram flake) – 2 bass, Spro Flappin Frog 65 (nasty shad) – 1 bass, Whopper Plopper 110 (bone) – 1 bass, 7″ Berkley Power Worm (tequila sunrise) on an Owner 3/16 oz. Shaky Head – 1 bass
Top Bass: 1-5 Senko
Top 5 Weight: 5-8 (1-5,1-2,1-1,1-0,1-0)

Winning Lures

3:40pm – Top Bass Runner-up at 1-2 (13.5″) on lipless crankbait

Tune of the Trip
The End of the Innocence – Don Henley (1989)
“We’ll sit and watch the clouds roll by and the tall grass waves in the wind.”
Thanks to some groundwork by the site crew, a great deal of the bank vegetation had been obliterated. Instead of watching the reeds lining the shore waving in the wind and wishing I could get to the water, much of the bank was wide open.

For many years, these shorelines have been completely inaccessible

Notes and Nonsense

Landscaping – Much has changed over the thirty-five years that I have roamed the Knox County strip mines. Population dynamics, new fishing holes, drained fishing holes, improved access, and nature allowed to run wild are among the observed changes. Occasionally, some changes occur that are a boon to hiking anglers. This year such an improvement is the clearing of shoreline weeds, reeds, and brush in some locations. Access to the banks of several lakes has opened to levels not seen since the 1990s. Kudos to the site staff in looking out for us anglers (and a fellow strip mine angler for putting in a request).

Haven’t had a backlash as ugly as the one on this day that cost me half of my spool

Professional Overrun – I favor a baitcaster when it comes to bass fishing although I do pack along a couple spinning combos for more finesse-oriented presentations. But no matter how long you have wielded a baitcaster (just over forty years in my case), you are going to experience backlash (or fancily referred to as “professional overrun”). Heavy winds got me on this day as my frog got too high on a cast and fouled my spool bigtime. In fact, I had to cut the mess out, strip all the line off, and put what was salvageable back on the reel. Fortunately, I was in the middle of nowhere, so no one witnessed this ritual of shame. Or heard a few bad words even though I am not much for profanity. If you are a bass angler, I suppose you have been there as well.

4:42pm – Top Bass at 1-5 (14.5″) on a Senko

Missing Bass – Every once in a while when I review my GoPro footage from a fishing trip, I find a missing bass. On the water, I make notes on my phone for each catch as a temporary log which is then entered in more detail in a spiral notebook and Access database (yes, I know there are fishing log apps, but I am old and a creature of habit). In the case of this outing, I failed to record a chatterbait catch from 6:01pm. As it is not the first time such a logging error has occurred, I suspect that I have actually caught a few more than the 7,774 “meticulously” documented largemouth bass since 1997.

Fatigue in the Fifties – It’s strange to think that I am much closer to sixty than fifty. When thinking back to the fact that I first started fishing these waters in my early twenties, much has changed in addition to the landscape. I covered over four miles while peeking at ten different bodies of water and by the time that I wandered far from the parking lot, I was already feeling beat. One goes in with the realization that one must make his way back out. I was tired and clumsy as I fished with inaccurate casts and was occasionally out of tune with my presentations. I was tired and sore when I got back to my truck. I was tired and stiff after my hour drive home. I was restless and fighting off cramps as I lay in bed that night. But I was back on the water two days later, feeling only mildly refreshed yet resolved to stand in a boat for eight hours. That’s another story.

Fourteen bass and nothing real big but a rewarding hike and bike to take advantage of the enhanced bank access. Often, as I sit in my truck or nurse my sore body after such a stunt, I ponder a “farewell” tour for some of these lakes. Eventually, I get over it but one of these days…Talk to you later. Troy