This morning I was a little tardy, getting to the lake around 9:00. The lake is getting down closer to where I like it, so the first spot on my agenda was the 70 bank. I had a DT-6 tied on but decided to start out with a red eye shad because of the great luck with it last year. The red eye didn’t take long to catch one which made for great optimism but catching another took a little time. I was kind of like a dog siphoing, can smell it but just can’t find it. First one way and then another didn’t help, even though I caught another. The spot where the fish were the last time on Ferguson seemed like the next spot that needed checking out. I tried it with a DT-6 and 10 but nothing. When I threw the DT-10 the first time I noticed a little movement in the reel. Yesterday I found a small screw in the bottom of the boat and not knowing where it came from put it away so it could be found again. One of the screws from the reel was missing. It was one whose threads in the side plate of the reel was almost stripped. I hoped it would hold together until I could get home and hopefully make repairs. It is an old Shimano Caenan 100, a relatively cheap reel that I bought for cranking knowing that it would wear out. It will cast a mile and I have caught many fish on it. The JB Weld is drying in the holes as I write. I’ll drill it out a little and the screws will cut new threads. I hope. That’s the plan. Just for grins, I tried a River 2 Sea tactical DD crankbait that is supposed to go very deep without making you strain to get it there. Had to throw it out toward the middle of the lake where the water was deep enough. Four pounder on the first cast ! Once again optimism came bubbling up, but could not catch another. The water was 19 feet deep there. I pulled out the worm and another four pounder. I sat there with the spot lock on and every now and then one would bite. The worm bites were very subtle. Had to keep your mind on your business. Several times I told myself I was going to move after a few more casts only to catch another fish and decide to stay. Finally I left and went to a place Mickey and I caught 27 straight a couple of years ago. Caught one on the first cast and one on the second but no more, but they were relatively shallow. Went back to the deep spot and got one more bite but the fish pulled off quickly. It was time to quit after a good day. 16 bass. The FOD was 5 even, there were 4 in the four pound range, mostly close to 4, there were 4 in the three pound range and all but 2 of the rest were decent. Very good day on Ferguson.

Thursday afternoon I went to Ferguson for the first time this year. Arrived at the city front around 4:00. I pulled the boat over a gravel road a couple of days ago and evidently the dust/ sand accumulated in one of my ratchet straps and for a while it looked like I might not be able to get the boat off of the trailer short of a pocket knife. Between some 409 spray cleaner and some John Deere solvent/lubricant (some good stuff) I was able to get the strap to release enough to unfasten the hook. That minor problem solved, I headed South to try some places that in the past have been productive at this water level but nobody was home. Caught only one small bass and snagged a carp. Luckily the DT-6 was saved by the boat hook. After seeing there was not too much going on in those type of spots I headed North and stopped at the number one spot where again nothing was going on. I was in the reconnaissance mode and went to look for a way to get back into the cowpen, not for now, but for next spring. I saw it studying Google Maps and wanted to see exactly where it was so I could find it again. That found, I went into the upper lake by cutting through what used to be a stand of willows. There were a tremendous number of willows that were all the way dead everywhere in the lake, no green leaves on them at all. The high water that has persisted for the last several years has taken its toll on the willows. There is a good side to it however, the bass fishing has been great because of the same high water. In the upper lake, I managed to find a few small bass and caught 9 with a N/A FOD and another carp where again the DT-6 was saved by the boat hook. The thought came to mind that a frog grab on the end of a pole would be a quicker way to deal with a snagged carp. If the frequency of snagged carp continues, I may look into a grab.

