Better late than never this time around as the Friday Flashback darn near didn’t show up until Saturday. Been a wild week of work that wrapped up about four hours ago upon ending a roughly 1,000 mile/16 hour drive from Kinston, NC to the Quad Cities (four hours last night and twelve today). I am beat but not too beat to meet my Friday deadline.

Mark “Geek” Junk

Today’s flashback takes me back to a time with far less responsibilities for a trio of more or less single guys back in 1995. Joining me at the Lake Bracken Spillway on this trip were a couple old buddies known as “Geek” and “Hack”. Throw in some doughballs and an adequate supply of Milwaukee’s Best and you’ve got yourself an adventure.

And on this day it sure was a good time as evidenced by the rewards from a pair of carp battles.

Matt “Hack” Reynolds

A fun outing with some good guys who I’d say are now even better. Each of us has added a better half and a batch of eight kids over the last quarter century. We’ve long scattered in different directions and rarely see each other these days but when we cross paths it’s just like old times. Can’t ask for better friends than that. Talk to you later. Troy

A couple weeks ago, the Friday Flashback told of the first Senko bass I ever caught. May 22, 2005 at Lake Bracken, a true highlight in a lifetime of fish stories. Well, just over a week later, Dad and I were back on Lake Bracken and that wacky presentation was on the end of my spinning rod. Below is the original log entry along with the original fishing report submitted on June 30, 2005 as part of a “June Wrap Up.”

Original log entry – June 1, 2005

June 1 – The first day of the month turned out to be the only day of the month that I actually wet a line. Dad and I hit Lake Bracken from 5:30am-9: 30am and we landed 31 bass. Dad led the way catching 19 with 12 coming on a Rebel Ghost Minnow, 5 on his tube jig and one apiece on a plastic crawdad and a twister tail. I caught 12, all of them on my Senko. The highlight of the day was a 5-0 that I caught off of a stump in about seven feet of water. The bass currently holds the Top Bass title for the year and missed the Lake Bracken record by one ounce.

Senko record of 5-0 from June 1, 2005 (later eclipsed on May 19, 2007)

If I wasn’t hooked on the Senko from the success of that first May outing, my second trip wielding the lure certainly sealed the deal. It’s been a mainstay in my arsenal ever since.

Oh, by the way, Dad and I would make our next visit to Lake Bracken on July 13, 2005. Guess what lure caught ten of his eleven bass? Talk to you later. Troy

I don’t know about you but when I fish an area frequently I begin to come up my own names for spots on the body of water. Such was indeed the case for Knox County, Illinois’ Lake Bracken. I first fished it with some Little League teammates around 1978 or 1979, enjoyed our family’s membership through the 80s and then owned a house with the lake as my backyard from 1994-2003.

5/25/2000 Lake Bracken 17.5″ 2-9 Mann’s Baby 1- Crankbait from Shed Cove

Many memories and many fish including those in today’s flashback which takes me back to a time with far less responsibilities. Not only had we not started a family yet but I didn’t even have a job in May 2000. The latter aspect was about to change but I still had a few days to goof around.

And part of that goofing around was fishing.

5/25/2000 Mark Junk 5-11 Carp on a doughball at The Spillway

From the log entry above, it looks like I made a day out of it. I spent the afternoon bass fishing on the lake and then headed to The Spillway to chase some carp for the evening with my buddy, Mark “Geek” Junk. And then it was back up to the lake to try our hand at some catfishing at The Clubhouse. Results appeared to be decent with Geek’s nice carp and one fair sized bass for my contribution.

5/25/2000 Mark Junk 13-15 Carp at The Spillway on a doughball

But the real reward is being able to look back at the pics and the log entry and reminisce. There’s no place quite like The Spillway and The Clubhouse was no longer a “clubhouse” as the building had burnt down many years prior. And all of these years later, I could still take you right to Patterson’s Cove, Idlewild, Sandy Bank and Shabena Cove. Bet I could even find a bass or two along the way. Talk to you later. Troy

Twenty years ago I was without a job and essentially without a care. My employer of the previous ten years, National Seal Company, had left town in January 2000 and left me with a reasonable severance package that paid me until June. A single, thirty something guy with a longtime girlfriend (now my wife) could get by for a while.

A keepsake from that old job (1990-2000) that I keep in my tacklebox 

But as the need to find a new job began to become a bit more pressing, so did the need to get on the water while I had ample free time. Today’s flashback outing was about as long distance as I get with roughly an hour drive from my hometown of Galesburg, IL to Fulton/Peoria County’s Banner Marsh. I made this trip with my then brother-in-law, Tim Townsend, and my Dad’s Bass Tracker in tow.

I’d never fished the area before and horsepower restrictions relegated us to a trolling motor only approach. I recall it being a struggle to find some bass in the pair of lakes we chose, one of which required a substantial troll (and much of our battery) to reach a wide open expanse of humps and flooded timber.

Original log entry from the May 3, 2000 outing

And it was in a spot with such a mix of cover that I boated the larger of the only two bass I fooled on the day. But hey, if you are only going to catch two bass it sure is nice when one is a four-pounder (one ounce shy is close enough, right). Kind of fun too, that I caught both of my bass on the Blue Glimmer spinnerbait. Twenty years later, almost to the day (5/4/2020), I had a banner day on an area strip mine with the very same lure (Top 5 Update and fishing report to come next week).

Another shot of my first ever Banner Marsh bass

And also twenty years later, the spot is in the midst of statewide closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic despite it being rather remote and spread out. I know one Top 5 angler who is particularly missing his stomping grounds. Hang in there, Jim, as at least we’ve got some other fishing holes for a fix.

In fact, I have several fishing reports to come from some of those waters along with a batch of Top 5 bass on Monday so stay tuned. Talk to you later. Troy

Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat.

I am not what one would call a master morel hunter. In fact, I would have to classify myself as a mediocre morel mushroom man, at best. There have only been two occasions where I have stumbled upon what I would consider a motherlode of mushrooms. The first occurred on the wild south side of Lake Bracken back in the 1990s, right where one would expect to find some, near some dying elm trees. Never could duplicate the feat upon repeated visits over the following years despite adhering to the standard morel harvesting guidelines. Those being pinching not pulling and toting a mesh bag.

The second big haul occurred in a much stranger setting on the wild south side of Galesburg in a vacant lot next to our house at the time. That 2009 highlight will have to be a story for another day. Similar to the first motherlode, I was never able to repeat as only three showed up the next year likely due to someone regularly mowing the vacant lot (not me).

Anyway, for today’s flashback, a portion of the original report from April 29, 2010 went like this:

“On April 25, I found seven at Little John. Now when I say seven, I mean seven individual mushrooms, not seven pounds like the reports from some of the more talented hunters. Two hours of walking resulted in four singles and a batch of three in another spot (along with two ticks). Such is my typical lack of success but I was not alone as two other fellows I encountered that afternoon reported similar single digit finds.”

You know what’s cool though? My kids had no clue that my mushroom per hour ratio was pretty humbling. In fact, they actually thought I was some kind of morel hero. Fungus finder or fungus failure, it’s good to be a dad. Talk to you later. Troy