As an aspiring YouTube sensation (sounds good, right), I check out what other anglers are doing on their channels. One item that I frequently notice is the good, old, “links in the description below” reference somewhere in their clip that details the equipment used for reeling in their catches. Time will tell if this fish story makes a YouTube appearance, so I am going to provide my “description below” in a blog post just in case.

Reel – Shimano Lexica LX-100

Rod – 7’0” Shakespeare Excursion Medium Heavy Action

Lure – Heddon Zara Spook in the natural frog pattern

Rest of the Story

Many anglers looking at the above details would scratch their heads wondering who in the heck fishes with this gear and why?

Well, since you asked…I set out for the Hennepin Canal last Sunday to make a “fish story”.

Once upon a time, my longtime friend, Matt Reynolds (aka Hack), purchased a baitcasting reel. The best he could recall, the purchase was made somewhere around 1993. As he had not used the reel for decades, he asked if I would be interested in adding it to my tackle. While he lives in the southeast, he has family back in my old neck of the woods and it made its way back last Thanksgiving. Being prone to dragging my feet, I finally reached out last Saturday and was able to make a pickup. Later that evening, I spooled it up with ten-pound Trilene (didn’t have any twelve-pound on hand) and it was ready to go.

Having damaged a rod tip recently, I was in the market for a replacement and found a couple bargains at the local department store. The Shakespeare models met my three primary qualifications for a casting rod: cheap, at least 6’6”, and one-piece. You can have your $300 rods and I suppose there are some benefits. But with these marked down from $22.26 to $15.00, I could have bought twenty of them for the same investment. I only bought two, however, and just like that I had a new rod and reel combo for a whopping fifteen bucks.

Being summer, there was no doubt what lure was going to land the first bass with the “new” reel. Hack and I had spent a fair amount of time in the 80s and 90s tossing around a Heddon Zara Spook topwater with solid results and some quality bass. In those days, at a spot called Ponder’s Pond, the natural frog pattern was a winner, prompting Hack to give it a nickname. Thereafter, it became known as “The Pickle”, a term of endearment in reference to its gherkin-like look.

My first cast with “The Pickle” at The Hennepin Canal was met with a light strike but the fish failed to hook up. While it would have made a good fish story to land a bass on the first cast, I wasn’t too disappointed. Fishing the warm, partly cloudy July evening on the shallow waters of The Canal, I was confident that sooner or later the Spook would produce. About fifteen minutes later, a solid blast by another bass with bad aim reinforced my outlook. Although I should have tossed a Senko into the boil created by the strike, a Spook bass was my goal, and I ran it by the area again to see if the bass was still interested. It was not and I set the Spook aside for a bit as I waited to reach another promising stretch of water.

That promising stretch of water wound up a winner with a quality bass weighing in at 2-6.

Couldn’t have written it up any better than the way it went down. And it sure won’t be the last bass that I land with that near thirty-year-old reel that looks and works like brand new.

I fished for another forty-five minutes or so with a couple other lures, but nothing was going to top the “fish story”. And on the way home, I got another bonus with a trio of tunes on the radio that took me back to running around with Hack and the Junk brothers all those years ago. Stay tuned for an abbreviated and overdue “Trip Tunes” post. Talk to you later. Troy

Today marks twenty years since I started writing fish stories and such for public consumption. It all started out on April 30, 2002, as something that I called the “Family Fishing Hall of Fame Newsletter”. The intent was to share fishing reports and data with a small group of family and friends. The archives reveal that I sent out a total of forty-six posts during the remainder of 2002. Since then, the project has undergone a few changes of scenery. Without getting to carried away, I will mark today’s anniversary with a timeline of some of the writing highlights over the last twenty years.

April 30, 2002
Launch of the “Family Fishing Hall of Fame Newsletter” to share and collect fish stories with family and friends via email.

June 14, 2003
“Day on the Lake” feature debuts as I “borrow” the concept from Bassmaster to give a sort of play-by-play of a fishing trip. The first edition covers a trip to Lake Bracken with Brent.

April 6, 2010
I accept an offer from Peoria Journal Star outdoor writer, Jeff Lampe, to blog for free at the Prairie State Outdoors website which is associated with the newspaper. I entitle my blog “Meandering” to reflect my outdoor writing style.

March 25, 2011
Declining interest in by those in charge of the Prairie State Outdoors website after Jeff Lampe’s departure prompts me to do the same.

April 5, 2011
After a couple weeks off from blogging, I receive an offer from Jeff Lampe to blog on the Heartland Outdoors website as he has purchased the longtime regional publication.

March 19, 2014
Inspired by the record keeping of a fellow angler, Terry Isbell, I launch the “Top 5” project which invites readers to share their bass fishing catches. The project continues to this day.

May 1, 2017
Finding myself as the lone dedicated blogger on the Heartland Outdoors website, I bid farewell after six years of “Meandering’.

May 1, 2017
Troy Jackson Outdoors launches along with electing to do the social media thing to promote the new venture.

July 23, 2017
Julie and the kids get me a GoPro camera for birthday number fifty. What a fun addition to my fishing hobby, a constant companion ever since.

September 5, 2017
Trip Tunes debuts allowing me to find a way to include my passion for music with my passion for fishing. I envision a Final Jeopardy clue someday stating, “The first song to appear on Troy Jackson Outdoors’ Trip Tunes”. The contestant triumphantly responds, “What is ‘Bad Medicine’ from Bon Jovi?” And the crowd goes wild.

March 16, 2018
Friday Flashback debuts as I take a weekly look back at outdoor adventures from 5,10,15…45 years ago.

