Wednesday I was on my way to meet Hal at Enid. It was just after daylight as I was driving up Highway 51 when I looked to the West and there was a pasture full of cows. Every one of them was laying down, a terrible omen for our day of fishing. Mickey fished with his grandfather and if the cows on the levee were laying down and not up eating he would say that the fish were not biting. Cows not eating = fish not biting. It’s a pretty good indicator. I arrived at the landing at the appointed time of 7:30 and we set out. The fish were not biting to start the day off but we got a few to bite, one here one there. We found Hal’s favorite spot with the depth finder’s GPS . It was not showing but when he said “we’re close”, I looked over and there it was just under the water, but nobody home. As we fished around the spot we caught a small one completely in the open on a DT-6. And so went the day one fish in a spot on a variety of baits. The largest were 2 eyeballed 3 pounders. Hal caught most of his on a slobber knocker bladed jig and mine were on a DT-6 and a redeye shad. It was a fun day of fishing. The wind was pretty stiff which made Hal have to work . We caught 14 bass and a few stripes.

On my first day fishing since July I went to Lake X. I went later than usual and fishing started at 10:30. It took 3 hours to catch the first fish, a 6 3/4 on a swim jig as it came over a limb. Later one pulled off on a red eye shad after it glanced off of a limb. Erratic movement was the trigger to get bites. I spied a limb barely under the water as I drifted past so I reeled in the red eye shad as fast as I could do I could cast to it but the idea of a terrified shad was too much for a three pounder that was faster than I was. On another tree top the line was around a limb so that when I pulled the swim jig by it went sideways and a 4 3/4 couldn’t stand that. I use a Brovarney 1/4 ounce swim jig that is chartreuse and white with a Strike King 3 inch swimmer on behind. Those jigs have excellent hooks. The only place you can get them is ordering them from the Brovarney website fyi. EDIT: Unfortunately Brovarney is out of business. Hal and Richard have been using Green fish and Googan with satisfaction.

Fishing for me has reached a low ebb so consequently there has been nothing to write about of interest. The main culprit I think is the demise of fishing on Lake Ferguson. About 4 years ago it was named by Bassmaster Magazine as the 19th best lake in the country, and good it was. That started the decline. Every weekend there was a tournament or two. But we release them, everybody says. Unfortunately all at the waterfront. They do release them but how many survive after bumping around in the livewell on a hot summer day. The local guys did start to only weigh in 3 in the summer, but they were the only ones. A club from Little Rock at the weigh in when taking pictures we’re keeping the fish out of the water too long before walking down to the lake to release them. The next morning there were bass floating around the waterfront. Bad actors make even the good guys look bad by association. Tournaments were not the whole problem as the water went down to an extremely low level and the summers were very hot. I can’t figure out exactly what caused the rest of the problem and none of the good fishermen I have asked have offered up a concrete answer. But bass fishing in Ferguson is terrible. In a recent large tournament the man that won it caught his 10 lbs that won it in the Arkansas River. This summer I waited until the water dropped to the level where some of my best spots should have been great. I didn’t catch a fish. I went the Sportsman a few weeks ago looking for a particular crank bait and they had taken up all the fishing stuff . Shows you how bad it is. All is not lost if you have a little time. When I took my jaunt on the lake there were thousands of small bass that were 4 inches long. In a couple of years things should pick up. Nature has tremendous regenerative power.

I went to Lake X Saturday morning. Sunday would have been my preferred day but Saturday had to be it. A slight North wind that was not too strong but it was from the North. The major period was supposed to be right after noon and I really figured that would be when it would happen but I went early anyway. Nothing happened early but I tried anyway only to be shut out on any bites. The depth finder was on side scan because I was looking for anything that you couldn’t see figuring anything seen would have been fished hard and any fish there would have been educated. A whole log showed up but I did not mark it and I hunted for it with a Carolina rig. Found it and got a bite, set the hook and after a short fight was hung up. That log was in a deeper part of the lake so I started looking deeper. Getting closer to the period, I had another deeper bite on a chigger craw and had a powerful fish pick it up and make a blazing run pulling drag until the hook pulled out. The day was not going well. Next I tried a shallow spot where the fish will sometimes congregate to feed and actually caught one. Shortly after I caught a 4 pounder in a log pile after getting hung up and finally getting it out. By then the bite was pretty much over but I checked all the good spots with no results anyway. Nothing , so I headed home disappointed since I had let a good one get away.

Monday morning after a long turkey hunting recess I hooked up and went to Bussey. The large fish being caught there drew me like a magnet. Fishing started around 8:30. One of the main reasons of going was to make sure I could still go and get in and out of the lake. There were 25 trucks in the parking lot and half of the boats were spread out for the first quarter mile down the ditch. I went out into the lake on the east side to start. It’s a jungle of dead willow trees mostly and fishing that kind of cover is not my forte but I was determined to do it. I started with a jig and a craw trailer and it took a long time to get a bite. There were lily pads just coming out so there was temptation to fish with something else but I held my ground. Finally I did get a bite and it was so surprising I almost waited too long to set the hook. It was a 3 3/4 and shortly thereafter another small bass <2 pounds. I circled that area twice but no more bites. Every now and then I made a circle out in the pads with a swimbait but the water was a little dirty, 8 inch visibility. There was a guy sitting with his boat run up in between a couple of trees. He sat there for 20 minutes making short casts to the same spot. I put on the spot lock and got out my binoculars. He was looking at his screen in front obviously a forward facing sonar, and looking at a big fish but couldn’t make it bite. I left there and went to a place where Jackson and I had caught some fish in some bushes next to some lily pads. This place was not as wind protected as where I had been fishing and the wind made it impossible to fish a jig so I picked up a swimbait and fished in the pads. I thought the water was not clear enough for a swimbait but to my surprise I caught another 3 pounder. Three fish for the day , none as large as the ones you read about coming from Bussey but a good day nevertheless.

