I got to wondering the other day in my “Am I a Bad Fisherman?” posting about my merit as a dedicated fisherman after choosing some much needed rest over an early morning of fishing. Well, I tried to make up for it a couple days later and wound up questioning myself yet again. A couple tentative titles for today’s report were “Am I an Old Fisherman” and “Am I a Wimpy Fisherman” but I went with the standard fishing report format of location and date instead. Details below on why the alternative titles were up for consideration.

6:38am – Quick feedback with first Iowa bass of 2018

Stats

Date: May 28, 2018
Location: Lost Grove Lake, IA
Time: 6:35am-8:50am
Weather: Sunny/calm
Air Temp: 73-82F
Water Temp: no reading
Totals: 3 bass
Top Bass: 1-5 (only bass over 12”)

7:11am Top Bass 14″ 1-5 Buzzbait (GoPro video of the catch included below)

Notes & Nonsense

Late Night – My first error in judgment involved staying up too late and having a few cold ones when my intent was to get up at 4:45am. In the end, that poor decision making resulted in about 4.5 hours of sleep so was kind of getting off on the wrong foot from the get go.

Heat – The weather app on my phone read 73F at 6:35am as I made my first cast but it was already a hot 73 degrees. No air moving whatsoever and the effort of dragging my boat out of the back of the truck over some parking posts in a slightly elevated parking lot got the sweat flowing. Then, I had to drag the boat and gear through about 20 yards of weeds which got the heart pumping and the sweat kicked up a notch. And after that I just had roughly 400 acres of water in front of me to choose from armed with an old set of oars and an even older rower providing the power.

Snip from GoPro footage of abundat gnat population from earlier this year but same concept on this trip

Gnats Are Gnuts – If you have been enjoying the outdoors in my neck of the woods as of late, I am certain you are aware of the prevalence of gnats, a real bumper crop. Under the bill of my hat, on the inside of my fishing shades, in my ears, up my nose and yes, I ate a couple, just relentless. Most times you can get away from the bank and enjoy a bit of an escape but these pests were thick everywhere, flat out crazy and no fun.

Another gnat snip just for fun

Weeds – I am accustomed to goofy, scattered weeds on this fishing hole and I hope that someday they may subside as the lake ages. No go as of yet, however, as the vegetation influenced my presentation as I went pretty much all in on a buzzbait in open water amidst the gunk. Also tried a topwater frog in spots and flipped a Senko around but only the buzzer was a winner in the calm, sunny conditions that were likely better suited for something else. A gamble I was willing to take in hopes of a big bite but didn’t materialize this time around.

All good for Iowa and always a good thing to do the right thing as noted below

Quitting Time – By about 8:30am, the factors above had taken their toll and I headed back to my launch point to see if I could rustle up a last bite from a patch of flooded bushes and sunken culverts. No luck in 15 minutes or so and I’d come to the conclusion that my mind and body had had enough of our early arrival of summer. But before I could get off the water, an Iowa DNR truck pulled up nearby and I rowed over for a license check (legal as I should be with my internet purchase the night before). A nice fellow and he also provided a recommendation on gnat repellent though I have since forgotten what it was and only recall that he said it comes in a “green bottle.” Oh well, I don’t think anything works anyway.

GoPro footage of Top Bass, not a trophy but the video thing is still pretty fun

So, after just over two hours and three not so impressive bass I was headed home to celebrate a birthday with my boy, Jayce. My intent was to get in some fishing before the kids got up and moving too much but I sure thought it would be later than 8:50am when I packed it up. Just couldn’t hang and hope it is only an isolated incident brought on by a combination of factors and not too early of an indication of the way things go as time moves on. Talk to you later. Troy

Well, 15 years ago this week I took my wife, Julie, fishing at an old fishing hole we called Emstrom’s Pond. Emstrom’s has already been featured in three of the Friday Flashbacks but, hey, it was stellar fishing spot as evidenced by this pair of fishing pics. Of course, it helped that it was only minutes away from our home at the time so it was a perfect destination when time was limited. And thinking back to 2003 with no children yet in our life, I’d have to say that we really had no clue on how the concept of “free time” would forever change.

