After a struggle on The Canal in the morning, I made a quick evening trip to the Knox County strip mines following a visit to my folks. For this outing, I opted to invest my entire time on one lake to maximize fishing and minimize walking.

4:49 pm – An mmbitious bass at 7″ caught on a 5″ Senko

Stats
Date: September 15
Location: Knox County public strip pit
Time: 4:45pm-7:15pm
Totals: 42 bass, 1 green sunfish
Weather: Partly cloudy/breezy, 80F
Lures: Whopper Plopper 110 (bone) – 20 bass, Spro Flappin Frog 65 (natural red) – 12 bass, 5” Yamamoto Senko (PB&J or blue pearl/silver flake) – 10 bass, 1 green sunfish
Top Bass: 2-7 (Whopper Plopper)
Top 5 Weight: 5-2 (2-7,1-8,1-3)

Winning lures

Bonus species with a feisty green sunfish

Notes and Nonsense

Maiden Lake – Eleven years ago, I named this spot Maiden Lake as it was the first lake that I ever fished on the property. The upside of the lake is that it is only a short walk from a parking area. The downside is that I have difficulty finding quality bites. Coming into this trip, I had landed one hundred and one bass on the water but only eight were “keepers” (an 8% keeper rate). My Top 5 total stood at 10-3 prior to this outing, anchored by a Top Bass of 3-10 that was landed last year. Here’s the thing though. My brother, Brent, has landed a 5-4, 4-0, and 3-9 from the lake so there are definitely good bites in there, I just can’t find them.

5:45pm – Top Bass #2 at 1-8 (14.5″) on a topwater frog

Quantity Over Quality (Again) – Yet again, I racked up big numbers with forty-two bass in two and a half hours. Yet again, a small percentage were “keepers” with only three bass at 12” or better (a 7% keeper rate).

5:56pm- Top Bass #3 at 1-3 (13″) on a topwater frog

One Good One – Any bass that I land at two-pounds or better is what I call a “good one.” As I reeled in little bass after little bass to start my evening, I still felt there were a couple good ones that would show up. Well, at least I was halfway correct as bass number thirty-four of the evening tipped the scales at 2-7.

6:44pm – Top Bass at 2-7 (17″) on a Whopper Plopper

Forty-two bass on this outing pushed my yearly total to 493 bass. My all-time best year of bass was 2022 when I landed 553. I hadn’t really thought about a shot at the record until wrapping up this outing but now I’ve got my eyes on the prize. I fished the following day in an effort to boost my total on what is not such a numbers lake. Stay tuned for the first Lake Storey report of the year. Talk to you later. Troy