I was back on Lake Storey for the second time in eight days anticipating the water level to be dropping with the onset of the annual fall drawdown. The drawdown is a fisheries management practice that lowers the water level several feet with one of the aims being increased access to prey for the lake’s top predators. Basically, the smaller fish have less places to hide and the larger fish feed up leading to a healthier predator-prey balance. Anyway, the lake was not yet being lowered, which was disappointing but not a game changer. After all, those fish don’t go anywhere, there is just more water volume and places to hide.

9:13am – First bass is Top Bass at 3-6 (19″) on a spinnerbait

Stats
Date: September 8
Location: Lake Storey, Knox County, IL
Time: 8:10am-4:10pm
Totals: 9 bass
Weather: Sunny/breezy to windy, 51-72F
Water temperature: 69-72F
Lures: War Eagle spinnerbait (chartreuse/white) – 5 bass, Strike King Red Eye Shad (sexy shad) – 3 bass, Strike King KVD 2.5 Rattling Squarebill Crankbait (natural pumpkinseed) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 3-6 (Spinnerbait)
Top 5 Weight: 10-1 (3-6,2-1,1-15,1-9,1-2)

Winning Lures

Tune of the Trip
Life in Wartime – Talking Heads (1979)
“The sound of gunfire off in the distance, I’m getting used to it now.”
Occasionally, a Lake Storey fishing trip coincides with police firearm training at the Pistol Range on the lake’s northwest shore. A couple dozen officers unloading all at once makes quite a racket but doesn’t disturb me (or the bass) at all.

Notes and Nonsense

The Most Fished Tree – My first catch of the day was also the Top Bass for the day, a solid specimen measuring 19” and weighing 3-6. It was caught on a spinnerbait while fishing a tree that has been laying along the Lake Storey shoreline as long as I can recall. As a kid in the 1970s, I remember the tree leaning out over the surface of the lake and you could walk out on it if you dared. In the fifty years since, the supporting limbs have deteriorated, and the tree now lays directly on the lake bottom. One could probably walk on it for a step or two without getting wet with the lake at full pool. Not for me though as I am a bit less stable and adventurous at age fifty-eight than at age eight.

This is why you have a backup of your favorite lures

Carry a Spare –I have learned a thing or two about fishing over the years. One nugget of knowledge is to pack along spares of your “confidence” lures in case one gets damaged or lost. My latest “go to” spinnerbait is a War Eagle model that features tandem blades with one being orange. The short story from this outing is that I snagged it on a log, popped it free, it landed in the water near the trolling motor, the line got wrapped in the motor housing, and then the spinnerbait hook snagged on the front of the boat as I lifted the motor. The result was a bent-up bait with one of the blades busted off. Fortunately, I had my spare, and it proceeded to fool two more quality bass weighing 2-1 and 1-15 before the day was done.

What in the name of sasquatch is this creation?

Statistical Goals – As I have noted before, I have a series of three goals to meet when I hit the water.
Goal One – Don’t get shutout (Check! First bass in the boat at 9:13am)
Goal Two – Land five bass at 12” or better (Check! Top 5 established at 2:48pm)
Goal Three – Post a double-digit Top 5 weight (Check! At 3:35pm I reach 10-1)
The chronology of these goals occurred as follows:
8:10am – Launch and begin casting

9:13am- First catch weighs 3-6 (19”) on a spinnerbait

12:08pm – A 1-2 (13.5”) on a spinnerbait pushes my weight total to 4-8

12:50pm – A 1-9 (14”) on a lipless crankbait boosts my weight to 6-1

2:14pm- A 2-1 (16.5”) on a spinnerbait pushes my weight to 8-2

2:48pm – An 0-13 (12”) on a crankbait completes a Top 5 weighing 8-15

3:35pm – A 1-15 (16”) on a spinnerbait knocks out the 0-13 and pushes my Top 5 weight to 10-1

4:10pm – Last cast of a successful day and mission accomplished (thanks for the boat, Dad)

While the lack of a drawdown has been disappointing, my two Lake Storey visits were far from disappointments. In fact, I headed back for more the following week. Stay tuned for that report and talk to you later. Troy

I look forward to fishing the Lake Storey fall drawdown each year but this year I opted for a day of advance casting while the lake was still at full pool. It was a daring move on a Labor Day weekend Sunday, but the crowd wasn’t too bad, and the bass were in a good mood to start the morning. Unfortunately, they got stubborn later. Read on for the rest of the story.

Starting Lineup

Stats
Date: August 31
Location: Lake Storey, Knox County, IL
Time: 6:50am-1:35pm
Totals: 10 bass
Weather: Partly cloudy/breezy to windy, 57-73F
Water temperature: 78F
Lures: Strike King Red Eye Shad (sexy shad) – 5 bass, War Eagle spinnerbait (chartreuse/white) – 3 bass, Booyah Buzzbait (snow white shad)- 1 bass, Googan Squad Gridiron Jig (rotten pumpkin) with Net Bait B Bug (natural craw swirl) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 1-14 (Spinnerbait)
Top 5 Weight: 8-0 (1-14,1-12,1-8,1-7,1-7)

6:53am – Top Bass #4 at 1-7 (14″) on a buzzbait

Tune of the Trip
“Love on the Rocks” – Neil Diamond (1980)
I do like Neil Diamond, but this tune certainly does not crack my Top 5 from his catalog. However, some of “the rocks” at Lake Storey were a big winner on this trip. More details in the notes below.

