There was a thin skim of ice on Lake Whittington this morning when I went to the Garhole. The water temp there was a balmy 47 to start and rose to 51 before the day was over. The water was so clear that you could stick a 7 foot rod in the water up to the handle and still see a white spot that is your bait. The first fish was a 2 lb 4 oz crappie caught on a DTF-3 out in the middle pulled slow and paused now and then. A carp also came too close and the Rapala hooks snagged him too. Three bass were caught none of any size. They bit a DTF-7. Had a couple more bites but they are sluggish.  Since the landing was too muddy for me to launch my boat, I liberated a boat from the woods (from the flood last spring) , installed a Walmart plastic chair for a seat and cast off. It did pretty well, didn’t leak much, but went sideways.

I hope some better fishing weather is coming with it.  The weather only lets you fish a few days this time of year and the good ones have all been occupied with other things to do.  One of the best strings of bass I ever was in on was caught in February in upper Lake Ferguson in the early 70’s.  It was on a windy day (SW) where you had to go with the wind. Hal and I caught 27 bass that weighed 87 pounds, on cordell hot spots. Here is the picture from the Delta Democrat Times.  Once again before the days of catch and release. That day gave the name to the 87 pound treeline.  The lake was high and falling fast which had the fish on the outside edge of the trees. The next day the cold front had come through and our two boats only caught 4 or 5.

I received news that Taff and partner came in second in the Team Trails tournament on Lake Chicot Saturday.   Two tournaments and a first and a second. Pretty impressive. No details yet.

More stats came in from Hal on 2008. Of his 143 trips, 62 were on the BVL,  where he caught 1255 fish, one of which weighed 10 pounds even. Also 10 trips were in Canada in the boundary waters. He caught 224 smallmouth, 2 largemouth, 43 northern pike,15 walleye, and 1 lake trout. He also caught 27 over 4 and was skunked only 4 times.

Caught the year’s first bass Friday about 30 minutes after launching. A “solid” 5 pounder, as Sandy Ingram would say. The scales in the picture say 4-15 but when I stopped jiggling them while trying to take my picture they settled to 5-0.If you click on the picture it will blow up enough for you to read the scales. After catching that one, I thought I was going to tear them up, WRONG. Not another bite until 3 p.m. when I quit.  Caught it on a King Shad swimbait in 13 feet of clear water.

The next photo is of Frank Howell and his flyfishing craft, the Titanic.  That would be a great craft for the garhole except for the 10 foot alligator that resides there.

Hal emailed me recently with his total for 2008.   2025 bass !!  He said the details will follow soon and they will be posted here. Hal keeps detailed records so it may take a while.  He fished 143 trips. More details to follow.