The Garhole was looking good this morning.  You can see the brown on the bank where the water has fallen by about 18 inches. As hot as it was today, the water has to be evaporating at a rapid rate. The surface temperature was 93 degrees when I quit.

The bass were biting a Ribbit early but later I had to resort to a worm. I used the last two of my favorite kind. Digging into the side of my tackle bag where the plastics are stored I came across a purple worm with a red tail. Tom Mann made worms back in the 70’s with fruit flavors and a red tail. You could smell them when the package was opened. Mickey immediately named them” firetail smellyworms”. These did not smell nor were they from the 70’s  but I started to use them.

The first fish I caught was only slightly longer than the worm. The bream gave me fits for they seem to like the red tail and would grab it and run making me think it was a bass. I caught 23 bass and 2 grinners, to which I gave a hoe handle sedative. The FOD was 3 – 1. The size ran a little smaller than the last couple of trips.  About noon I had a visitor.

Same gator as the last trip. When he saw the boat, he came swimming up like I was a long lost friend.  I didn’t particularly like the fact that it showed no fear of humans. Not too bad now at 5 – 6 feet long but what about when it gets to 12 – 14?  I got the camera out and took the photos and then got my 11 foot boathook. It had moved a small amount so I trolled over closer.

I wanted to hit it just behind the head just to scare it and make it more afraid. When I came down with the lick, it saw it coming and made a crash dive out of the way.  I never saw it again.

We returned from a 4175 mile driving trip yesterday.  Maine was beautiful and cool, cold one day.

On top of Cadillac Mountain, highest elevation on the East Coast, 1530 feet.

View across Penobscot Bay from the car.

Lichen growing on  rocks were everywhere.

The people in Maine cherish the summer time and have some beautiful flower gardens. This guy was hanging out in one of them.  As with the return from any trip there is much catchup to deal with but I hope to start fishing soon.

There was a stiff  Southwest wind blowing at daylight this morning when I hit the lake. The stripes were at the Bunge grain elevator as was this 5 1/2 pound hybrid striper.

It was caught on a DT-10 along with the stripes and a couple of small largemouths. From there I went to the sandbars where I caught a couple more bass @ 3 pounds each.  I was feeling kind of smug because hanging in the bushes like Christmas tree ornaments were a DT-6 and a DD-22. The 22 will need new hooks but the 6 is good to go. Here they are before I cleaned them up.

The plastic box that I keep my “found baits”  in has filled up.  It’s quite a colorful collection. When the gars get bad about snipping off your crankbaits, I pull out the “found baits” box.  When you lose one of those it’s not quite as painful as losing one of your good baits. Speaking of pain , my smugness was short lived. I use an old 5500c to pull crankbaits. Its drag is not as smooth as the new reels and sometimes almost locks up.  It did that today and the line snapped on the hookset on about a 2 1/2 pound bass. A good DT-10 went with the bass. I saw the fish when he jumped to throw the hook.  For once I was pulling for the fish to throw the hook.  I hung around but the bait never came floating up.

I had a report from today’s trip to Wolf from Taff and Will.  They caught 41 bass with a FOD over 4 and a few between 3 and 4. He said they only caught a few in the same place. Most fish were scattered here and there. The fish were bunched up there last year due to the high water going down and creating a current in the lake. The fish were schooled  on the underwater points feeding on the bait fish coming by. This year that is not the case, as the water is lower and has been for some time. The fish are not as concentrated. Concentrated or not Taff and Will had a great day.

The Garhole is slowly falling which , I think, will be good as long at it does not go down too far.  I had company there too, but they left before the fish really turned on.  They were fishing with a worm around the bank and caught some too. I was fishing with a Ribbit out in the middle and caught a few right off the bat but my company had been there last week catching some out in the middle also.  Whether they kept any or not, I don’t know.   I hope not. In one side hole, look what came to check out the Ribbit.