 

April 1, 2018
First Blooper Reel

October 25, 2018
Lake Lowdown feature is launched at Lake Storey and I am smart enough to bring Brent along for some highlights and he sets the new lake record.

March 15, 2020
YouTube debut

July 4, 2020
The “Snakeden at 30” series celebrates the July 1, 1990 public access debut of Snakeden Hollow, many, many fish ago.

August 1, 2021
“Top 40 Fishing Lines” borrows a page out of Casey Kasem’s book with a countdown of songs containing fishing references. It also coincides with the 40th birthday of MTV.

March 19, 2022
After nearly a year without a post, it’s time for a YouTube return to play catch up with videos old and new.

Time marches on and so do the fish stories. Stay tuned and talk to you later. Troy

Winter is fading, waters are thawing, and the first casts are on the horizon.

Things are looking up for a new year of chasing some fish.

 

A new license is in hand, membership dues have been paid, reels are respooled and a batch of new gear is ready for action.

Christmas windfall helps to gear up for another year

I’ve got to be a mono, mono man

27 years and counting, three to go for waived dues

Legal and paid in full for 2022

Bonus baits, homemade from an old high school baseball buddy

Anticipation…

Now I just need some decent weather, some time away from work, and some gas money. Talk to you later. Troy

A look at the “starting lineup” for the final day of the season.

Every fishing trip that I take gets a fishing report here on the blog. I attempt to cram as much info into the posts as possible while still trying to keep them at a modest read. Time, viewing habits, unending internet content and attention spans have changed over the years in the information age, and many are ready to move on to the next thing before finishing the current thing. All of this leads me to having batches of extra stuff sitting around on my devices and in my brain. So, here’s a few such items from my November 17 fishing trip.

Rain or shine, I was committed to chasing bass and on this day. Conditions dealt me occasional bouts of the rain portion and none of the shine aspect. The scattered precipitation did not discourage or dampen me much, but I still can’t get it through my head to pack raingear after all these years.

During my drive to, from and around my destination, I observed nearly a dozen deer as well as a bald eagle. While the deer were no surprise, it wasn’t that many years ago that it was quite an occasion to spot a bald eagle at any significant distance from a major river system. Nowadays, it is not uncommon around my Knox County fishing holes.

A sure sign that the end of my fishing year is approaching is displayed on the console of the truck. An 8:22am departure is a far cry from setting out at 4:30am to beat the sunrise to the strip pits. This time of year, leaving later allows for a little extra warmth that is often more about the fisherman than the fish. And the heat turned up in the truck is quite different than the windows rolled down (natural air conditioning as the artificial type no longer works).

I suspect that a tiny bass landed at 3:37pm will be the final bass for me in 2021. It was fooled on a Shad Rap crankbait that I found during a family hike around Sylvan Island in the fall of 2020. If it indeed is my final 2021 bass, it will provide a fun bookend on the year as my first bass of 2021 was also caught on the lost and found lure back on March 20.

More miles racked up on the road to the fishing hole during a year when the truck crossed 200,000 miles.

Another year in the books and well over 40 years and counting on this deluxe watercraft

Oh yeah, there’s also tunes to report from this trip but those will have to wait for another day. Talk to you later. Troy

While I had a fair day on my latest Lake Storey outing (10/14), a follow-up post was necessary to cover the “extras” via some pictures and notes.

The picture above isn’t the greatest, but it is a shot of a fellow fisher, an osprey, a regular sight for me over the years at Lake Storey. Another fellow fisherman, friend and Top 5 angler, John Kirkemo, was also on the water and reported observing the osprey with a fish in its talons.

Speaking of John, he was able to get out on the lake that morning as well, thanks to some early rains delaying his outdoor household chores. We had a good chat mid-lake as John shared a catch with me and I just happened to catch my Top Bass of the day with John in proximity. Same thing happened in 2020, so not only good to visit but also good luck.

Perhaps the most interesting observation while on the water was an eerie structure reminiscent of what is termed a “Sasquatch tree structure.” On one hand, the sight was a bit unsettling. On the other hand, I marveled at how bold of Bigfoot to construct it so near a campground and roadway. In retrospect, I should have beached the boat and scoured the area for tracks. I’m sure I would have found some and been left wondering why they call the creature “Bigfoot” and why would he wear Converse?

This summer, my son, Jayce, joined me and his Uncle Brent in chasing bass on Lake Storey. We had an enjoyable time, and each caught a bass (or two in the case of Brent). Particularly entertaining were a couple catches prompting us all to say, “that’s a nice dam bass.” Well, in nabbing another one along the water retention feature, I couldn’t resist a text so Julie could inform Jayce that I fooled another dam bass.

As I secured the boat at the ramp to end my day, a familiar looking color scheme caught my eye. There in the pea gravel lay an Emiquon Special spinnerbait skirt, just like Brent’s legendary creation. Knowing that Brent respects nature and is not a litterer left me wondering who would do such a thing. Possibly someone who reads my blog and knows the prowess of such a color scheme in the hands of an adept angler. If you are the blog reader who left the item, knock it off, find a trash can or stuff in in your hip pocket next time. But thanks for reading.

I suppose that the opposite of the old saying “Go West, Young Man” would logically be “Go East, Old Man.” Well, my normal spots on the west end of the lake had produced to the tune of one bass in three hours and that one came on my second cast. As a result, I expanded my search further east than normal, nearly to the opposite ramp. And what do you know, two keepers in a span of 35 minutes, a definite improvement.

That final anecdote is what the fishing part of a fishing outing is all about, figuring out the fish. But as you can see, there’s always more to a fishing trip than just fishing. Talk to you later. Troy