I went this morning but late because the tables said the bite was going to be in the afternoon. First cast was at 10:30 and I could have waited a couple of hours more. It was a bluebird sky with a slight North wind that I was thankful for because of the heat. Nothing was going on to start, could not even get the tight eyes to bite. Finally things started to happen when I caught one on a DT-6 and another one was trying to take the bait out of its mouth. You could really see it happening in the clear water. I could stick a 6 1/2 foot rod down to the first guide from the reel and could still see the bait on the end of the rod, 4 1/2 feet I guessed. I couldn’t get anything else going after trying all my good spots. Then I went deep with worms and even a River 2 See Tactical DD that is supposed to be able to pull the drain plug out. It casted pretty well and went deep but it did not pull out the plug nor did it catch a fish. It did provide a little anxiety when the $15 bait got hung up. I take my gitter with me everywhere and thought I was going to have to break it out but when I got on the back side and pulled gently, the DD came out. I threw the DT-6 by a top and did not realize there were some sunken vines there. The bait got hung up but a bass scarfed it and was hung. I went over to try to sort out the situation and there were 3 other 2 1/2 pounders trying to get the bait. Alas the line had been pulled back and forth too many times and the DT-6 was gone. I had seen it sinking a few minutes before so I knew there was no use to hope it would float up. A few more places along that same bank were good and had multiple fish hanging around made the day a little better. A 5-11 that was under an overhanging limb made it a lot better. I threw back under the same limb and got a bite from another big fish but it turned out to be a catfish that I guessed was around 7 pounds. I had also caught a sliver carp and a grinner on that DT-6. The grinner broke off one of the hooks but not before I gaffed it with the boat hook. My net completely rotted in the high water so until I get a new one I have started to gaff unwanted species. After the 5-11 the bite was slowing but I managed to catch a few more. I ended up with 13 bass and caught a grinner, a silver carp, a catfish and even a bream on a versatile DT-6.

Jackson and I put in the lake this morning at Daylight with thunder storms all around the area. I had put on the rain suit before I even got in the boat. The lake was slick and perfect for fishing top water. We fished down a bank where Jackson had caught some a few days ago. I was using a cripple killer and Jackson was using a small popper of some sort. We caught a few small ones and I let about a 2 pounder throw the hook. Thunder was all around but not too much rain. We went back in the trees at one place and Jackson caught a 5.30 on a buzz bait. He had reamed out the hole in the blades to change the sound a little. The bass seemed to like it. The fish were active but some just were missing the bait. The buzz was good running it over the partially submerged cypress limbs and aggravating the fish into striking. When we got out of the trees we could see waves down the lake a good ways and went down to investigate. A school of shad was frolicking in the middle of the lake with nothing chasing them. They ran right under a big green cypress limb and nothing happened. It was time to leave that spot. We moved toward the ramp because the thunder was picking up. We found a few small fish sort of schooled up and biting just about anything you wanted to throw. We caught a few more there but the thunder was getting closer. It was time to go. Usually I want to make “just a few more casts”, but not today . Surprisingly, we used better judgement and headed in. Probably 16 fish came into the boat. “Probably” was because we didn’t keep an exact count. Enterprise is full of scattered fish. On the way home I ran into a wall of rain at Bayou Grain and it lasted all the way to the River bridge.

Headed to Wolf Lake this morning with unbridled optimism. I was watching the radar but I figured I could get in 2+ hours of fishing, judging by the way the rain was moving. Fishing started at 6:30 with a Booyah spinnerbait. I was expecting smaller fish. The fish were not concentrated as I had expected / hoped. Usually early in the year the fish will be on a line of cypress trees that are openly spaced allowing for ease of fishing them. No one was home out on the trees but a few were up very close to the bank. When there were no bites for a while I decided to move and figured I might as well go to the best spot. The last time Mickey and I were there it was every cast for a long time. Today, not a bite. I just picked out a bank and went down it, but switched to a swim jig. Many of the bites were as soon as the bait hit the water. I noticed today that the paddlefish were jumping more than normal for some reason. I also noticed that the lake is full of big gars, probably more than Lake Ferguson. One grabbed my swim jig and I thought it was the FOD. It was not the largest one that I saw but it was more than I wanted to fool with. I really wanted to save the swim jig.

It fought out to the open water where I put the trolling motor on spot lock and got out my boathook. After it came by a few times like in the photo, I was able to extricate it from my swim jig. The fish finally quit biting and so I quit with 20 bass and a FOD of 2+ pounds.

On the other hand Jackson and Ben were fishing in Port Gibson and had a great trip. Jackson caught a 7 3/4 and Ben caught a good one too. On an afternoon trip and the next morning they caught ~35 fish.

