Hal lives on a lake that has grass carp in it  to control the vegetation.  He noticed the carp hanging out under the oak trees near the edge of the water eating the acorns as they fell into the water.  The carp are large but not big fighters when hooked, so he rigged up a light 7 foot spinning rod with 6 pound test line. For bait he just picked up some acorns. He loves to sight fish for redfish but in this case he substituted the carp. Stealthily easing along the bank, and upon seeing a carp , he casts a willow oak acorn impaled on a hook to the fish. The carp after a couple of drag burning runs usually gives up. Here is a photo.

I believe that one was 23 pounds. The boat has a 42 inch bottom so you can see how large they are. His record so far has been 30 pounds.  Too bad they’re not as tasty as a redfish.

Saturday morning Mickey and I drove up to join Frank and brother Tommy for an assault on the Private Hole for the purpose of supplying the main attraction for a fish fry. There was a good omen on the way to the hole, in the form of a mature, white head, white tail, bald eagle sitting in a tree near some water right off the levee.  When Mickey and I were rigging up, we heard Frank say “That’s one” as he brought a bass into the boat.  That lit the fire in our boat as DT-6s got snapped on and were thrown toward the bank. We had caught a few when the FOD hit, a 5-2. Mickey had his camera on and ready when he saw me throw the fish back and make another cast. The fever was high at that point.  Unfortunately, no picture for the Bitespot.  Soon the DT-6 bite tailed off so we picked up the worms and continued to catch fish, keeping only those under 13 inches. When we had 10 that we were able to keep, we trolled over to the Smith boat to see how many they had on ice.  They had caught about 20 and it was determined the required amount for the fish fry had been attained, so they went to clean fish, as was the deal, and Mickey and I kept fishing, now releasing all. On the way to the landing Tommy caught one that almost made 5 pounds.  The Smiths saw a large 100 pound+ snapping turtle that had a death grip on about a 20 pound catfish. It was going to have a fish fry too. The bite tailed off in the middle of the day but we were undeterred and made repeated rounds to our spots. The day was marked with several mishaps, me forgetting the battery, throwing over limbs, hangups, or tangled lines. We ended the day with 69 bass and about 7 grinners. I say “about” 7 because those do not get marked into the book. A grinner is like John Paul Jones as he does not begin to fight until he gets in the boat where he tears up all your “stuff”.  We did not let any into the boat but removed the hook after they had been sedated with a short length of hoe handle.  Besides the FOD there was a 4-6 and some over 3.   Because the water had gone down since the last trip, when we quit, we had to move the rack that the boat sits on. The only way to position it, due to bank slope and tree position, was to have it at an angle up the bank. When we were removing our equipment, the ice chest shifted and the boat turned up on its side and unceremoniously dumped Mickey out into the water. It happened almost in slow motion and he was laughing before he hit the water.  As we rode back on the levee the eagle was still hanging around to make sure we got back.  Despite the few mishaps of the day, it was great fun.

At 2:30 this afternoon, Frank Smith and I hit the Chute.  It was cold and cloudy with a strong, cold North wind blowing. I have to admit that I had my doubts about a great deal of success.  We started out with a jig pole, but after no luck we swapped it for a rod with a spinnerbait attached.  The bass were biting but were mostly missing.  Frank had a bite in a small open spot on the bank and had a small issue with his bait so I quickly said ” I’ll save your place for you” and threw my bait where he got the bite. The fish surprised me and bit my bait with gusto and was brought to the boat.  I really didn’t think the fish would bite again because I had several short strikes and they would not come back the second time. A little embarrassed I continued fishing. As the afternoon passed, the clouds gave away to a clear sky and a little sun, even a slight bit of balminess. We were close to the dam where there was shad activity.  We circled the area because the fish were schooling feeding on the shad. For the open water out came the Yozuri. It managed to catch a few before we returned to the 1/4 oz. Booyah spinnerbaits. In going down the bank we would catch two or three in the same vicinity and then go a long way before catching another. When you caught another there were usually two or three. They seemed to be in schools. Right at dark the bite was hot. We ended the afternoon with 25, a few of which were invited to a fish fry tomorrow night. The small ones were the only ones we kept. The FOD was 3 – 8. I had a picture of Frank and a pretty chute bass but the sun was wrong and it looked dark. I’ll get a better one tomorrow.

Mickey and I went back to Lee this morning.  We fished down a bank that we knew had some fish on it, it being our job to figure out how to catch them.  I caught one quickly on a Red Eye Shad but Mickey answered with two good ones on a DT-16. That being the case, I got out the DT-16 and followed suit.  Mickey gave me an early Christmas present in the form of an 18 foot long lure retriever, which we needed fairly soon.  The hang up felt like a net so I turned the retriever like a screw figuring I’d just pull it up. Wrong again!  The end just pulled out and we lost both bait and the end section of the retriever. We continued to catch good fish but also continued to lose a bait now and then.  After I lost a DT-16, I went into the “found” bait box and came out with a large Fat Free Shad that I found hanging high in a tree in Lake Monticello. To get it, I had had to stand on the front deck on tiptoes and hold my lure retriever on the very end and put the hook on the rear treble of the FFS to pull it down.  After catching a few on the FFS, it too was donated to the deep. Back to the “found” bait box I came out with a DB-3 that made it through the rest of the day. Here is a picture of Mickey with the FOD, a 4-11.

