Octobers of the Past

Since 2012, we have published 127,441 words in our Midwest finesse columns about how, when, and where Midwest finesse anglers have caught largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and spotted bass throughout the month of October in some of the waterways in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Ontario (Canada), Texas, and West Virginia.

In other “Octobers of the Past” columns, we noted that October is when some Midwest finesse anglers celebrate the birthday of one of its most effective lures. It was on Oct. 12, 2006, when the late Dick Bessey of Lawrence, Kansas, and I first employed a 2 1/2-inch Strike King Lure Company’s green-pumpkin Zero on a red 1/16-ounce Gopher Tackle’s Mushroom Head jig. This combo helped us tangle with 109 largemouth bass, two wipers, and one walleye in four hours at one of northeastern Kansas’ many community reservoirs. On that outing, northeastern Kansas was being waylaid by a significant cold front. The low temperature was 41 degrees, and the high temperature was 59 degrees. The sun was shining intensely everywhere, and the wind was howling out of the northwest at 10 to 25 mph.

The Zero and Z-Man Fishing Products’ ZinkerZ are siblings, and the Zero is manufactured for Strike King by Z-Man.

After that Oct. 12, 2006, outing, the 2 1/2-inch Zero and ZinkerZ affixed to mushroom-style jigs became two of the standard-bearers in the repertoire of many Midwest finesse anglers in northeastern Kansas and elsewhere across the nation.

October is also the anniversary of Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, becoming a member and contributor to the Finesse News Network. He is an extremely talented angler and piscatorial journalist. Besides contributing many thousands of words about how he and his colleagues probe the very trying reservoirs in north-central Texas with Midwest finesse tactics, he edits every word that we publish in our Midwest Finesse columns.

Here is a list of the anglers who have contributed briefs, insights, logs, and reports since October of 2012:

Rick Allen of Dallas, Texas; Jerry Benjamin of Lawrence, Kansas; Terry Bivins of Lebo, Kansas; Bob Brown of Springfield, Missouri; Darryl Brown of Ontario, Canada; Norman Brown of Lewisville, Texas; Terry Claudell of Overland Park, Kansas; Bob Clements of Emporia, Kansas; Lou Clewell of Roslyn, Pennsylvania; Charlie Croom of Fayetteville, Arkansas; Steve Desch of Topeka, Kansas; Roger Farish of Highland Village, Texas; Brent Frazee of Parkville, Missouri; Bob Gum of Kansas City, Kansas; Merit Goodman of Eudora, Kansas; Vincent Graceffa of Overland Park, Kansas; David Harrison of Lawrence, Kansas; Rodney Hatridge of Shawnee, Kansas; David Hebenstreit of Lahinch, Ireland; Isaac Hebenstreit of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Kathy Hebenstreit of Shawnee, Kansas; Nathan Hebenstreit of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Rick Hebenstreit of Shawnee, Kansas; Clyde Holscher of Topeka, Kansas; Seward Horner of Garnett, Kansas; Bob Iotti of Manalpan, New Jersey; John Kehde of Sedalia, Missouri; Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas; Casey Kidder of Topeka, Kansas; Ralph Manns of Rockwall, Texas; Travis Myers of Paw Paw, West Virginia; Nathan Parker of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Mike Poe of Siler City, North Carolina; Pok-Chi Lau of Lawrence, Kansas; David Reeves of Lansing, Kansas; Steve Reideler of Denton,Texas; Gary Schipporeit of Denver, Colorado; Doug Shoemaker of Edina, Minnesota; Evan Shoemaker of Edina, Minnesota; John Thomas of Denton, Texas; Andrew Trembath of Parkville, Missouri; Mike Trometer of Plano, Texas; Brian Waldman of Indianapolis, Indiana; Andrew Ward of Peculiar, Missouri; Landry Ward of Peculiar, Missouri; and Dave Weroha of Kansas City, Kansas.

In essence, our “Octobers of the Past” columns are a historiographical bibliography. They are designed to help anglers learn how to tolerate the many vicissitudes that occur from year to year in their piscatorial pursuits.

By reading the monthly guides, we hope readers will learn how Midwest finesse anglers from across the nation dealt with algal blooms, cold fronts, wind, and other woes during the Octobers of 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Here are the links to those history lessons:

(1) Here is the link to the October of 2012 logs: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/an-addendum-to-the-month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-october/155187.

(2) Here is the link to the October of 2013 logs: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/midwest-finesse-fishingoctober-2013/155594.

(3) Here is the link to the October of 2014 logs: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/midwest-finesse-fishing-october-2014/154022.

(4) Here is the link to the October of 2015 logs: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/midwest-finesse-fishing-october-2015/155893.

(5) Here is the link to the October of 2016 logs: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/midwest-finesse-fishing-october-2016/154396.

(6) Here is the link to the October of 2017 logs: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/midwest-finesse-fishing-october-2017/154727.

(7) Here is the link to the October of 2018 logs: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/midwest-finesse-fishing-october-2018/327987.

(8) Here is the link to our monthly guide to Midwest finesse fishing: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/a-month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-for-bass/156223. It is based on our logs from 2004 to 2011.

(9) Here are links to our previous “October of the Past” columns: http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/octobers-of-the-past/; http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/octobers-of-the-past-2/; http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/octobers-of-the-past-3/.

Here are a few photographs from Octobers of the past:

---