Mickey and I played hooky from church Sunday to go to the big bass Lake X. We launched at 6:00 so as not to miss any chance for a top water bite. The lake was slick and the water was just the way I like it, with about 2 feet of visibility. No top water bites though. I had seen a little movement and flipped a worm over it that direction and got a 5-1 out of the deal. A great start. A little later, Mickey was fishing in some logs underwater when he got a bite that took him into the logs. He persevered and coaxed the fish out and it was a 5-14. Right at 11 pounds right off the bat was a pretty good start. By then we figured out that the fish were close to the cover and started fishing all that we could see. We had a few more instances where the fish bit and immediately went down into the logs. I had some new line, Fluoroshield, that broke quite easily and it snapped some times when it should not have. Hanging up was just a fact of life, and when trying to shake your worm off, twice fish took it off for us. Caught some of those and missed some. It was obvious around 10:30 that someone flipped the switch and the bite was on. I was watching the depthfinder and we passed over a hump. When I mentioned it, Mickey threw a DT-6 over it, had a bite and the hook was thrown immediately. Not perturbed he threw back and caught one. We started fishing with the DT-6’s because the fish were out of hiding and out on the prowl. It was also obvious when things slowed down. The bite lasted about an hour and a half. In lake X you release all fish over 16 inches and keep all under 16. We released 4 and kept 4. Should have caught 16. The lake is extremely well done but just had some amateurs fishing on it Sunday.

Jackson and I were in the boat this morning at 6:00 and ready to fish. The lake has changed in that there are a lot less lily pads in some places and there is more coontail moss everywhere under the water. It was relatively dark and we really couldn’t see where the pads were so we felt our way until they appeared. I had a Ribbit on because that was the main reason I wanted to go there. Right away a tighteye came from a couple of feet away and made a break at my bait but did not hit it. A short time later the same thing happened but an even smaller fish. At least there was action and we figured that things would pick up as soon as we found the fish. A fish finally hit the Ribbit and got caught but it was not much to it. We were still optimistic. A good bit later Jackson had on a chatterbait and caught 2 in a few minutes of each other. We thought we had it figured out but again we could not reproduce those results. Closer to noon we had a few more bites but only caught one because the fish have to have the bait in their mouth for you to catch them. Most of the fish were just hitting at the bait or grabbing the legs and not really meaning to eat it. We ended up with 4 fish and went home relatively early.

Thursday was the first opportunity to go fishing in quite some time. Dr. appointments, weather and “events” have had my calendar jammed up. In the meantime I have ordered some replacements for baits lost last fall and a few extra things. Today was going to be the test of the new things, a reel, a new line and a new bait. The reel was a Shimano SLX70 MGL 8.2. It was Hal’s idea. He gave himself a new reel for his birthday so I thought I might do the same. The line was Fluoroshield again Hal’s idea because he had some and liked it. The bait was a Strike King KVD 1.5 Deep Squarebill that is supposed to go 8 feet deep, just a little deeper than a DT-6. When I hit the levee this morning the cows were all standing and eating which was a good sign but it was the only one. The wind was hawking out of the North and was cold and not a cloud in the sky. Bluebird day. The roads were posted “ATV Only” so here was my transportation. Cold it was.

Fishing started at 8. First up was the new reel on the rod I use for plastics. The reel cast so easy the first cast went up on the bank. Five stars+. Next came the new line with the new crankbait tied on . The line was five stars too. It was on the rod and reel I use with a DT-6 and needs to cast a long way and it did that easily with no issues (backlashes). I think I’m going to put it on another one of my rods. The new bait became hung up twice in the first 5 minutes which made me rather dubious but that may have been happenstance. A little more worrisome was that the bait sometimes would just do a loop the loop on the retrieve for no apparent reason. I don’t think it went 8 feet deep either. The jury is still out on it because it did catch the FOD. To start, good bites were hard to come by. I finally figured out the fish were very close to the bank and you had to hit them on the head with the bait before they would bite. It was a plastic day although a couple hit the swim jig and one hit the squarebill, the 3 1/2 FOD. Even down in the bowl that is the Garhole the wind made fishing difficult. You know it must have been because I quit at 2:00. Only caught 10. Might take up bream fishing, they were everywhere. I also saw this snapping turtle preparing to lay eggs on an almost vertical embankment. It was digging the hole and I tried not to scare it off but it left shortly after I went by. There is nothing in the photo to enable you to judge the size but that joker was big.