7:17am – Top Bass #1 at 1-14 (16″) on a spinnerbait

Notes and Nonsense

Frog False Start – One of the lures in my starting lineup was a Spro Flappin Frog. Leading up to this trip, I had a game plan to head immediately to a weedy flat after launching, saving some other areas in proximity to the ramp for later in the day. Upon arriving at the flat, however, I was greeted with absolutely no surface weeds. As a result, I never made a single cast with the frog. Instead, I picked up a buzzbait and was greeted with my first catch of the morning on my third cast. It was the lone topwater catch of the day.

7:29am – Top Bass #3 at 1-8 (14.5″) on a spinnerbait

Boom and Bust – Defined as an “alternation of prosperity and depression”, boom and bust was an accurate description of my day on the water. The depression part only related to a decrease in bites, not in attitude as it is tough to get too down even when the fish quit biting. At 9:01am, I landed my eighth bass of the morning, barely two hours after launching. For the next four and a half hours, I would only fool two more fish. I altered presentations, continued to hit proven spots, and worked them thoroughly from different angles when possible but continued to come up empty. That’s fishing.

Rockpile bass are noted above with four from one spot (time/length/weight/lure)

Love on the Rocks – According to the Neil Diamid song cited above, “Love on the rocks, ain’t no big surprise.” Lake Storey features several rockpiles scattered along its length and they are always worth some casts. My favorite and most consistent of those spots consists of a length of rubble and cinder blocks sitting about sixty feet off the bank on an expansive flat. On this trip, that area produced four bass in the span of fifteen minutes on a lipless crankbait. One of my favorite “tricks” for fishing this spot is a change of retrieve direction. After working both perpendicular and parallel to the cover with multiple casts, I move past the area and then cast back to it in parallel fashion from the opposite direction. This approach frequently produces a bite from a fish that ignored my prior casts. And right on time, it worked again on this trip as noted in the 8:44am log entry above.

8:38am – Top Bass #2 at 1-12 (15″) on a lipless crankbait

9:01am – Top Bass #5 at 1-7 (14″) on a spinnerbait

A double-digit haul is a decent trip for me on Lake Storey, but good bites were elusive. All bites are “good” but my definition of a “good one” is a two-pound or better fish as that is what it takes to meet my daily goal of a ten-pound Top 5. I came up short this time, but I intend to take another shot or two as the annual fall drawdown is set to kick in after the Labor Day holiday. As September dawns, I view the remaining months as the home stretch of another year on the water. Here’s hoping there’s some more “good ones” out there. 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

On the heels of a successful July 12 outing, I hit the same Knox County public strip mine area again the following Saturday. My ambitious aim was to fish three lakes, but Mother Nature did not follow the initial forecast. A brewing storm ran me off the water much earlier than planned leading to a bit of exploration during the rest of my day.

Starting lineup and winning lures

Stats
Date: July 19
Location: Knox County public strip pits (two lakes), Hennepin Canal (one pool)
Time: 5:40am-7:50am, 1:20pm-1:35pm
Totals: 10 bass
Weather: Overcast to partly cloudy/breezy
Lures: Spro Flappin Frog 65 (nasty shad) – 6 bass, Booyah Buzz Buzzbait (snow white shad) – 2 bass, 5” Yamasenko wacky rig (blue pearl/black hologram flake) – 2 bass
Top Bass: 3-1 Frog
Top 5 Weight: 9-11 (3-1,2-2,1-11-1-10,1-3)

Tune of the Trip
Riding the Storm Out – REO Speedwagon (1977)
“The wind outside is frightening, but it’s kinder than the lightning life in the city.”
Such was the theme of substantial part of my day as I left the water before the storm, rode out the rain in my truck, and did some exploring. And I actually heard this song twice on the radio. Maybe it was a DJ being amusing, or maybe just an interesting coincidence.

5:44am – First bass at 1-3 (13″) on a buzzbait

Notes and Nonsense

Main Lake – The bass were quite cooperative as I rowed my way around a portion of this lake on my way to my preferred destination. Four bass in thirty minutes, all on topwater was tough to leave behind but the larger bass potential of my target lake convinced me to make a portage. I suspect that there are some quality fish in the Main Lake but have a hard time committing when solid fish are a short drag away.

6:26am – Top Bass at 3-1 (18″) on a Spro frog

Discovery Lake – Moving to this lake paid dividends right away as I had two “keepers” in the logbook after six minutes of casting including a 3-1 that would be Top Bass of the morning. Conditions remained conducive for a lasting topwater bite with overcast skies and a bit of chop on the water, but it wasn’t long before the thunder began rumbling. On these remote lakes, it takes a while to get back to the truck and I’ve gotten wiser over the years when it comes to calling it quits. Don’t get me wrong, I am still reluctant to leave the water but about 8:00am I was sure glad that I did. The skies got uglier, unleased several downpours, and put on an impressive display of thunder and lightning all while I was safely sheltered in my truck.