Here’s an excerpt from the original report that I submitted to family and friends back on 5/9/2003 regarding this outing that tells the whole story behind the 10+ pounds of bass in the pics above.

May 6 – After giving the fish a few days off, I took Julie fishing at Emstrom’s. I joke about not taking someone fishing again if they outfish me, but here’s proof that I’m only kidding as Julie outdid me, two bass to zero a few years back at Lake Carlton. Anyway, we only had an hour on the pond but it was well worth the trip. The new 2003 largemouth bass record stands at 5-5 after I worked over The Beaver Lodge with my 1/4 oz. Strike King Rattlin’ Jig (black/blue) with a #11G pork frog (blue glitter). Measuring 23″ in length, it is the longest bass I’ve ever caught despite being several ounces shy of my heaviest (5-15), a great, healthy looking fish. Julie even took up my offer to hold it for a picture. We played the customary “guess how big the bass is” game. The first bass I caught, I guessed at 1-2 and Julie opted not to guess, stating that she had no idea of a reasonable estimate. The fish weighed in at 1-3. Upon catching “the big one”, we tried again. My guess, 5-12, Julie’s guess, 5-6. I was very impressed, not only because she was an ounce off, but also, more importantly, she guessed heavy. The mark of a true fisherman (woman), overestimate the weight. We also played “guess the water temperature”, yet another example of silliness. Julie promptly stuck her finger in the water and guessed 68 degrees while my estimate was 63 degrees. Actual temp, 67 degrees. We also managed 13 bluegills on 1/8 or 1/16 oz. jigs (pink) with twister tails (smoke) with and without spinners (silver).

So, there you have it, the real tale behind two pictures but only one fish.  I would definitely say that Julie’s shot is the more attractive of the two. Not only for obvious reasons but also because it just appears more dynamic with the gills flared and a broader depth on the fish.  What’s also fun is that you could definitely pull this one off as two different fish due to the lighting and angle of the shots if you wanted to pull somebody’s leg or stretch the truth a bit.  Not here though, as while I do use multiple shots of the same fish for a few different postings (Facebook, Top 5 Update, fishing report), the data is consistent to emphasize that it is the same fish.  Yep, there are still a few places where you can believe what you see and read on the internet.

And once again, I have to say that writing has been an outstanding addition to the whole fishing experience as it preserves details that would otherwise be lost over time. In this case, the guessing game on weight and water temperature. Just a couple examples of goofy things employed over the years to enhance the adventure.

And speaking of that sort of thing, stay tuned for a new bit of family fishing fun slated to make its debut sometime this spring. Inspired by some college football hijinks that I caught wind of last season, I think it will be an entertaining bit of silliness. Of course, I have little trouble entertaining myself so we’ll see how it translates to others. Talk to you later. Troy

Got a chance to fish with my brother, Brent, for the first time this year. It pretty much happened on a whim as I was on my way out of the driveway when I thought that I would shoot him a text to see if he was free. He was and I had a partner for a walk across some public Knox County, IL strip mine land.

10:23am Brent wastes little time in kicking off his 2018 Top 5 with a 1-9 on a spinnerbait

Stats

Date: April 21, 2018
Location: Knox County, IL public, walk-in strip pits
Time: 8:30am-3:30pm (5.50 hours fishing, the rest walking)
Weather: Overcast/windy
Air Temp: 48F-59F
Totals: 32 bass (Troy = 18, Brent = 14)
Lures Troy
Booyah Blade Spinnerbait (white chartreuse) – 10 bass
Strike King KVD 2.5 Rattling Squarebill crankbait (sexy shad) – 4 bass
Strike King Red Eye Shad (sexy shad) – 3 bass
Senko weighted wacky rig (morning dawn) – 1 bass
Lures Brent
Spinnerbait, jig & plastic, Mann’s Baby 1- crankbait (several colors)
Top Bass: 2-12 Brent Jig
Top 5 Weight: 10-11 (2-12,2-10,1-14,1-12,1-11)

10:31am Brent’s grip on Top Bass was short lived, booted by my 1-12 on a spinnerbait

Notes and Nonsense

Save the Best for First – I hit the area about an hour and a half ahead of Brent as he had some items to take care ahead of the impromptu outing. I used the time to hike across to where he would park and then invest some casts in testing a body of water that I don’t typically fish. Four small bass gave me head start and wound up being what separated our totals as we each fooled 14 bass while fishing together. I elected to save my best spot until Brent showed up and in our first 25 minutes of casting on it we nabbed four of our overall Top 5 fish including his 2-12 Top Bass of the trip.