I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and there he was about 50 feet away. He was small, about 5 feet long. Young and too stupid to be afraid.  The Ribbit interested him a lot, especially when I pulled it fast and made it really sputter and throw a lot of water.  I threw it in his direction and started to pull it fast and the gator came after it on a plane, so fast I had to reel as fast as I could to make sure it didn’t catch the Ribbit. It came right up to the boat . I took this photo just as it was leaving.

I have been using a new scent on my baits. The more I use it, the more I think it is working. It comes in a tube like a big chapstick, with about the same consistency. Your bait still has a greasy feel after many casts.  What happened today to make me believe it works is a goggle eye got in behind my Ribbit and was following  trying to eat it.  I thought the goggle eye  was a small bass and I was trying to pull the bait out of its reach. The goggle eye latched onto one of the Ribbit’s feet  and I raised it into the boat before it let go.

The second photo is of the scent stick. Just remove the top and wipe it on.  The fish started to bite well about 9 and continued until about 11:30.  Here is one of the FODs @ 3 3/4.

This one got tangled in the depthfinder transducer  and I thought had escaped but  came free and was caught instead. It was one of the 4 over 3.  Toward noon, I started to fish with a worm and caught this 5 1/2 pound grinner.

The only reason it’s laying there so still is  I gave it a sedative, that is, a tap on the head with a cut off hoe handle. Eighteen bass today in an interesting day at the Garhole.

Visited Wolf again Friday and had a so so day. Some of the places where I caught 15 in a sitting were barren, not even a bite. Others had fish but not enough to catch a lot at one sitting. I discovered there is a guy down there that fishes the same spots that I do but he goes almost every day. I ended up with 20 , not too good for Wolf Lake. None were biggies. Most were caught on a DT-6 or 10 but some came on a Carolina rig. I was just trying to learn how to use one. I saw another large dead alligator. I think they are getting lead poison, via a 30-06. I also saw a flock of 6 black bellied whistling ducks. Here’s a photo of the gator. Could not get close because of the stench.

Rufus and I went to Wolf Lake this afternoon to fish in the rain.

We caught 26 mostly in places  where they were not the other day.  Some bit a DT-10 when we first arrived but after a short while it took a worm to get a bite. We caught all sizes as you can see.

The FOD was 3 3/4.  A lot of laughs today!

Today at Wolf Lake I had the first hook ever stuck in me past the barb.  I was holding a small bass up by the line preparing to get a grip on it so I could take the hook out. It made one of those frenzied shakes and when it was over I was holding the fish up with a DT-10  hook in the back of my right ring finger. The hook was in past the barb and the point was trying to come back out through the skin.  First with my left hand I put a white knuckle grip on the fish to keep it from shaking again.  The hooks in the fish were not too complicated but without a hand they were difficult to unhook but I finally succeeded.  I thought about pushing the hook through and flattening the barb but that would cause more pain so out came the needle nose pliers. I got the pliers pointed in the right direction so the hook would come out. At this point my fear was the hook would not come out the first time I snatched.  I snatched just like I had been doing on the fish all afternoon and out it came on the first try. It bled like a stuck hog.  Out came the a paper towel and the first aid kit with a band aid and I was back fishing in short order.

The major feeding period was in the afternoon so I didn’t go to the lake until late and started fishing around 10:30. Things started off slowly but around 12 noon the bite started. An old 5500c was called into action to pull the DT-10 so I would not wear out one of my new reels. Here it is with one of the fish.

The fish were bunched up in the usual places. Caught 20 in one spot. The FOD was 3 – 11.  68 bass was the final tally, most on a DT-10, some on a DT-6, plus 3 catfish and a goo. One of the catfish was 16 1/2 pounds and was caught on a worm on 8 pound test Gamma copolymer.  After a long one sided fight it got into an old sunken treetop. I had given up and actually tried to break the line but the fish made another surge and cleared the tree top and finally  came into the boat.

I believe the catfish bit the worm because I had just applied some new scent to it. The scent comes in a tube much like a large chapstick and has about the same consistency.  I noticed that when the fish would start just bumping the DT-10 an application of the scent seemed to get back biting it enough to get caught. The scent does not wash right off. It will stay on a DT-10 for 20+ casts.