I went to Monticello early so I might have a chance at the topwater bite.  The water temperature was 73 degrees.  The fish did not cooperate until Jackson came at 9:00.  He stepped into the boat and caught three in short order, mostly in very shallow water.  He was using a Rage Tail Shad, a plastic bait that skips over the top of the water and makes a commotion.  Finally, before our day ended prematurely at 11:45 I managed to catch up using the “found” square billed crankbait and a Ribbit frog. There were some airballs that would not come back for a second chance but nothing else to indicate disinterest by the fish. We ended up with 6, none big. My having to leave may have saved us from some misery since it was beginning to get hot and was the bluebird day after the weather passed through.  On the other hand, I talked to Hal last night who went to Enid.  He caught 24 with three over 4 pounds and 3 or 4 over 3.  Most were caught on spinnerbaits in shallow water.  He had to resort to a worm in some of the brushtops because of the fish blue bird day inactivity.  Berkley Nanofil line is a new line that Hal has been testing.  It is sort of a cross between braid and flurocarbon I gather, with a small diameter so it is only suitable for spinning reels.  The 12 pound has a smaller diameter than the 8 pound Gamma I presently use on my spinning reel. It does not have much stretch and comes in nothing over 12 pound test.  It is supposed to keep the line from looping on the spool and causing those “wind knots” that plague you with braid.  I may have to try a spool now that it has passed the test.

I left the ramp this afternoon about 3:00 and saw some schooling activity before I got the boat planed off good.  The activity looked like stripes but had to be checked out. Indeed, a stripe bit on the second cast which made up my mind to leave. While I was putting my gear away there was some more activity but of a different nature. When I made a cast into it, out of the water came a bass with my Yozuri in its mouth. The fish were on a slick, flat muddy bank and had some shad hemmed up and were having a late lunch.  I caught 5 in short order and then the school moved on, not to be located again.  Upon moving, I hit two places that were duds and then went to the Maranto 70 spot where there is always some action. This time there was not much.  Finally I got a fish or two to nibble on a shakey head with a finesse worm on it. So the game was a shakey head for an hour or two. Later in the afternoon there was enough activity to get me to break out my DT-6 and the Yozuri again. You could feel them hit at the DT-6 and miss so I put the old “pull and then pause” Indian trick on them. It worked like a charm with the DT-6 and the Yozuri. There was one spot where they were sort of stacked up and I was able to catch on every cast for a while. I don’t know what it is about a 2 – 13 but I fool myself every time and get the scales thinking the fish is over 3. Had to laugh at myself today, did it twice in quick succession.  Ended up with a smooth 30 and a FOD of 3 -0.

Since the wind was gusting to 26 MPH when I left home to go fishing, I decided to go to the private hole where the wind would not affect the fishing as much as on Lake Ferguson.  The fishing started at 3:30. To start, a DT-6, a shakey head worm, a DC-13 Timber Tiger and a Yozuri were tied on.  Quickly the DT-6 struck and caught 5 in a place where the wind was causing some water movement through a channel connecting two larger parts of the  hole. The fish there were waiting on the shad to come through, although there was no activity on top. Trying to get a little deeper I put the DC-13 to work and managed to catch one with it.  After that things slowed down.  On a deep point were several tree tops that I tried with a Cripple Killer topwater. It’s a prop bait, closely resembling an old Cordell Crazy Shad.  On the first cast one hit and immediately the line broke due to  not retying. One of these days I’ll learn. As I was lamenting the loss of the new topwater, it came floating up. After it was tied back on, it went to work. The bass would just come up and suck it down.  I ended up catching 20 in all with a FOD of 3 3/4, caught on the killer, and had a large tail sticking out of its gullet . A dozen were caught on the topwater.  The lessons from Mickey have paid off.

I got off to a late start this morning, arriving at the ramp at about 8:00.  The lake is falling and is somewhere around 20 feet with a water temp of 73 degrees when I started.  Here is a photo of the baits I used today.