Since the turkeys have been giving me, and everyone else, the silent treatment, I told turkey season goodbye by going to the Garhole fishing Saturday. The Garhole boat was bunged up a little in the high water and although it was straightened out a little I wanted to check it out by fishing in it. Since the rain and the loggers, the road has been posted “ATV Only” so I packed up all my gear on the Yamaha 4 wheeler and drove down. The mosquitoes and gnats were present in force, especially on the bank. I had my Buggins for the gnats, but it does not help with the mosquitoes. This shortens the boat preparation time as it puts you in a hurry. The sun protection that I wear gives good protection from the gnats but the mosquitoes can bite right through it if it is touching the skin. First cast was at 8:15. Another person was fishing and had been there since daylight and they allowed that they had caught a few early on a buzz bait but that things had slowed. Indeed ! 11:00 and still no fish in the boat. A precious few bites but none in the boat. Finally at 11:15 a 3 1/4 hit a swim jig when it came across the end of a green bush in shallow water. The skunk was gone. A skunk in the Garhole would be a major negative event. A little later a 3 3/4 hit the swim jig after missing on the first try. I reached a place where I thought a worm would be better and it was, because I caught 3 in succession. Back on the swim jig, I hung on a root when I cast at a vertical bank. I jiggled the bait trying to get it loose and a tighteye tried to help and after 4 try’s finally did by knocking it loose and swimming off with it. It was too small and did not have the hook in its mouth when I set the hook. There were two other instances where my bait was hung on something and a fish should not have been caught but was. I made a cast under a cypress tree that had a 1 inch vine hanging down vertically. The line wrapped around because of a sidearm cast and the bait came down and just touched the water. A fish hit it immediately and to my surprise hung itself. I rushed over and retrieved it. Later I saw a fish hit under some cottonwood cotton and other debris. When I cast a worm over, it hit the bank that was covered with vines and got hung. All the shaking in the world wouldn’t get it loose. Already right on top of the fish, I grabbed the swim jig rod and just dropped the bait through the cotton. The fish grabbed it and ran and later came to the boat. A few more fish and it became hard to get a bite. Thinking about how bad the bugs would be around dark, I quit at 4:00. I caught an even 20 with the aforementioned 3 3/4 FOD. In fishing in the boat all day I came to the realization that a deck replacement is not necessary. It appears a limb fell on the front deck and scarred it in two places rather than a rodent. I believe some heavy painting over the two damaged places will do the trick. A thorough leaf blower cleanout would not hurt either.

When Hal and I went fishing the last time in the Garhole, the river was forecast to just barely get in. After that the forecast gradually but steadily went up, finally ending four feet higher than the first forecast. Usually I will pull the boat out when that is forecast but not this time. Thought I was going to get by without that. When the water finally went down, I ventured down to look and this is what I found.

It had a front end that was full of water, some rodent had chewed on the front deck in a couple of places, and where the water was the slime had made it too slick to walk on. A general mess. Add to that the gnats and mosquitoes were swarming. I had come prepared for them however because they had tormented me a couple of days before so I broke out a head net.

After dipping most of the water out, I put the plug in and pushed it off into the water. The winch was in the wrong spot so it had to be moved by tightening up the chain that secures it to a tree. Then the rack had to be put into alignment, and a brand new rope installed on the winch. Hardest part was pulling the two concrete blocks on the bottom of the winch up the bank. All that done, I winched the boat up onto the rack and pulled the plug and drained out the last of the water.

It looks ready to go but it is going to have to be repaired. Where the rodent chewed on the deck will let moisture in and soon cause the deck to rot. Going to have to put on a new deck. I put this together in 2011 so after 10 years, most of the time sitting on the bank out in the weather, it has had a good run and is about time for a little work to be done to it.