Junes of the Past

On April 1, we announced that at the first of each month we would assemble a short bibliography (with Internet links) to our monthly guides to Midwest finesse fishing.

We began this at the behest of some members of the Finesse News Network who wanted to know if there have been any noticeable and noteworthy changes in the fishing that we write about in our monthly guides to Midwest finesse fishing.

One angler suggested that we write a history of each month, including a sabermetrics style of analysis similar to the one that baseball analysts employ. Bill James of Lawrence, Kansas, is one of the pioneers of sabermetrics, and he describes it as "the search for objective knowledge about baseball." That is an enlightening suggestion, but we are sorry to say that piscatorial analysts do not possess all of the data and statistical tools that James and his colleagues have access to in the baseball world.

Therefore, we opted to assemble a monthly bibliography, which allows anglers to have quick and  easy access to what we have written about each month of the year. Many of theses monthly guide contain more than 20,000 words that explain how Midwest finesse anglers have caught largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, and a few incidental species.

June is traditionally a stellar month to wield Midwest finesse tactics for largemouth and smallmouth bass that abide in the small flatland reservoirs that we regularly fish along the suburban and exurban corridor that stretches from Kansas City to Topeka, Kansas. But our fishing can be problematic, too. Thus, as anglers examine these links to Junes of the past, they should be mindful that locations and presentations can be similar from year to year, but they can also be slightly dissimilar and even radically different.

Below is our black-bass catch summary from the last five Junes that I and several friends who joined me have achieved in northeastern Kansas, and it reveals the variations that  have transpired across these years.

During 12 four-hour outings in 2010, we caught 489 largemouth and smallmouth bass. That equals 40.75 bass an outing and 10.11 bass an hour.

In 2011, we caught 493 largemouth and smallmouth bass in 13 four-hour outings, which equates to 37.9 bass an outing and 9.47 bass an hour.

In June of 2011, the fishing was so problematic that we could muster only 298 largemouth and smallmouth bass. What's more, the weather and several family obligations allowed us to fish only 10 times. Those 10 outings encompassed  32 1/2 hours of fishing. In sum, we caught 29.8 bass per outing and 9.16 bass per hour.

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During June of 2012, I was afloat 13 times. On five of those outings, I was accompanied by another angler, and cross those five outings, we caught 216 largemouth bass, 107 smallmouth bass and two spotted bass. Eight of the outings were solo endeavors, where I tangled with 227 largemouth bass. In sum, my partners and I fished for 37 hours, caught an average of 42 black bass an outing and 14.9 per hour.

We were afloat 13 times in 2013, which encompassed 37 hours of fishing, and we caught 443 largemouth bass, 107 smallmouth bass, and two spotted bass. Four of those outings, which encompassed eight hours and 45 minutes of fishing, occurred on a 195-acre community reservoir that had been waylaid by the largemouth bass virus, and it yielded only 47 largemouth bass and one smallmouth bass. Despite those sorry hours spent at that 195-acre reservoir, we averaged 14.9 black bass an hour in June of 2013.

During June of 2014, we fished 10 times and for 35 hours. We caught 381 largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and spotted bass for a average of 10.8 black bass an hour.

Here are the links to three monthly guides that focus on June:

(1) This is the link to the guide about June of 2012: http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/an-addendum-to-the-month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-june/. It contains 10,713 words.

(2) This is the link to the guide about June of 2013: http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/a-month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-june-2013/#ixzz3agtUQOCU . It contains 15,978 words.

(3) This is the link to the guide about June of 2014: http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/midwest-finesse-fishing-june-2014/. It contains 21,267 words.

(4) This is a link to a historical analysis of Midwest finesse fishing that we wrote back in 2011. It focuses on each month of the year and it is entitled "A Month-by-Month Guide to Midwest:  http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/a-month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-for-bass/. It contains 8,814 words.

Photographs of largemouth bass and smallmouth bass that Midwest finesse anglers have caught in Junes of the past: