They shocked Lake X Friday for a fish census and I went yesterday. I’m using that for an excuse for catching only one (5-1) on the only real bite I got except for the catfish. Caught 3 of those on plastic . Also saw and dipped up a bass in distress swimming in circles. The 5 1/2 pound fish looked fine fat and healthy with no wounds and had not been hooked deep. I put it back and did not see it when I left but recovery was doubtful. As I was loading the boat a mature bald eagle flew by and lit in a tree next to the pond. It may have been looking for stragglers. Don’t think it could have picked up that fish out of the water but I would have liked to see it try.

Went to Lake Chicot Saturday morning breaking my “no public lakes on the weekend “rule. Had some tips but they were weeks old. The lake was down a good bit. Caught a tight eye in the first place on a red eye shad getting rid of the threat of a skunk. I tried brush around some docks on the shallow side but most was not deep enough. Tried a Booyah some shallow cypress trees with 2 feet of water around them and caught one quickly but no more and the trees ran out. Moved to a place they used to school up years ago along a slick bank with a couple of brush piles. Couldn’t get any interest with a small red eye but saw some bass activity. Changed to a Booyah and caught three going down a slick bank, largest 2 1/2. Checked on the squirrel log and it was gone but saw a couple of rock piles and marked them for deeper times. Wanted to go to the deep side but lots of boats visiting the docks there. Water in Chicot was beautiful and was full of threadfin shad. I will go back on a weekday but maybe to the north end.

It took two tries to get there. The first ended in this.

I noticed the boat had a lean to it and started to slow down but then heard the roar when the tire disintegrated. Had a jack and blocks so no problem changing but did not like the looks of my spare. Was half way there so a U turn and back home and then to the tire store for two new tires. Better be safe than sorry. The next day, Thursday, all went well. Got a nip on the second cast and several more but after getting optimistic when reality set in I figured they were bream because I caught one. I did chase the skunk off relatively early but no more until just after noon. I had become dejected thinking I had overcome all the problems the day before just to get there and have a water haul, so took a ride. Wolf Lake is long and I rode almost to the other end, turned around and was coming back when I passed some trees where I used to catch some fish. There were 5 trees and one yielded a small bass. Enthused, I figured that would give me about 300 yards to catch another or I would be homeward bound. Caught another in about 150 yards with a 1/4 ounce Booyah. Another 300 yards and another small bass. That continued until I caught 7 missing only one bite. They were all small and shallow, some in just a foot of water. Even though the fish were small I felt like I had pulled the fat out of the fire. When looking for the tire picture I ran across the following picture taken September 15, 2006 at Enid. Hal and I caught those bass on the “old fart” point at the same time.

Hal caught this 4 1/2 by the first visible stump that we fished using a Berkley Slobbernocker. The water around the stump was probably 4 feet deep. It was one of the few stumps visible. We had already caught a couple of small ones around some brush in shallow water and blind casting where there were a limb sticking up here and there. After this we went to the ” Longbranch stump” that Hal had marked on his GPS map. It was under the water but it was found exactly with a DT-6 and then probed with plastic where a 5 came out and later a 5 inch bass came out on a DT-6. Two 5’s, the largest and the smallest of the day in the same spot. From there we fished a couple of great looking spots, one being a large bush and the other a large top with plenty of limbs but nothing at either. From there we went to where some rocks cut down into the water and continued out to about 7 feet deep. There were some underwater brush piles also. We were using plastic as well as DT-6’s and the Slobbernocker. We caught a couple on DT-6’s and I started using a worm. When I had gotten through the good spot, I quickly reeled it in and just as it came out of the water a 4 pounder just blasted it right at my feet almost. It must have stunned me a little, because I didn’t snatch the bait out of the fish’s mouth. Due to the delay, when I did set the hook I had a live 4 pounder on with about 4 feet of line out. It was a rodeo going on at the back of the boat for a couple of minutes. A little later I thought my DT-6 was on the rocks and when it became apparent that it was actually a fish, I set the hook. The biggest fish of the day then came up and the hook came out. We guessed 5 +. We tried several other spots to no avail and only caught one more small one. We quit around 3:00 with 11 fish. The water is falling about .18 foot per day . The lake needs to fall a little more so more of the stumps will be visible. The visibility was about a foot and a half and the water temp is in the low 80’s.

In the middle of having the worst fishing year in some time, I decided to try something new to maybe shake me out of the slump. This new bait arrangement might help perhaps.

I saw these in the store and they caught my eye so why not catch the fish’s eye also. The Eagle Claw’s weedless hook was an important addition as it turned out. The Garhole was low and had not been visited recently as seen by the lack of tracks on the landing. There was a reason for that as I would find out later. The water was beautiful with about 2 foot visibility and 83 degree temperature. On the third cast at the first treetop there was a bite but it was a gar and on the next one a gar follow up. Finally a bass grabbed it and was caught, small however. The weedless hook allowed a throw into the middle of a top without getting hung. It worked a lot better than I thought it would. The bait worked well when fish were present but the only ones I could find were deep in the tops and were small. I fished deep too with it and extensively around the 5 pound log where the depth is around 16 feet. Deepest water I could find was 23.5 feet. I even fished in the middle with a jerk bait but no bass only a magnum gar about 5 feet long. When it got close enough to the boat it got the paddle treatment and gave my bait back. Only 3 fish for the day not including a 3 pound catfish with the bubblegum worm. The Garhole seems to have gone bad just like Lake Ferguson but no tournaments on the Garhole.

Ben called a little before lunch Monday and invited me to go fishing at one of his lakes at Blackhawk. We first went to his spot at 5 or 6 pines, I can’t remember which. His house is situated on a high point above a nice large lake. Beautiful setting. After leaving his dog we proceeded down the road a few miles to his wife’s family property where there are two more lakes. After we launched the fish were biting. Thunder was in the area which cooled things off. Ben had a Bandit flat max and a worm on and I had a DT 6 and a large worm on. We were keeping the small fish and they were really cooperating. After a while, a thunderstorm chased us to the truck where we rested for 30 minutes. The rain cooled things off and made it most pleasant fishing. Fishing started back with Ben catching a 6 1/2 on his Bandit. There have been some big fish caught in that lake, one over 10 at least. When we finished there were over 20 fish in the box and we had released 3 over 5 pounds along with some others. What a great afternoon of fishing !

Knowing it was going to get extremely hot Friday and hoping to get through fishing before noon, Mickey and I went to Lake X and started fishing at 5:35, first cast. A whopper Plopper was the bait last time we fished there so that is what we started with. Lake was slick, just perfect, but there was no interest. We graduated down the bait chain, Crazy shads, worms, Carolinas, red eye shads and finally Mickey had one on with a red eye shad but the bait had ticked a brush pile , which probably prompted the strike. The fish dove back into the brush, got hung up and pulled off. Then we fished for hours without even a bite mostly with worms and Carolinas. Those fish usually will at least bite, they may be up in a tree top and hang you up, but they will bite. Finally, around 10 we caught a 3 3/4 that bit a worm with the electrifying tap, just like they are supposed to. There was hope that things were going to change but the did not. The best thing about the day was the nice breeze that kept us from heatstroke. We know that lake is full of fish. Sometimes they just don’t bite.

EDIT: It turns out it was a bad day all over. Hal went to a beaver pond where he usually catches 25+ and caught 2 or 3. A man told me about how he was feeding his catfish and they wouldn’t even eat. All on Friday.

Since it was forecast to be 102 for a high today, Jackson and I decided to go fishing early and quit before the heat became unbearable. Also factored into the equation was there was a major period that was supposed to start at 6:53. At 5:45 we were in the lake at the place where the fish were chasing shad the last time we were there. Again they were chasing shad and hitting on top in the lily pads. There were missed bites but Jackson caught 2 right off the bat on a hollow body frog. The pads there were not conducive to fishing a Ribbit and it was not working so I hurriedly put on a Booyah Pad Crasher Jr. Soon one hit it and upon hookset the fight was on, but not for long because the line broke. It was a relatively small fish but the line had not been retied, my bad. Jackson gave me a frog but the best I could do was to get one to hit at it and knock it up on to a pad. Next I tried a swim jig and was able to catch some relatively small fish. The bites shut down fairly quickly so we tried some other places but with no luck. In that lake there are acres and acres of lily pads, an many were blooming. In one place where we had the wind blowing toward us and from the blooming pads we could smell their fragrance. It is in general a lovely spot. At about 10 we returned to the starting point because we knew the bass were still there and we were determined to make them bite. They did not comply except for one that came up and kissed the bait and might as well have kissed us goodbye because we promptly left. Ended up with 5 bass at 11:00 before the heat.

Mickey and I went to the waterfront at around 2:30 yesterday afternoon. There were no double axle trailers to be seen which was a bad omen. As we launched, we talked to a guy that had caught “6 or 8” that morning on a spinnerbait just walking the waterfront. Probably some of the 234 fish from the tournament on the weekend that were released there. We went North where the smooth water was and there was also a wake boat there seeking the smooth water. We fished our spots but caught only 1 bass. Probably didn’t fish deep enough. First time on Ferguson in a while but poor results.

Mickey and I started fishing at 6:30, he with the crazy shad and me with a whopper plopper. One immediately hit the plopper and took it into a top. The next one came to the boat but when it got there, I knew better, I reached down and grabbed its jaw and when I did it shook and stuck the plopper hook through the skin and almost back out of my left index finger. Mickey came and unhooked the fish but I had to deal with unhooking me. I grabbed the hook with the pliers, took my left thumb and gently pushed the hook out . The barb was doing its job but the hook could be gently pushed out without too much pain. It bled a good bit but with a paper towel and a band aide it soon stopped both bleeding and hurting and did not get in the way of the rest of the trip. After that, I threw parallel to the bank and saw a wake rise up behind the plopper. I stopped it and a 6 1/2 loaded on. The top water bite subsided and it was worm time but it was not like usual with the bass deep in the tops. Most were along the bank. Out in the middle the Carolina rigs came out and we had it going on for a while. A 6 1/4 came from that along with some others. A little after noon the Carolina bite went away so we packed it in. 14 total bass and two catfish caught on a Carolina rig.