Category: Recaps

2024 Bass Recap – Locations

Posted on by Troy Jackson

Lake Storey Top Bass (tie) at 2-15 on October 11 caught on a spinnerbait

I fished a lot of water and covered a lot of miles chasing bass in 2024. However, the locations can be broken down into three classifications. The Hennepin Canal (23 pools), the Knox County public strip mines (23 lakes), and Lake Storey. Below is a closer look at the numbers from these locations ranked by the number of bass landed (least to most).

Lake Storey Top Bass (tie) at 2-15 on October 11 caught on a chatterbait

Lake Storey – Knox County, IL
(5 visits – 9/16 through 10/11)
80 Bass
35.50 hours
2.21 bass/hour
Top Bass: 2-15 (tie) Spinnerbait/Chatterbait both caught on 10/11
Top 5 Weight: 13-6 (2-15,2-15,2-10,2-8,2-6)
Comments: 2024 was a record year on Lake Storey as the 80 bass vastly exceeded my best yearly total according to data dating back to 1997. The previous best was 45 bass in 2007. The 2024 catch rate of 2.21 bass/hour also represented a significant uptick as the overall catch rate from 1997 through 2023 was a combined 1.11 bass/hour. While I fell an ounce shy of the three-pound mark for a Top Bass, among my catches were many solid, healthy fish. What was the secret to success? Practice, presentation, and precision are good places to start and concepts for another time.

Hennepin Canal Top Bass at 3-10 on September 29 caught on a frog

Hennepin Canal – Henry, Bureau, Rock Island County
(45 visits, 23 pools – 3/2 through 11/17)
270 bass
136.00 hours
1.99 bass/hour
Top Bass: 3-10 Frog on 9/29
Top 5 Weight: 15-15 (3-10,3-6,3-0,3-0,2-15)
Comments: One of my aims in 2024 was to expand my exploration of The Canal. As I explored, I also looked to land enough quality bass to establish a ten-pound or better Top 5 limit on each stretch of The Canal between Colona and the feeder basin just west of Sheffield. I made good strides towards the latter goal and the 3-10 bass represented my largest Canal bass to date. For 2025, I am looking to fill in the blanks on stretches lacking a double-digit Top 5 while still in search of my first four-pounder from the historic waterway.

Knox County strip mine Top Bass at 3-3 on July 13 caught on a frog

Knox County, IL Public Strip Mines
(11 visits, 23 lakes – 2/25 through 9/27)
276 bass
49.00 hours
5.63 bass/hour
Top Bass: 3-3 Frog on 7/13
Top 5 Weight: 14-13 (3-3,3-2,2-15,2-14,2-11)
Comments: The strip mines offer a multitude of fishing holes if you are willing to put in the effort. 2024 featured a combination of the regular haunts along with exploring several spots where I previously had limited experience. Results were all over the place with struggles on productive water, surprises on unfamiliar water, and exactly what I have come to expect on other fishing holes. The overall catch rate looks impressive, but I had to weed out a lot of small bass to get a handful of quality bites on a few different spots. The jury is still out on how I plan to attack the strip mines in 2025 as there are so many choices but only so much time to get on the water.

The recaps continue with posts on the way covering lures and partners. Stay tuned and talk to you later. Troy

2024 Bass Recap – Intro

Posted on by Troy Jackson

2024 established a new BYOB (Best Year of Bass) mark with 626 largemouth bass landed. Today’s post is the first of a collection of submissions that delve into various details of those catches.

2024 First Bass – March 3 at 8:55am on the Hennepin Canal

2024 Bass Stats
Bass = 626
Outings = 61 (ranging from 1.00-hour to 8.25-hour trips)
Bodies of water = 47
Bass Fishing Hours = 220.50
Bass/hour = 2.84
First Bass of the Year: March 3 at 8:55am on the Hennepin Canal
Last Bass of the Year: November 17 at 3:10pm on the Hennepin Canal
Comments: Forty-seven bodies of water make me seem like quite the bass fishing vagabond. However, the truth is not as epic as it may seem. Twenty-three spots represent different pools on the Hennepin Canal covering Rock Island, Henry, and Bureau Counties. Twenty-three other spots were Knox County public strip pits. And the other fishing hole was good, old Lake Storey.

First Bass Video below

 

Top 5 Bass (Weight, Location, Date, Lure)
3-10 Hennepin Canal 9/29 Frog
3-6 Hennepin Canal 9/29 Frog
3-3 Knox County public strip pit 7/20 Frog
3-2 Knox County public strip pit 7/13 Senko
3-0 Hennepin Canal 6/29 Spinnerbait
Top 5 Total Weight: 16-5 (3-10,3-6,3-3,3-2,3-0)

2024 Last Bass – November 17 at 3:10pm on the Hennepin Canal

Access
Bank Bass (Northerner boots, hiking, and biking) = 232 bass
Little Boat Bass (over 40-year-old 8’ johnboat) = 314 bass
Big Boat Bass (1987 Bass Tracker Pro 17) = 80 bass
Comments: Nothing out of the ordinary here with eighty-seven percent of my bass coming via hiking, biking, and rowing. The remaining bass were caught on Lake Storey while fishing out of Dad’s Bass Tracker.

Last Bass Video below

 

Public vs. Private
Public Water = 626 bass
Private Water Bass = 0 bass
Comments: As best I can tell, this is the first year that all my catches have come from public water. Looking back over the logs, 2009 and 2022 were lean on private water catches but did include a few. I do need to invest more in my Little John Conservation Club membership as I am in the neighborhood when I fish the Knox County strip mines. However, there is something rewarding about catching public water fish where everyone can take their shot. Many of my public strip mine fish require considerable effort in hiking or dragging a boat and one of these years I will have to scale back on such adventures. But so far so good, and I intend to keep chasing those fish in 2025.

Next up is a breakdown of the locations where I caught my bass. Talk to you later. Troy

Hennepin Canal Nature Recap

Posted on by Troy Jackson

Continuing the recaps, today we look at some of the nature observed on the Hennepin Canal while hiking, camping, and fishing. There is never a lack of adventure out there on the historic waterway. The clip below includes oddities (white squirrel), reclusive critters (mink), an opossum relocation, spiders and snakes (do you recall the old Jim Stafford tune), flora, fungus, and more.

 

More recaps to come as I work on the 2024 stats, notes, and video. Talk to you later. Troy

2024 Recap Intro

Posted on by Troy Jackson

With the New Year underway, I can officially put a wrap on the 2024 outdoor adventures with my annual series of recap posts. Over the course of another year of hiking, biking, rowing, and trolling, I amassed a great deal of notes, stats, pictures, and video. Many of the details hit the blog in the regular fishing reports or random rambles but there were plenty of items that wound up lost in the shuffle or needed editing. In addition, others required final tallies to provide an overall assessment of a year on the water.

Therefore, as 2025 progresses, I am working on a batch of posts to recap another fulfilling year outdoors. Coming your way as I work through the Cabin Fever months are a series of 2024 recaps. Among the batch of posts will be the announcement of our 2024 Top 5 Champ as well as a look at the all-time Top 5 Stats. There will also be an in-depth look at the 2024 fishing stats from my most productive year ever of bass fishing in terms of quantity. I also hope to post some loose ends that were missed over the last couple of years and get some video edited to accompany the words and pictures. Finally, I intend to take another stroll down Memory Lane with the forty-year anniversary of a habit that played a major role in the creation of this blog. That habit also led to your current investment of a few minutes of your day to read these rambles.

 

Stay tuned as I hit the ground writing and recapping while also looking forward to what 2025 outdoors has to offer. Talk to you later. Troy