10:37am Brent’s back on top to stay for Top Bass with a 2-10 on a jig

10:48am Brent with another boost to 2-12 on a jig and would last as Top Bass

Top Bass – Things were fast and furious right out of the gate in our pursuit for the Top Bass title for the day.  We began our joint effort at 10:20am and Brent got us on the board with the first “keeper” weighing in at 1-9 at 10:23am.  At 10:31 I snatched the title away with a 1-12 only to be outdone six minutes later by Brent’s 2-10.  I got a quality fish at 10:40am with a 1-11 (well short of the new mark) but it was Brent’s 2-12 at 10:48am that would claim the title.  It was a crazy flurry of bites that we could not replicate or exceed over the next five hours of casting on half a dozen other spots.

One of the reasons I frequently fish solo as I averaged roughly one bass per quarter mile of hiking

Approaches – I fish solo a great deal for various reasons (another post, some other day) but when teaming up for bass fishing I’d have to say that Brent or Dad are tops on the list.  In regards to this trip with Brent, it reinforced the confidence factor in our shared hobby.  Brent does his thing with his favorite baits and I do mine with my go to baits.  His spinnerbait offering was brown/orange while mine was white/chartreuse, both were successful.  He whacked ‘em on a black and blue jig with a plastic trailer (pumpkinseed) while I never got a bite on a black and blue jig and pig.  He fooled only a few on a bright orange/red crankbait while light colored crankbaits produced nearly half of my haul.  Way too much to analyze as bass anglers are wont to do, but here’s what’s cool.  We both fished our strengths, some of which produced better than others, and in the end we wound up with exactly fourteen bass apiece during our time fishing together.

11:45am Brent’s 1-14, the lone member of our Top 5 that came from beyond our best lake

I find it fun to keep Julie up to speed and my optimistic “Stay tuned” wound up being the next day so stay tuned for another report

Another enjoyable day of trying to fool some fish and another batch of stories to add to an already expansive collection.  I’d have to estimate that we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 combined years of trying to figure out these crazy green fish they call the largemouth bass.  In doing another piece of mental math as I thought back over our “experience”, I realized that come next February we will combine to hit the century mark in life experience.  Pretty wild.  Talk to you later.  Troy

No superstition here to interfere with a Friday the 13th fishing trip last week. In fact, with the first three consecutive days of warm temps all year around here, it was fishing or bust. Friday was forecast as the tail end of the brief glimpse of spring so it was time for a vacation day for some Knox County, IL strip mine hiking. Turned out that the bass were ready for some warm, stable weather as well.

Still worth going the distance for a solid bite

Stats

Date: April 13, 2018
Location: Knox County, IL public, walk-in strip pits
Time: 6:55am-3:45pm (6 hours fishing, the rest walking)
Weather: Partly cloudy to overcast/windy to excessively windy
Air Temp: 53F-68F
Totals: 60 bass, 1 crappie
Lures:
Strike King KVD 2.5 Rattling Squarebill crankbait (sexy shad) – 32 bass
Booyah Blade Spinnerbait (white chartreuse) – 15 bass
Strike King Red Eye Shad (sexy shad) – 13 bass
Top Bass: 2-9 Strike King KVD 2.5 Rattling Squarebill
Top 5 Weight: 10-4 (2-9,2-3,2-0,1-13,1-11)

7:31am – First bass and only the beginning

11:44am – 14.5″ 1-13 Lipless crankbait

12:17pm – 16″ 2-3 Spinnerbait

Cool accident with a 12″ crappie on the lipless crankbait

Notes and Nonsense

The Conditions – A pleasant surprise upon arrival was the blackened, barren landscape resultant of a controlled burn on most of the area. I’ll have a closer look at this aspect of the outing in a future post but the main point is that walking was much less taxing as a result. Partly cloudy to overcast skies were also welcome as most of the fishing holes lie on the clear end of the water clarity spectrum. Wind was also a welcome feature although it got pretty crazy at times with reported gusts exceeding 35 miles per hour. All of these factors combined with a third day of warming temps that would top out in the upper 60s made for all I could ask for as an angler confined to the bank.