A few were caught schooling near the bank on a Yozuri or Red Eye Shad but most of the good fish were caught in deeper water on the deep cranks.  We caught 6 over 4 pounds, with the largest 5 weighing in at 22 pounds. Twenty three bass was the final count.

This morning when going to the private hole, I discovered that a friend was hunting nearby. Even though the road was open, I knew the oak tree he was hunting was right on the road, I decided to wait until he left his stand. In the interim, I was able to fix a few things that were waiting on repair.  The hunter came in at 8:15 which was great for me and I was fishing by 8:45. The water level in the private hole has dropped a foot since I was there last on October 2nd.  I had buzz bait in mind when I started, and was casting parallel to the bank since I was fishing alone. After a few casts one hit it hard right at the boat. Scared the dickens out of me. When that happened, I thought I was right about the buzz bait, but after five more halfhearted bites, I gave up on it. Switching to a Yozuri, I caught a few in one of my good places and had one get off by wrapping a stick. The Yozuri gave out, so I put on a worm and caught a couple more but there was noncooperation.  As I have said before about this hole, the wind has a lot to do with where the fish are. The wind has been blowing from the North for a few days so the fish were stacked like chord wood in one place.  The crawfish colored DT-6 was brought out because these fish were a little deeper. For a good while it was catch one every cast. The fish were of good size too, with most being between 2 and 3 pounds. I caught 22 there on the first seating, after catching 7 in the first spot. Looking for another good place I moved and caught a few more but I had to come back to the good place. Sure enough they were back and the catching continued. In my looking I did catch the 4-0 FOD on a Yozuri on a flat with only 2 feet of water. A gar snipped my crawfish DT-6 so I had to change to a parrot pattern but it caught them too. The trip ended at 2:45 with 49 bass with 5 over 3 pounds and most under 3 were between 2 and 3.

Mickey and I went to Lake Lee this afternoon for a change of pace. It didn’t hurt that we had heard some good  reports about the fishing there and there had been a big two day tournament on Ferguson this weekend. Since neither of us had any knowledge of the lake we just had to guess where to stop. We knew there was a flat next to the bank and out a good way there was a good drop off from 5 feet to 20 . Our first idea was to use deep crankbaits over the drop. I started with a dc-13 Timber Tiger but had to change to a DT-16 because the 16 was heavier and more aerodynamic . The wind was swirling and causing some backlashes. We caught a few pretty quickly. It appeared the fish were more scattered than in Ferguson and the ones we caught were a bit larger. Most were just under 3 pounds. Here is a photo of Mickey with the FOD of 4 1/4.

Most of the fish we caught were up on the flat. We used a Yozuri, a Rattletrap, and a Carolina rig for the shallow fish.  Mickey hung a leviathan gar on a Yozuri that ended up breaking the line after a long fight. It’s hard to tell by the photo how large the gar is because there is nothing in it to compare size to.

Closer to dark the bass really came up on the flat and the bite seemed to turn on but still they were never concentrated except in one spot.  We caught 20 in all which we did not feel was too bad for our first time on that lake in a long time. Message to Fred: The fish are biting in your lake.

After a  fossil finding trip that fell through, I decided to go to the private hole and give fishing a try.  Since it was last minute, I went by myself. Fishing started at 2:00.  There were a few in the same spot as last week but they were not very active biters. The shakey head in deep water got a couple to the boat but you had to shake it to make them bite.  A 1/2 ounce Red Eye Shad started to catch some in another spot. The fish were bunched up in a spot that the North wind was blowing to and creating a slight current.  In this particular hole, the fish’s location is greatly influenced by the wind. Mostly the fish will be on the side the wind is blowing to. When those fish ran out I continued into that  end and noticed a good many groups of shad “flicking” out in the middle.  A DT-6 was next , but instead of casting it to the bank I just cast it out into the middle where  the shad were, hoping the bass were following the shad. On one of the casts I felt something and set the hook and at once something took off pulling drag .  Thinking I had snagged an Asian carp, I was hoping to be lucky enough to get my DT-6 back. Then the fish came up and rolled. Asian Carp, no, big bass, yes. I jumped down from the casting deck , retrieved the net from under it, and used it on the fish.  I was a 6 – 6 FOD.

You can see the crawfish pattern DT-6 still hooked in the top of its mouth. I caught a few more in the open before they shut down. Figuring they may have moved deeper I pulled out the Timber Tiger DC-13. Pretty quickly a 4-7 volunteered, the second one of those for the day. I thought I had it figured out but caught only one or two more. The day ended with a total of 23.