I went to Lake Ferguson this morning and played hooky from church, which was probably my downfall. The gauge was at 29.8 feet and the starting water temperature was 46. Not to worry I thought, we caught them in Lake Chicot the other day when the water was the same temperature. The last time I was on Ferguson I caught a fish in some flooded cockleburs and this morning I found a large spot just full of them. The water was beautiful with 4 foot visibility. Unfortunately the fish were somewhere else. Not to worry again, I’ll just go to the 87 pound treeline. Here’s what I found there.

These coffeebeans are in water 10 to 12 feet deep. The whole Upper Lake is full of them. They are a big change and will make the fishing year interesting later on. I tried the treeline and tried in the coffeebeans too but no bites were to be had. A Booyah spinnerbait would not even get a bite until finally I felt a nip. On the retry I caught a tighteye that was as thin as a razorblade.  A couple of casts later, as the bait was coming to the surface close to the boat, I saw a small bass just come up and just put his mouth on it. It would not bite again. Staying in the same area, I managed to catch another skinny fish after a few casts. They were both in an area that gets cut off from the main lake when the water is low. Their food supply must have run out and they were hungry enough to bite. I even tried the cockleburs again on the way home. The water had warmed to 53 but still no fish there. Those two were it.  I was feeling kind of bad about my two fish day but when I got home and turned on the computer I saw that Kevin VanDam only caught 4 in the Bassmaster Classic.  After that I didn’t feel too bad.

It was foggy, cold, and windy when Jackson, Sam and I put in at Lake Chicot Friday morning at 7 a.m.. We did not go to what I thought was the best spot right off the bat, because before the wind blew too much, we wanted to explore another spot I saw when looking at Google Maps. Google  Maps is a great resource for looking at lakes you have never visited or places you have visited but wanted to know more about. After a short frigid ride, we started fishing, occasionally having to put our hands in our pockets to warm the feeling back into them. After catching only one in the prospective spot, we made the decision to make a break for what I thought was the best spot I visited last Sunday. It was not a great long ride but it was a cold one. I broke out two pairs of gloves kept in the boat for just such a day.  No problem in getting a taker for the extra pair. The water temperature was 46 degrees. We were fishing Booyah 1/4 ounce spinnerbaits and when we got a bite, it was with authority.  The water was 2 to 3 feet deep and most of the fish we caught were in what we could see as the open, outside the inundated  grass. In reality they were in the cover of vegetation that had been covered by the water. There was no pattern, just one here and there. The only place where we caught more than one was a grassy point where the wind had created a slight current coming around the end of it. Later in the day the wind subsided , the lake became slick and the sun came out, but as luck would have it, that was close to my hard leaving time due to an engagement later that night.  We ended up with 13 bass no biggies but some fat females with eggs. No photos. It was too cold.

I went to Lake Chicot today after going to early church. The water temperature was 48 degrees at 11:30 when I arrived and the wind was clipping at 13 MPH from the SSE.  Some spots have been on my mind for a while, so after I put in I went straight there.  The cypress trees that I wanted to fish were where I  had caught fish in the past and were only in 3 to 5 feet of water. No bites on the Booyah spinnerbait so I moved shallower. The lake is up and has inundated some of last years weeds. That along with some scattered cypress trees and knees looked like the perfect place.  I finally had one on but it lasted only seconds before it came unpinned. A couple of hours went by with not even a nip and I was in low cotton, already thinking up excuses to put on the Bitespot and even once thought about just skipping writing about this trip.  Finally a tighteye volunteered and I’ll tell you the fish smell beat the heck of the skunk I was beginning to get a whiff of. I caught it in some shallow water and soon another came from the same spot. That spot was small and soon ran out. When I moved, I arrived at a spot so shallow the trolling motor hit bottom and would go no further. There were some good looking weeds so before I left I hummed a sidearm cast across them and a bass boiled at it and missed. Three or four casts later it hit again and this time connected. It was a good healthy fish with black spots on its mouth and one on its fin.  Here’s its picture.

Thinking I might be on to something, I went through the trees and around the shallow spot to some more weeds I saw ahead. All the time I was thinking that this was just like the spot I started in. Shortly I caught this 3-13 FOD that had a pot belly full of eggs.

Not a giant, but I was impressed with her dedication to reproduction.  That spot ran out so I went back to the days starting point and sure enough caught a few there before dark. All the 7 fish today were caught in water 2 feet deep or less.

Today Jackson and I went to the private hole under the threat of rain.  We started with crankbaits, he with a Lucky Craft and I with a DT-6. Shortly, Jackson had the first of the day, a good, healthy, and pretty private hole bass.

You can see his Lucky Craft bait pretty clearly in the photo. Next he proceeded to catch the FOD, a nice 5 – 3 that we did not take a photo of because it was hooked deep and it took a long time to unhook. We wanted to return it to the water quickly. Things were looking pretty good when he made a cast and twitched the bait on top and one smacked it . I finally caught one on a Booyah and then it started to rain. We left the boat to sit in the truck and I finally figured when we were sitting in the truck we could be driving back to the cabin to get me some rain gear. Jackson had his. When we returned the rain had almost ceased and shortly we were able to fish again. Things had slowed down. I pulled out my shaky head and caught one and another on a Barry Provis special,a jighead with a swimbait tail and a wire coming out the bottom of the jighead with two willow leaf spinner blades on it. Jackson also added to the count but times were tough. This year I wanted to try to learn how to use a dropshot so I put one on and fished halfway around with it and did not even get a bite. We ended up with 7 when we quit at 3 p.m. The first two times at the private hole this year have produced 12 bass total. Last year the first four times 20, 16, 26, and 28 were caught.  Kind of a rough start.

Mickey and I visited Lake Ferguson on a sunny Superbowl Sunday afternoon.  We had plans to go to the 87 pound treeline even though the lake was a little higher than it was when we did well there last year.  When the lake was low last summer the coffeebeans came up and prospered. The water was 12 feet deep but the weed tops were sticking out of the water. When the water does get right there it’s going to be hard to fish due to the weeds. Also after the spawn, the fry are going to have a great place to survive. We started with spinnerbaits down the treeline and could not get a bite. Giving up there, we moved to shallower water and after a strong smell of skunk, one finally followed the bait halfway to the boat before he glommed on. It was tighteye but I was glad to see it. A few bushes later another one hit kind of hard .  We thought the riddle was solved but not so. No more were caught in that spot. The water was 5 feet deep there. We moved again, but due to the height of the water, we had a hard time getting to shallow water. So much wood was floating it was hard to fish so I put on a swimbait due to its weedless qualities.  We came upon a shallow spot that had some cockleburs  showing and as the swimbait came through one nailed it.  Surprisingly, I was able to hesitate before the hookset. Usually when I first start with a swimbait it takes a while before I don’t snatch at first contact. We only caught 3 small fish for the afternoon. The water temperature was 49 degrees.