The rain has delayed the fishing this week. The farmers are catching hell getting their crops out because of it.  They are the ones that have the right to complain.  Four mornings this week I’ve awakened at 4:30 to just look at the radar and go back to bed. This morning was no different but at 8:00 the rain had passed Monticello. I started fishing  at 11 and was able to watch the first bass swallow my swimbait right next to the boat at 11:40.  3 – 13.  Later I caught a 5 -5 when it ate the bait on the fall. It made an all the way out of the water jump but the 8/0 Gamakatsu hook had him so well I had to get the pliers to get the hook out. Ran into some schooling bass later and caught  one on a Rapala DTF 3. They kept schooling but I couldn’t make them bite. Finally I put on a 3  1/2 inch swimbait with a jig head and caught one but it was a stripe rather than a black bass. Most of the schoolers were stripes. The wind started to pick up and the sky began to darken so at that point, frustrated by the schooling bass, I quit.

Hal went back to Enid today, I think, trying to break 100.  Did not quite make it. Only 87.  A lot of 1 1/4 to 2 1/2s. FOD was, 2 – 13 or thereabouts. They were caught on spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and shakeyhead trickworms.  Some were caught in a small creek and some were out of the creek in the 3 foot shallows.

Went back to the 8 – 3 lake with visions of catching some more good ones. It was not to be. A 2 – 13 saved the day. Got some bites but they just didn’t really want it. I saw a guy fishing with a tripod, camcorder attached,  sticking out of the hole the back seat pedastal goes in . I guess he wants the video when he catches a 10 pounder.  If I did that, I would not catch a fish for a month.

Hal just called and said he caught 74 on Enid today. He caught them in one of the flooded creeks where the water was a couple of feet over the bank of the creek. Most were caught on a spinnerbait, but later when they would only bump it, a small worm was needed to seal the deal. FOD was 4 and most were 1 1/4 to 2 1/2. He said he did not really find the fish until 2:30. He’s going back Wednesday and I get the feeling he’s going to try to break 100.

I have been thinking about trying florocarbon on one rod and reel that I use a lot in clear water to fish a swimbait. The line is said to be hard to see underwater and sinks, which will help the swimbait stay down on the retrieve.  Flurocarbon line is a complex subject so I found a good objective reviewing spot on the net http://www.tackletour.com/menulines.html , two good in depth articles at this site. There were large differences in the performance of different brands.  Taff was also nice enough to give his perspective since he uses it. I’m still a little confused because there are so many factors to look at: line brand,  price (much higher than mono), wet and dry strength, abrasion resistance, underwater visibility, wet and dry stretch, and knot strength just to name a few.  The only definite conclusion is the Palomar knot holds the best, but still less than 90% than the line’s rated strength. One important subject not covered is castability.  That may not be a big issue with a swimbait as they are big and heavy and are lobbed rather than cast.  I am nervous on that subject however because I am a professional overrun specialist. Line conditioner may come into play in this regard. I hate to say it but some professional fishermen have been winning using the stuff.  It’s one of those things you might ignore but at your own peril.  I’m still confused but I am narrowing the field.  Am positive on two things so far, Palomar knot and line conditioner.

When I arrived at the lake today it was high and over the dock  but clear (4 foot visibility).  Usually this time of year it’s more like 6 foot visibility. The fish were schooling within eyesight just like Guntersville.  I launched and went straight for them and caught one right away on a buzz bait. Could catch no more on the buzzer. Then I broke out, for the first time, the 5 1/2 inch Bass Magic swimbaits with a 8/0 hook with a 3/8 oz weight on the shank. It was attached to a new 7 foot Basspro $34.99 medium action rod.  The swimbait went to the bottom, and when the bait started to move, one scarfed it. It was a 2 1/2 pounder.  He was not afraid of the big swimbait.  Here is a picture of the bait and a 4 – 14 that was the FOD when the picture was taken You may be able to see from the photo the hook is only laying on the back of the bait and is not pinned. That really helped today with hookups. The big fish today hit relatively close to the boat and I put a pretty wimpy hookset on it but it was well hooked. The new rod and swimbaits are a great combination. Here are a few pictures of the 8 -3 FOD which was the last fish caught. You can see in one of them the scales indicate 8 -2 but when allowed to settle they were on 8 -3. In the last one, as Willie would say, “That smile is for real”. Caught 10 in all today, other two biggies were 4 -8 and 4 -14.  My found lure collection had a good addition today of a Fat Free Shad that was hung up so high in a snag that I could barely reach it with my “gitter”.  It was a good day.

Stabbed the first doe late Wednesday. Made a bad shot so no blood but found the deer Thursday morning. Plotting a fishing trip Monday but it really depends on the weather.

I went on the net and reviewed the results of the BFL tournament held on Lake Guntersville while we were there.  Of the boaters, day 1 had 39 zeros, day 2 had 89 zeros out of 109 entrants. Of the non boaters, there were 63 and 92 zeros out of 109. Only 20  boaters and 17 non boaters caught a keeper on day 2.  After seeing that, I don’t feel too bad. The 5 top boaters have won between $51,000 and $26,000 fishing tournys, good fishermen. The winner also had the big fish @ 7 1/2 pounds that I’m sure put him in first place.

Thursday, Mickey and I went to Lake Guntersville . We had reservations at The Ossa Win Tha Resort which was a five roach, as opposed to a five star resort. The word resort is a little generous. For the record we saw no roaches or mice or evidence thereof but we had to go back in to the Walmart and get some towels. There was a lot of good hot water and a good selection of TV channels. Grungy would describe the stove top   and you had to have good balance to go to the potty. Pictures of both:The beds were quite soft, especially after a full day of fishing. Speaking of which,  we went to the on premises ramp and before we put the boat in the bass started hitting  less than 100 yards away. From 4 p.m. to dark we caught 16, mostly on ribbits, including a 5 – 0.  The next day the wind had changed and it was colder and bluebird. The bass would hit the ribbit but with no gusto resulting with a pitiful 5 bass day.  The next day we went to the Goose Pond and got in the middle of a FLW or BFL tournament that had a field of ~ 70 boats. We caught a few that morning so we went back to the “Resort” to fish our humps of grass there. Again the afternoon was good and we ended the day with 18 including this 4 – 13 that hit Mickey’s ribbit as hard as any bass I’ve ever seen. Sunday we stayed at the “Resort” spot but the wind was adverse. All that smooth water behind Mickey in the photo had turned into large waves. We tried to drift through and fish but we had to surf the ribbit down the waves. Surprisingly they would still bite the ribbit in those conditions. The fish were schooling so when they airballed they did not come back if you just let your bait sit.  We had a lot of bites but only got 10 fish in the boat.  It took 6 bites for me to get the first fish in the boat. We were a little disappointed in the fishing but most could be blamed on the weather. A final view of cabin number 6: