November 10 and 11, 2005

Bass Fishing at Sangchris Lake, near Springfield IL

Better late than never, I guess.....

Fall 2005 didn't turn out the way I expected, (with only 5 days of fishing between the end of August and Thanksgiving)

Anyway, "The Sangchris Bass Gang" (Brad aka Hawg Czar, Wes aka Lucky Ace, and myself) got together for one last tour of destruction before the snow starts to fly.

After not seeing Sangchris since the big drought of 2005, we were surprised to find the hundreds of acres of lilypads that we fished last Fall, sitting up on dry land. The lake is down 3 FEET below normal pool. Obviously, our plans to scour the lilypad fields went out the window (bass usually prefer water over dirt). The lilypad fields were reduced to a mere rim of sad looking weeds, ending in 12 to 24 inches of water.

Nov 10th

We got a late start and immediately began slop fishing the little patches of lilypads that were available. We had a lot of bass in the boat (40+), but the vast majority (90% ??) were under 15 inches. We threw a variety of shallow shad raps, golden spinnerbaits, Yum Wooley Curlytail grubs, and anything else we could think of.

Fish of the day was this 18 incher. He went for the shallow shad rap on the outside edge of a patch of lilypads in 2 feet of water. He was a ton of fun, tail-walking, a big back flip, and lots of head shaking. The picture doesn't show it well, but this bass had an enormous head and mouth. He looked like a 17 inch bass with the head of a 20 incher !!!!

We fished until it was too dark to continue, 4:30 PM !!!!! As I picked off one more 17 incher on the Yum Wooley Curlytail grub, it was time to head for the dock.

Nov 11th

Today, we got to the launch at sunrise and fished until sunset (10 whole hours). Looking for a new tactic, we started pounding the wind blown points, and occasionally casted some lilypad weeds edges, but didn't really do the slop fishing thing.

Shallow shad raps on windblown points gave us some action, including a 20 inch Striper, and some feisty 16 to 17 inchers:

The lilypad edges coughed up the Fish of the Day on the golden spinnerbait. He was 18 inches, but really thick and stout, almost as wide as he was deep, a true Lardy Boy. He was sitting in about a foot of water, and was not too pleased with the idea of getting in the boat !!!

What a Grump !!!

18" (all the same fish)

As the sun sank, and the wind died, I just had to get one Fall Buzzbait Bass. This over stuffed 16.5 incher was just what I was looking for. He was so fat for his length, I had to weigh him. He was 2 pounds 13 ounces, that's a TON for a fish that length !!!

I hope I can get out again this year, but with the way things worked out this Fall, I'm not going to hold my breath !!!

If I can't get out, then I'LL SEE YOU NEXT YEAR !!!!

PS.  I hope you had a good season too.

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