I was able to visit Lake Storey twice in September for my annual shot at the fall drawdown (one solo trip and one with Brent). All told, we had landed twenty-six bass in thirteen and a half hours on the water. Nearly two bass per hour isn’t bad for Lake Storey but I still felt that we didn’t meet our expectations. There was only one way to fix that, head back for round three.

10:30am – First bass at 1-0 (12.5″) and only five minutes into casting

Stats
Date: October 12
Location: Lake Storey, Knox County, IL
Time: 10:25am-4:10pm
Totals: 17 bass
Weather: Sunny to partly cloudy/breezy to windy, 63-75F
Water temperature: 60-63F
Lures: Z-Man Chatterbait (sexy shad) – 13 bass, War Eagle spinnerbait (chartreuse/white) – 2 bass, Strike King Red Eye Shad (sexy shad) – 2 bass
Top Bass: 2-8 Chatterbait
Top 5 Weight: 9-3 (2-8,1-15,1-12,1-8,1-8)

Winning Lures

Notes and Nonsense

Compliments to the Chef – A shout out to fellow angler and storyteller, Chef Todd Kent, as I finally decided to buy into the Lake Storey chatterbait bite. Chef Todd has long endorsed chatterbaits and shared some solid catches on the lure from Lake Storey over the years. I’ve never been a chatterbait fan, just catching a few here or there on the strip mine ledges and flats. But on this day, I opted to start with a chatterbait on one rod and never took it off as the bass provided plenty of positive feedback.

2:38pm – Top Bass at 2-8 (18.5″) on a chatterbait

Juiced – When I head to Lake Storey, I plan to make a full day out of the trip. Typically, I don’t have a set time when I need to be home, so it comes down to what runs out of juice first, me or the boat batteries. The east wind took a toll on the front mount trolling motor battery as I fished my way down the lake taking a direct hit. While the wind was favorable pushing me back to the ramp, I effectively had no boat control after about five and a half hours on the water. It was disappointing to have to call it a day as I’d hoped to get in seven or eight hours of fishing, but it was comforting that the body was still going strong.

One That Got Away – I have noted before that my goals on each trip are as follows: Don’t get shut out, catch a Top 5 (five bass at 12” or longer) and post a Top 5 Weight of ten pounds or better. The latter item came up short, but I believe that I had the fish on that would have given my weight the necessary boost. Shortly before ending the day, I had one on the way to the boat, but it somehow let go of a chatterbait. Initially, I thought that I gave a little slack as I prepared to reach behind me for the dipnet. However, the video clip below does not seem to back up such a mistake. Instant replay is fun that way if you don’t mind having to relive the one the got away. If it had tipped the scales at 2-5 or better, I would have hit the ten-pound weight goal. I did get a look at the fish, and I am certain it would have made the mark. As I often say, “That’s fishing.”

 

As the Old Saying Goes – Adages are a fun part of language as their expression of conventional wisdom can talk out of both sides of the mouth, so to speak. For example, “birds of a feather flock together”, yet “opposites attract.” And so it was with this fishing trip as the forecast correctly indicated that I would be greeted with an east wind. Anglers who have been around for a while know that “wind from the east, fish bite the least”, supposedly. But I had vacation day from work and the air temperatures were supposed to hit seventy, so it was all systems go regardless of the wind. Instead of fretting about the wind from the east, I subscribed to another of my favorite fishing sayings. “The best time to go fishing is anytime you can.” And it all turned out just fine.

 

Seventeen bass on a Lake Storey outing is a rousing success for my level of fishing. When adding them to my database it pushed my 2023 total to 421 bass. As noted in the previous post, I am shooting for 447 bass this year. When coupled with last year’s personal best yearly total of 553 bass, it would give me a grand total of 1,000 bass over the last two years. Thanks to The Canal this past weekend, I’ve already chipped away at the 26 bass that were lacking.

In addition to The Canal report, I have a follow-up Lake Storey post in the works as it is hard to say it all in just one submission. Stay tuned and talk to you later. Troy