From top to botton there is a DT-10, DT-6, shakey head, Yozuri, and a Basspro tailspinner. All caught fish today with the most being caught by the DT-6. Close behind was the tailspinner. It was more the size of the shad the fish were feeding on.  I stopped on the way up the lake at a spot that my daddy called the number 1 bite spot. I caught a few small ones close by. Next was Mickey’s 70 spot. I caught none there but moving down the bank searching I bumped into some and started catching in earnest.  There were lots of “nips”where you could feel the fish just nip at the bait and miss it .  I used an “old Indian trick” to get them to take the bait and get hooked.  When the bait got to the spot where the “nips” were happening,  I would quickly sweep the rod from the 10:00 position to the 2:00 position and then stop the bait. When I would catch up with the slack, there would be a fish on.  The fish were running larger today than they have been, lots of 2 – 13s and very few dinks. The FOD was 4 – 2. The tailspinner was deadly on schooling bass in the shallow water. You could throw it a mile and most of the time they’d hit it as soon as it landed.

I had one of these today that was worse than this one.  A neat way to get a backlash to come out is to press your thumb down on the spool and reel for a couple of handle turns. Then you pull out what you can and repeat the same thing. You will be amazed how it helps.  I saw it on a fishing show and did not believe it would work but later had such a bad backlash I would have tried anything to get it out.  Surprisingly the thumb trick got it right out.  I ended up the day with 83 total and was catching them almost every cast when my time ran out. I had to go home to meet an electrician. Little did I know Willie had told him not to come because there was going to be no one home.

Hal went to Beartail Creek again but the creek was low so he did not catch as many at the mouth where it ran into the Coldwater River ( I think) above Arkabutla Reservoir. Since the creek was low he got out to wade and started catching bass in the deeper pools that I take it were not that deep. The alligators must not go up that far North. He had to work through the tiny bass to catch a few decent ones in each pool. In his email he said he had to catch 6.3 small fish for each one a pound or better, of which he caught 31. That means he caught 196 bass total with the FOD at 3 pounds.  At Beaverdam, his and Richard’s numbers went down on the last trip to 17, but 7 were 4 pounds or better with the FOD at 5. I believe he said all were caught on swim jigs with a trailer. Two real good trips one for numbers and one for quality.

At 2:30 this afternoon I met Mickey on the city front . We immediately went to the Maranto 70 spot, named for the time Mickey sat there in one place and caught 70. The fish were chasing shad when we arrived. Mickey used a “found” topwater bait, one that he had found on the discount table at the Basspro Shop for $1.99.  It was a chrome elongated popper type bait with rattles that he had added a feathered back hook. The bass seemed to like it better than my Phillips Cripple Killer but both caught fish.  The Yozuri was effective too and probably caught most of the fish we caught. The fish were feeding on minnows that were maybe 1 1/2 inches long and they were so plentiful we both were impaling them on the Yozuri hooks all afternoon. It seemed the larger bass were caught on the topwaters however. The FOD was 3.08 pounds on Mickeys scale.  The high point of the afternoon was when Taff pulled up with his young son in the boat.  He had a child’s rod on which his son caught some fish and seemed to get excited about it. It was a great day to have him out fishing because fish were chasing shad everywhere and there was no way a youngster would get bored with all the action going on. It was a treat for Mickey and me to see a youngster enjoying it.  We fished until dark, which was about 7:30, and ended up with 86 bass, all released of course.  It was fun getting all the topwater action. We could have probably caught more with sticking to our Yozuris but they are not as much fun the topwaters. By doing that I also had the pleasure of watching the topwater maestro ply his trade.  There are no pictures because the action was too fast to stop.

Lake  Monticello was extremely low and the water temperature was 76 degrees this morning.  Certain areas of the lake are hard to fish due to all the stickups.

I had no idea where or with what bait to start or even why I chose to got to Monticello considering the whippings it has handed out this year.  There were four main baits I wanted to try: a Ribbit Frog, a swimbait, a square bill crankbait, and a Phillips Cripple Killer topwater. The cripple Killer is the same size as a 3 1/2 inch Cordell Crazy Shad. You can’t buy the Crazy Shads anymore and I was hoping the Killer would be a substitute.  I started out with all the above. The Ribbit was the first to strike after a long period of nothingness. A nice 3 1/2 came out of the pads and hit it like he was hungry.

