I took a break from turkey hunting Saturday afternoon to go to the private hole.  The wind was much too high to turkey hunt and I didn’t want to waste such a beautiful afternoon. At 1:30 I made the first cast using a small swimbait on a jighead. The trees were dropping both sycamore seeds and the tassels oak trees distribute their pollen with. All of this blew over to one side of the hole and prevented me from using the swimbait effectively so I put on a Rex spoon. On about the fourth cast one blasted the spoon. There is no way to adequately describe the strike other than a blast.  Surprisingly, I hesitated before setting the hook and when I did the fish came out of the water two feet in an astounding jump. Two more good jumps and I had the 4-8 FOD by the bottom jaw. Most of the fish Saturday put on an aerial display for some reason.  One of the better ones a little later slung the spoon up in the air and escaped. All I could do was laugh.  After I ran out of the flotsam, I had to change baits. The fish were not in the same two places they have been hanging out.  I put on a spinnerbait to search and after missing one on it, threw in a worm. One bit and was caught, and another and another until I caught 6 in this nondescript spot, some as deep as 10 feet. When I arrived, you could tell the bite was really on and during the afternoon it slackened pretty quickly until the worm was the bait to use. It’s funny how your mind takes pictures. I can still see the 4 pounder that threw the spoon back. It was a fun afternoon that ended up with 16 bass a goo and of course a grinner. Another thing of interest I saw was two large turtles with shells 1 1/2 to 2 feet in diameter close to one another up against the bank.  I suspect there was mating activity going on.

Jackson and I went fishing in the towhead chute. The dictionary defines a towhead as a low alluvial island in a river, especially one with trees on it.  I looked it up trying to find out why it was called a towhead. The definition did not say why. The lake has been out of it for a couple of weeks so I figured it ought to be a good spot.  The morning started off well when we were having coffee on the back porch and could hear three separate turkeys gobbling.  We took our time getting started,  figuring it would be mid day before the fish would be active due to 1. the full moon and 2. the sun would be warming the water.  The start was so slow I began to get worried. We started with spinnerbaits, but also used jigs, worms and even a red eye shad in one place. Not much was going on but slowly we began to get bites and catch a few. Toward noon it noticeably picked up and the fish were hitting hard on the spinnerbaits. The water temperature started at 57 but rapidly went to 60 and in one shallow spot 63. There the bass were right on the bank and I assume ready to spawn. I’ve caught bass with spots but this one has more than I’ve ever seen.

We ended up with 31 bass and a FOD of 4-0.

Mickey and I went to Ferguson after giving our spots a few days rest. The water has come down some but the fish were still around. The water temperature, at 58 degrees, was warmer than the air. If the warming keeps up the bass will be spawning soon.  We caught most of our fish today on Yozuris and a red eye shad, although some were caught on a worm. I caught one in almost 20 feet of water.  Mickey caught the FOD , a 6-3 beauty.

Early we had lots of bumps and nips but as things warmed so did the bite. We ended with 27 bass.