Sunday morning I went to church for the 8:30 service then went home and prepared for fishing. I started at 12:30 with a jig, a Rugby head with plastic, a Keitech swimbait and a 3/4 oz Red Eye Shad tied on. The wind was blowing about 10 MPH out of the Southeast making fishing with plastic a little problematic, so the swimbait got the call. Also I figured the bass would be on the bank. I haven’t been fishing in a while with a swimbait so I had to remind myself to wait half a count before setting the hook. That reminder came in handy very soon as a good solid thump bite came before I reached the first light pole. A good fight ensued and soon I reached down and pulled in an 8-0. Pretty good start I thought. Wanting to get the fish back into the water quickly, I forewent trying for a photo. The fish was so fat, I’m sure with eggs, it looked like it was about to pop. After a few more casts I threw downwind with the Red Eye, mainly to get the new line straightened out, and was surprised to get a bite. Another bass looking as if it would pop but this time about 2 1/2 pounds. After a start like that I got to expecting more, but as has happened in the past not so. Things slowed to a stop for a couple of hours, nothing . Finally on the windblown end another tap on the swimbait and another 2 pounder , this one not fat, must have been a male. The first time I went to Lake X was about this time of year and the fish were on the bank so that’s where I fished yesterday. If I had it to do over I’d try a little more of the wood out in the middle with plastic but if they quit on the bank they were probably quit out there too. Other than the 8, the other good thing that happened was that all my reels worked perfectly after being taken completely apart, lubricated, and fresh line put on. No backlashes or other problems.

I started fishing a little before 10 It didn’t take long before I caught the first fish which was an enormous relief because of the scolding on the previous two trips there. A second one followed quickly also good. They were on a shallow top, or actually a branch. One on a Booyah and the other on a Shaky head on that same branch. I worked around to another shallow spot with a whole tree on the bank and some of the top was in the water. Caught 2 there on a Booyah and one nearby on a DT6. I circled the hole keying on shallow wood and managed to catch a few more. There is a standing tree out in the middle in 13 feet of water that’s been there since at least the 1960’s. The water level has to be extremely low for it to peek out. It is not in shallow water but I had to give it a few casts and caught one on a DT6. On the second time around the hole things changed a little. The fish were on a little deeper wood and I even saw some out in the open chasing shad and was able to catch one of those. There were only 4 more bites than the 11 fish I caught, so they were biting to eat. Had problems with shaky heads hanging up around all the cover. I finally ditched the shaky head and put on a rugby head, much more weedless. I quit at 2 with 11 fish and a 2 1/2 FOD. Did I say the wind was blowing? About 20 MPH and the boat was doing DOSEY DOEs all afternoon.

This afternoon I drove to Blackhawk to fish with Ben in one of the lakes there. We started fishing around 1:45 and the water was slightly turbid with visibility a little over 6 in. Ben started fishing with a flat max crankbait and I used a rapala DTF3. Ben caught one on about the third cast which was a good sign. The flat Max caught two more in rapid succession while the DTF3 didn’t get a bite. I changed to a booyah spinnerbait and things started picking up a little. We circle the lake twice and ended up catching 18, 14 of which we took out. Ben caught this beautiful 6 lb. 1 oz. Bass. We weighed it on both Ben’s scale and my scale which is over 10 years old. Both read the same. We quit about 5:00 or maybe a little later. Great afternoon!

I met Hal at Enid yesterday morning at 8 a.m.. He had his new Alweld 17/52 with a 60 Yamaha tiller steer in tow. The boat is nice with plenty of storage and lots of room for my stuff in the back. It has depth finders front and at the helm which I found particularly nice. The one in the back is a new Humminbird with Mega imaging which gives super detailed picture of what is below.

The fishing started off slow, I’m sure due to a recent cold front passing and due to the fact it WAS cold. We only caught one at the “Two Sisters” after furrowing the bottom. Then it was one here and there. I had heard of a tournament being won at a top on Point 5 a few weeks ago and didn’t know where that particular top was. It was showing so now I know. Nothing on it now. All the regular spots held nothing until we got to the Rocks that is one of my favorite spots. There were some small ones there but not too many. We ended up with 9 and an unweighed FOD of around 4 pounds. Baits were spinnerbait, plastic, DT-6 and Hybrid Hunter from Strike King.

Ben called and wanted to take advantage of the weather change to manage the fish population in one of his ponds. He said Thursday afternoon at 2:00 the pressure was forecast to start dropping and the fish should be ready to feed up. He was dead on ! When we arrived at the pond it was obvious the fish were feeding. We launched and started catching immediately. The drouth has caused the water level to be down by 3 feet or more concentrating the fish and the shad in the deepest part of the pond. It was basically cast around the boat in any direction especially where the creek was located. Pretty quickly he came out with a 5-15 pound fish that had a 7 pound head. As we traveled back toward the shallower part of the pond the bites stopped and so did any sign of baitfish so we turned around and got back out in the middle. This 9-1 came out then.

You can see the bare bank of the pond in the background. Rain began to threaten but putting on a rain suit top scared it off for a while. Ben was fishing with a Bandit flat maxx and a DT-6 and I fished with a DT-6, an unknown crankbait and a Strike King king shad jointed swimbait that I put on to try and it did pretty well. I had a couple of “failing to retie fiascos” but otherwise a good day. The rain appeared to be imminent and “discretion is the better part of valor” so we put the boat on the trailer with a cooler of bass.

We ended up with around 30 counting the extreme tight eyes that were thrown back and of course the bigger fish. A great afternoon with the weather perfectly played. I’m going to consult with Ben before going fishing again so I can get the right day weather wise. He had it dialed in.