12:58pm – 15″ 1-11 Crankbait

The Plan – I had six lakes that were on the must see list based on past results along with just kind of poking around on others as I made my trek around the ground. Of the six targets, five produced well while the sixth only got a passing shot due to time constraints and limited bank access with the water level higher than normal. All told I cast on over a dozen spots and landed a bass on ten of them. It is my sixth year fishing this area and still plenty to learn as to which of the two dozen plus lakes sustain a healthy bass population if any at all. Tough call to focus on old faithful or seek out a hidden gem when faced with limited time and energy.

Turned out to be all I needed, took lots more lures though, as always

The Lures – I weighed my tacklebag just for fun after the trip to find it came in just barely under ten pounds. While not all of the weight is attributed to lures, I did pack along what would qualify as more than enough. While I lugged all of that gear over four miles, I wound up catching all of my bass on only three lures, the heaviest of which weighs in at 5/8 oz. So, less than two ounces of all that tackle actually produced and honestly there wasn’t much reason to change as this trio did just fine. I also packed along seven poles and just like the lures, caught bass on three of them. Undeniable evidence that I habitually take too much stuff but you just never know. Even if it’s only got a slim shot of being used or producing, that shot is still better than if it is sitting home in my garage.

1:04pm – 16.5″ 2-0 Crankbait

1:30pm – Top Bass 17″ 2-9 Spinnerbait

The Results – A 60 bass day is always a winner and certainly welcome in a year that has been rather unfavorable in terms of weather after a couple weird, warm February days. Along the way I was able to give my 2018 Top 5 a solid boost and exceed double digits on my Top 5 for the day. The four pounders I’ve encountered on some of these waters in the past eluded me and I just hope that they are still out there and haven’t found their way onto somebody’s stringer. Fair game I suppose if they have, just not my approach.

Windblown Video #1 – 2-0 catch (apologies for noise)

Windblown Video #2 – 2-9 catch (apologies for noise)

Hope to get back out at least one more time to chase the bass before April passes but time will tell. And how’s this for more of a nasty start to 2018? I began typing the rough draft of this report on Sunday April 15 and it was 30 degrees and snowing pretty good (which is really bad). And as I hit submit tonight (April 17) there’s a winter weather advisory beginning in about eight hours. Enough already! Talk to you later. Troy

The Friday Flashback series plows ahead into a new month with another visit to an old fishing hole. Below is the original fishing report sent out to family and friends back on April 11, 2003, the same evening that I fooled the fish pictured above.

“Finally, some decent weather coinciding with some free time. After working first shift and following dinner, I had a couple hours before darkness settled in so I couldn’t pass up a trip to Emstrom’s Pond to try and fool a few bass. The recent warming trend gave me high hopes and I wasn’t disappointed. An hour and a half produced six bass including a new record for 2003. A 4-10 engulfed my Rapala Rattlin’ Rap (brown craw) as I worked it across a shallow flat. This area had seen a lot of baitfish, shiner or bluegill movement about a half hour prior to catching this bass. In fact, there had been a very large swirl and a scattering of small fish in its wake as I worked this area earlier. A couple cranks into my retrieve during my second pass in this area and a fish slammed my lure. After a pair of jumps at boatside, the bass was securely in my grasp with both treble hooks embedded firmly in its lower jaw. It was the last bite I had as darkness rolled in about ten minutes later and I headed for home.”

The Lure – still got it and dig the battle scars although I haven’t thrown it for years as lipless crankbait allegiance has turned to the Red Eye Shad.

The original log entry from this outing

Fifteen years later and decent weather and free time have been pretty tough to come by in 2018. Still looking for a bass of this quality as well as I currently sit at 2-6 for my Top Bass this year among the ten bass in the log from a pair of outings and just under eight hours on the water.

Sooner or later, I’m bound to get some good weather, some free time and some big bass. Not too much to ask, right? Maybe next week. Stay tuned and talk to you later. Troy