1:26pm – Hennepin Canal bass at 1-3 (13″) on a Senko wacky rig

Bonus Bass – I took advantage of the rainy day to do some exploring to the northeast. I peeked at Mautino State Fish & Wildlife Area and found that the interior roads had been repaired (they were so bad that much of the site closed several years ago). A couple lakes also had new rock launches in place that would be just right for my little boat. Next stop was a new spot on the Hennepin Canal near Mineral that I had hiked last winter. During that hike, I observed a beaver lodge, one of my favorite pieces of cover, a short distance from a parking lot. I took a walk and sure enough a bass called it home and took a liking to my Senko wacky rig. The stretch is on my list for a future launch to add four more “keepers” and establish an initial Top 5.

Top 5 Update
Main Lake – Boost from 6-4 to 7-4 as a 1-3 knocks a 1-2 out of the creel
Discovery Lake – No boost as it takes a 3-4 or better to bump my weight
Hennepin Canal – A bass at 1-3 was my first ever catch on this pool

I opted to take my birthday and the following day off work to get away from the hustle and bustle. Stay tuned for those reports as I hit the strip mines again on both days. Talk to you later. Troy

I hadn’t been to the strip mines for over a month, so a cloudy Saturday forecast seemed like a good time to take another shot. I chose an area for this solo outing that I had last fished on May 25 during a trip with Brent. I focused most of my time on one lake but did dabble a bit in another along the way.

Stats
Date: July 12
Location: Knox County public strip pits (2 lakes)
Time: 10:30am-2:30pm
Totals: 9 bass, 2 bluegill
Weather: Overcast to partly cloudy/breezy
Lures: Spro Flappin Frog 65 (redear or leopard) – 6 bass, Booyah Buzz Buzzbait (snow white shad) – 3 bass, TJO Dice Bait (bloodshot) – 2 bluegill
Top Bass: 3-1 Frog
Top 5 Weight: 9-11 (3-1,2-2,1-11-1-10,1-3)

Starting lineup and winning lures

Tune of the Trip
”You got to roll me and call me the tumbling dice.”
Tumbling Dice – Rolling Stones (1972)
I tried something new on this outing, a homemade “dice bait.” More on that below.

10:31am – A new lake record at 2-2 (17.5″), on a buzzbait and should have weighed more as it was very lean 

Notes and Nonsense

Main Lake – On my way to portage into the target lake, I made a few casts in another lake that features a major point with an expansive, shallow flat and subsurface weed beds. It is a perfect summer setup for working a buzzbait or a frog and the former lure came through. The quick hit on the lake of only fifteen minutes produced a lone bite but it happened to be the largest bass that I had ever caught on the body of water. It tipped the scales at 2-2, topping a 1-10 from last July. I do not fish this lake much and the quality catch has me considering investing more time in the future while shooting for a ten-pound Top 5. My current Top 5 weight on the water sits at 7-4 (2-2,1-10,1-4,1-2,1-2), so there is work to do.

11:43am – Top Bass of day at 3-1 (17.5″) on a frog in less than a foot of water

Discovery Lake – The bass bite was gangbusters to start with six bass in the first hour of casting and several other topwater blowups that failed to hook up. After that, the bite shut down with only two fish in the next seventy-five minutes. Not surprisingly, it was a midday fade as I stuck primarily with a topwater approach in the lake dominated by shallow, weedy water. In addition, the sun had made more frequent appearances after an overcast start to the day. When the sun went off, the bite turned on.

11:47am – Another quality catch from the shallows weighing 1-11 (15.5″) and caught on a frog

Top Bass – The Top Bass for the day weighed 3-1 and came from a shallow pocket that featured less than a foot of water. The area has produced decent catches in the past, but the water was down considerably on this trip causing me to waver on whether to bother making a few casts in the spot. Fortunately, forty plus years of bass fishing has taught me a thing or two. Don’t let the conditions talk you out of making a few casts. Invest the time as even coming up empty outweighs having to wonder “What if.” Several minutes later, I landed another quality fish at 1-11 from the same spot. Moral of the story, “When in doubt, make the casts.”

First catch on a new lure, the dice bait (details below)

Dice Bait – A current craze in the fishing lure market is a fuzzy creation called the “Dice Bait.” However, with the expensive price tag on the models I have seen locally, I have no interest in adding them to my arsenal. Enter my friend, John Kirkemo, who has taken to making his own out of discarded baits and stock spinnerbait/jig skirt material. Following his lead, I made a few of my own and tried one out as I ended this fishing trip. Lo and behold, a couple of decent sized bluegills took the bait. Not my intended quarry but for a trial run it was fun to fool something on the homemade lure. When time permits, I not only hope to make and test some more, but also to put together a post dedicated to this latest fad.

Strip mine fishing can take some work but the potential for some big bites and decades of memories keep us coming back for more. And I say “us”, as I have a bonus report in the works from Brent’s recent visit as well as another firsthand report from last weekend. Talk to you later. Troy