Not all the pads were in deep enough water to hold fish so as I was going from one group to another I put on the square bill. The first one used was  one of the new KVD 1.5s but it was small and difficult to throw with the rod I was using so I changed to a heavier “found” one that was a really good looking bait. It was used in the thick wooded area much the same as in the first picture.  The bait has a side to side wandering action and snagging was not as much as you’d expect.  It quickly caught three fish in a short 50 yard stretch. When they would bite I really didn’t know whether it was a fish or a stump so I just kept reeling until I felt a pull. The new hooks that had been installed did a great job and somehow none of the ones that bit escaped, even though they were wrapping around stumps and logs. I just  was lucky. The 4 3/4 FOD is in the photo. Note the good “found” bait hanging from his jaw.  There was one place where the little bass were so plentiful they were pests. They would keep you awake when you fished a Ribbit because you would get a bite every cast. Good to see a good spawn. They could not get the hook in the ribbit but the crankbait was another matter.

Fish from Monticello have been hard to come by for me this year so I took a lot of photos.

This afternoon Tyler Owens and I hit Lake Ferguson at 3:00. Tyler is Ralph’s 16 year old grandson and was the recipient of a fishing trip that I donated to the Saint James Episcopal Church Bazaar for the silent auction and Ralph purchased.  I have been waiting for the lake to get “right” before I took him because I really wanted him to catch a lot of fish. We stopped at the rockpile first with no results. About that time Mickey called me and told me where the  bass were schooling. We were on our way immediately.  When we got there, Mickey sent us one way and he and Ed King went the other. The water was about three to four feet deep in the stumps and the bass were chasing shad in several places along a quarter mile stretch. Tyler and I had to abandon our DT-6s for Rattletraps because of the water depth. It seemed they preferred the willow trees that were still alive and had leaves on them. It might have had something to do with the shade they provided.  After we had been there for a while, I got a call from Taff with another report of schooling activity in a completely different spot where he had caught 30, in addition to the 27 he had caught earlier. Everyone was catching fish.  Tyler and I stuck to our stretch of  bank most of the afternoon only once leaving to go to Mickey’s 70 spot but by the time we got there nothing much was happening. We went right back to our spot and caught some but it was beginning to play out. Even though it was getting late, there was one more spot I wanted to try.  Nothing was going on there and it looked like we were finished but the bass surfaced a few yards away. We went to them and started catching fish as the full moon rose. They finally slowed down enough for us to tear ourselves away and head for the ramp. We had invited many of the fish we caught to Tyler’s house for supper and had thrown some back. It is one of the few times I did not keep a close count but it would be safe to say we caught 45 or 50.  Here is Tyler with one of the larger fish which he seemed to catch more of than I did.

It was a great pleasure fishing with such a nice young man.  I hope he had as much fun as I did.

Click on the image to enlarge it. The sidefinder was looking out to the right side 70 feet. I have circled some of the fish and underwater features for a little more in depth explanation of the sidefinder view. The screen is scrolling from the top to the bottom so what you see at the top is what was just passed over. The shadow was where the tree blocked off the sound that the sidefinder uses to “see” what is under the water much the same as a tree trunk would block off the light and make a shadow above the water.  The sidefinder allows you to “see” what is in a spot without actually driving over it and scaring the fish. The depth of 1.1 feet is inaccurate due to the sensitivity being turned up so as not to miss anything . The depth is really 3.5 feet . If the depth is over 5 feet it reads correctly at that sensitivity setting.

Gayden Bishop sent a fish recipe that sounded really good and I tried it last night with 12 small bass fillets (under 13 inch fish).  It turned out well with only 3 small pieces left, so well that I decided it should be shared on the Bitespot.

Ingredients:

4-6 white fish fillets (I used 4 really meaty cod fillets, which were about 3in x 5in)

3 inch piece of fresh ginger (peeled and cut into chunks)

1 or 2 hot chilli peppers  (I used 2 very small, quite spicy birds eye chillies)

4 or 5 medium garlic cloves

4 tablespoons lemon juice

A few grates of finely grated lemon zest

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 heaping teaspoon ground cumin

1 heaping teaspoon ground cilantro (or coriander)

1 tablespoon water

Salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients except fish in the Cuisinart and pulse until smooth. Place fish in a bowl and pour the mixture over the fish, making sure that each fillet is happily dredged. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes (on the counter or in the fridge—I like to do it at room temp).

Pre-heat the oven to 350F. After the fish has marinated, line a roasting tin with tin foil, arrange the fish fillets in the middle of the tin foil (close but not touching) and pour marinade over the top. Cover with another sheet of tin foil, and roll the edges together so you have one big parcel. Bake in the oven for 25-30 mins (depends on the size of your fish!).

Spoon the juice over the fish and serve. Works with chicken breasts too.