Back in April of 2009, public access opened up at a spot along the Illinois River southeast of Lewistown, IL. That spot, known as The Emiquon Preserve, then proceeded to produce bass catches like I had never seen before and doubt I ever will again.

For various reasons, the last time I fished Emiquon was back in July 2013. But during the four years when me and my fishing partners were frequenting that crazy fishing hole, we never left without a story or two or three. In fact, this posting marks the 36th submission covering the spot and we only fished the area for four years.

Today’s banner picture from August 2011 perfectly sums up the insanity of the bite down there as the shot shows my brother, Brent, holding the three bass that came aboard simultaneously. He’s got one on each treble of his lipless crankbait and I handed him mine for the photo shoot. After all, why waste time passing the camera back and forth when we should be casting?

For as I described in a posting called “Emiquon – Windows” back in May 2011 at another blogging gig, there are times down there when it’s like a switch is turned on and the bass just go nuts. Hence, three in the boat at one time.

But that’s not all…

I could write all day folks, but I’ll stick to the abridged version so you all can get back to something productive.

Once upon a time, at Emiquon…

I was on my third spinner bait at the end of the day as the bass are not only crazy but also tough.

I caught my personal best bass.

Dad and I spent 3 frustrating hours tracking down a replacement trolling motor and still wound up with 91 bass in 3 hours of casting.

I quit fishing just so I could watch Brent put on a show en route to his 98 bass total on his first visit.

I could hear the bass hit our lipless crankbaits before we ever felt the strike.

An old bait got a new name, The Emiquon Special (pictured above), after Brent worked ‘em over.

Brent and I assisted a fellow fisherman with one crankbait treble in a bass and the other in his thumb. The guy was still fishing several hours later when we headed home, hook barb still lodged in his thumb. Emiquon does that kind of stuff to an angler.

My wife, Julie and I, called it quits after 40 bass as the noon time July temperature had soared to 104 degrees (last bass pictured above at 12:21pm). But those silly bass were still biting, just not right.

And yeah, in the interest of full disclosure, on my first visit I wound up as possibly the only angler who has ever been shut out on the fishing hole. Extenuating circumstance, called wind, which is downright dangerous down there.

Enough for now as there are still a couple more pics in the blog banner series that pertain to Emiquon for another day. Talk to you later. Troy