Hal emailed me that he made it to 2000 bass for the year. Actually 2002 on 147 trips.

Gayden’s nephew and his sons came for the dreaded Debutante Ball and they brought me a wonderful Christmas gift.  The gift was a 4 inch bream swimbait, “the Small Cracker”, made by the Black Dog Bait Company.  It has some great hooks and although I haven’t tried it out in the water yet, I know it has a great wiggle because it is double jointed. The box said it would dive to 3 1/2 feet so clear water is going to be necessary for it to catch fish. It’s fat and  weighs a good bit so it’s a “chunker” and not a caster.  As you can see from the photo the finish is outstanding. I’m sorry for the poor photo with nothing in it to gauge the size from. I can’t wait to try it out. A great present is one that you want but never would have bought for yourself. This one fits the description perfectly.

I went against my usual procedure and added up before the year end. The chances of me getting to go fishing again in 2009 are slim and none, so I decided to go ahead and add.  The total times fishing was only 65 as opposed to 78 both of the last two years.  I was disappointed in that number, adding it up twice just to make sure it was correct. The total number of fish was 934, about 100 more than I would have guessed,  much to my pleasant surprise.  The biggies were good too, with 5 over 7 pounds. The FOY, included in the 5 over 7, was 8 – 3.  One of every 19.9 fish caught was over 4 pounds, for a total of 47.  I only made 7 trips to Wolf Lake, but it was smokin’ with a 68.6 fish per trip average.  If I went there a few more times I’d be up with Hal in the 2000 fish range. The fish are getting bigger there too, with 8 over 4 this year, none in 2008.  The next best two lakes were the Garhole with 10.6 per trip and Ferguson with 10.2. Monticello yielded only 5.5  fish per trip, but 25  over 4 pounds, 4 of which were over 7.

This is a photo of the  2008 “ledger” that I keep all this data in.

The book

My “takeaways” from all the math are that I should go to the Garhole more and earlier next year.  Ferguson is best for me below 25 feet from June to September.  Monticello is stingy in January and February so I should be going to the shallower, warmer Cane Creek  Reservoir then.  Wolf is full of bass and they are getting bigger with age. Caught a 4 -15 there and  7 more over 4 this year after none last. The MDWFP limit of 2 bass seems to be working to make this lake a great bass lake.

I hope Santa brings every one that reads the Bitespot  a sleigh full of good fishing stuff.  MERRY CHRISTMAS and tight lines in 2010.

A tournament on Ferguson December 5th was won with an astounding , to me, 26+ pounds. Fourth place was 20+. What made me say astounding was the low that day was 26 degrees.  Some were caught on a slow moving jig, so I heard.

Hal is closing in on 2000 bass for the year 2009.  The fish have been stingy with him lately but he’s working hard to break the barrier.  I feel confident he will.  I don’t count up until the year is over so it will not skew the results with a last minute “get the numbers up” trip. “Know thy self “.

Taff went to Chicot the other day and had a skunk. He had three bites with one getting off right at the boat. Depending on how close to the boat it was, I know some people who would have counted that one as caught “with a long handled net”. I’m not calling any names however.

My depthfinder is sitting on the floor of my bathroom where it has been in residence for at least three weeks. The sidefinding part went out and I sent it to the factory. It was diagnosed as needing a new transducer due to a bad transistor.  $ Ouch$. They also updated the software in the main unit.  Don’t know if it works yet because it’s still in the bathroom.  Deer season is taking its toll.

Here is a saved page from the Tackle Warehouse featuring a “Bluegill” swimbait.

http://www.outdoorproshop.com/Jerry-Rago-Hard-Tail-Swimbait-Bluegill-p/rago-hardtail-bluegill.htm  is the link if you want to go look closer. If you look closer you will see the price of $37.99 and after that you might not want to look closer.  Imagine how fast one of those 4 foot Lake Ferguson gars could relieve you of that $38 bait.  I’m not going to subject myself to that kind of torture. It looks good though.

Now is a good time to do some maintenance jobs on your boat. The weather has been too rough to fish very much so productive time can be spent on your boat. I say this although the deer rut is going on.

The other day, I changed the oil in the lower unit. I would have helped if I had warmed the lower unit with a light or something before the oil change. It took forever for the old oil to drain. I did warm the new oil over the stove eye so I could just shoot it on in.  The drained out oil looked good. It was not quite clear, but was not black like last year, when it was changed for the first time in three years. There was no white discoloration present indicating no water had leaked in either through the plug or the propeller shaft seal. If water is present it might  freeze and break the lower unit housing. Ouch $$$. I let my motor all the way down to drain the last little bit of water out of the prop hub and any that might be in the water pump.

About every 5 to 6 days the batteries get charged up. My charger senses how much to charge them so they will not get overcharged. My batteries are getting a little weaker so taking care of them may extend their life some.  I think they are a little more than 2 1/2 years old. Checking the water in them will not hurt either.  If they need water, I use distilled, although I’ve heard some people say they like to use lake water. They probably get to replace their batteries more often too.

I sent my depthfinder back to the factory the other day. The sidefinding feature had stopped working about a month before. The diagnosis on the phone was that a transistor in the transducer had probably gone out.  Sure enough back it came with a new transducer. It had its software updated while it was there too.  It is sitting patiently in my bathroom until a warm day comes for me to reinstall it.   Instead of running the wire over the transom, it’s going through, both to save it getting stepped on and to get a few more inches in length.

I need to take everything out of the storage box and replace it in a little neater fashion but that’s another job for another day.

I’ve been out of civilization lately and on the trail of deer but have not forgotten the fish.  The other day I fished off the bank and caught 11 by the drain pipe of the Catfish Chute. They hit a Booyah spinnerbait. Other people have been having luck also. Taff caught some in Ferguson, the largest 5 weighed 19 1/2 pounds.  He caught some in the South Delta in some running water too. People have been having luck in Lake Chicot.  One person caught a bunch on 200 Bandits.

I caught two hogs but with a 25-06 rather than a bait. One weighed 215 pounds and look at those teeth.