Jackson and I went to the Ribbit lake today with North winds, a cold breeze, clear skies and almost a full moon. Not a great formula for catching a lot of Florida bass. To start the wind almost blew us off of the lake.  They were indeed biting as I had around 25 bites today, but they were not hitting like they really wanted to eat the Ribbit. Some just grabbed one of the frog’s legs and pulled it under, not coming anywhere  close to the hook. Most of the bites were soft but the FOD pictured here hit it with business on its mind.  We ended up with 8 and a FOD at 5 3/4. Some were caught on a swimbait, one of which hit it as hard as some of the Lake Ferguson bass hit a crankbait. It just tried to take my rod away from me. I’ve got to get more efficient on my bites.  Missed 3 on a swimbait and no telling how many on the Ribbit.

John Eddleman called while we were on the lake to tell that he had caught 17 this morning over a road in a river chute. He caught them on a parrot colored DT-6.

Mickey and I went to Catfish this morning to fish the Catfish Chute with weather forecasts of a 100% chance of rain.  Dumb. When we arrived, we signed in and went to the house to look at the Weather Channel to see what the radar looked like.  We did not even have to do that because the lightning was sparkling and the rain was pouring down. We fixed some coffee and sat on the porch and watched the rain and the lightning show. We decided to can the fishing trip and head home. Smart. When we got to Greenville, we went to the waterfront because we wanted to see if the tournament scheduled to be held there was canceled.  Greenville had received less rain than most places and the wharf was full of boat trailers and the tournament was going on. According to the weather radar, Catfish received around 4 inches of rain while Greenville received only an inch. Lucky.

I knew Wolf Lake was not going to be crystal clear but I was not prepared for what I saw. It was worse than the Muddy Mississippi. Nevertheless, I caught 3 bass in the first 15 minutes. The first one Note the bloody tail indicating a spawning fish. One of the first tied my big fish record for Wolf  of 4 – 15 Pictured here. I noticed many of the fish today had lesions on their sides. I have no idea what they are caused by. I used a Colorado bladed Booyah to start and after losing it to a tighteye, lost two more to small fish too. To catch the fish today you had to knock the bark off of the back side of the cypress trees. After dueling with the limbs and abrading my line it was easy for the small bass to break the line. I finally found a “found” spinnerbait with teardrop blades that made a good thump.  It made the rest of the day. I ended up with 19 bass and 2 crappie. The FOD was a new, for me, Wolf Lake record of 5 – 5. Wolf is lower than last year, a lot muddier and has no current to stack the fish in one place. It’s going to be a different lake to deal with. I will not be back for a while. It needs time to clear up.

Bass in the 6 pound range seem to be coming out of the woodwork these days for those that are fishing.  Not me. I’ve been chasing the turkeys to no avail but am planning to change that slightly. I think I’m going to Wolf Lake Friday to try my hand at something a little different from the woods. Hal and Richard have caught 3 over 6 pounds in the last few days. Richard has two, a 6 1/4 in Beaverdam and a 6 1/2 in Enid. Hal caught one today in Enid, a 6 3/4 pounder. All have had the bloody tail indicating the spawn is on. All were caught on a spinnerbait. Here are the pictures The last photo is of the mouth of the one Hal caught in Enid today. He said if she had eaten another shad that size she would have weighed 7. By looking at the picture of the whole fish you would think if she ate another shad she would have exploded.

Hal and Richard caught some bass the other day at Beaverdam. The first photo is of Richard with the 6 1/4 FOD. They caught 16 I think and the big ones had a bloody tail or bottom fins because they were spawning. You can see the bloody fin on the one Hal caught. The last photo is of a 2 3/4 pound crappie they caught last month.It’s nice to know someone has been fishing when I’m whiling my time away chasing turkey gobblers.