Last night I was thinking of a place to fish without the Memorial Day traffic.  Cane Creek came to mind because it has the most stumps of anyplace I know. No water skiers or pleasure riders there. You can’t go faster than a low idle if you like the lower unit on your motor.  I was the first at the landing. In the past Cane Creek has been frustrating, in that, the bass will hit a Ribbit but hookups are low. First thing this morning. 3 pounder caught on first bite.  Life is good. After  that, however, the fish fell back into their old ways of hit and miss. I finally gave up on the Ribbit and put on a Booyah. It caught one right off the bat too, but I was suspicious that it was the “old Indian trick”. It was. I was still glad to see the fish. The way this year is going I’m glad to see each one. Finally a rain storm built up on the other end of the lake. I was across the lake from the ramp and not too worried as there was no thunder. That changed and I started for the ramp but at the aforementioned low idle speed. The rain was light and the thunder subsided.  Thank goodness. Getting wet after a bad day would have added insult to injury.

When I reached my first intended place to fish on Lake Whittington this morning, the lake had apparently started to fall, as the flotsam was flowing out. I thought things were just right until my trolling motor hit bottom. It was a little too shallow for that place and the water was kind of funkified. It was not muddy but was certainly not clear and the gars were in abundance. There were many spots on my mind so I left for greener pastures and hopefully better water. Bar Lake was where I stopped next and tried three places, all with different scenarios. One was next to a steep bank where two roads go down to what is a dam at lower water stages. Another was in the East end of the lake where the wind was blowing flotsam into a large drift. In the past I’ve caught fish there but the lake probably needs to fall more to concentrate the fish there. The last was in water where there was a shallow flat and then fell out to 15 feet. The bottom was covered with smartweed.  Nothing in any of those places, not even a bite. I had fished with a Ribbit, a Booyah , and a swimbait. Next I went into the middle ground and fished in 24+ feet of water around the log drifts with alternating baits. Some places it was ribbit only because it was so many sticks and logs. Something finally made a move toward my bait but I figured it was a gar. At that time I was desperate, so I threw back in the same spot, and lo and behold, a feisty 1 1/2 pound tighteye came out and ate my bait. I retained my composure and hesitated before I set the hook. The only fish of the day was in hand. After thrashing the logjams more with no luck, I ventured to Game Warden Lake, where I resorted to a fluke around some large logs in 20 feet of water back in the willows. I got one peck and it did not take the bait. That good garlic dye was on it too. Another bad day but it’s going to get better as the water falls.

This morning as I drove to the ramp on Lake Chicot, I noticed the egrets posted every 40 yards or so along the bank. Looking further, I noticed movement in the water of small bait fish along bank.  After Jackson and I launched, we saw what was going on. The shad were spawning, laying eggs on the rocks, the seawalls and anything else in the shallower water. The birds were feeding on them but we saw no bass crashing into them. Of course we had to try but to no avail. We left the spot where we heard the bass were concentrated and went to the end where the lily pads are. The gar were in there spawning and the water was not very clear. Jackson only caught one bass there on a frog. One guy had some limb lines tied out and almost each one had a small catfish on it. We left and went to a bank where in the past we’ve done well. There we only caught one. That fish was relatively small but showed us what was happening. The fish was a little football, so full of shad I don’t know why it hit my Booyah. The bass must have fed all night and were gorged with 2 inch shad. They were full and wanted no more.  We did see some schooling in one place and they would not hit a Yozuri or other normal schooling fish baits. Finally we enticed them to bite a Johnson’s Sprite for a few minutes and then they quit completely. Even the stripes and the two gaspergous we caught had bulging stomachs . Five bass were all we caught . While turkey hunting I thought a lot about fishing but I planned on catching more than five.

Frank sent these pictures by email.

They were caught on back to back casts on a Hula Popper and both hit within 3 feet of the bank.  The fish were caught at Michigan City, MS in a pond. He said they caught “a whole passle of big ‘uns in the rain” “all on top”. A great day of fishing.

Now that the turkey season is over and I am not going to be abused by the gobblers for another year, I can turn my efforts to the fish.  I’m having to live vicariously through other peoples exploits. Going to try to change that. One of my favorite spots, the private hole, is getting some much needed water due to The River rise that will really give the fishing a boost after the water clears. The rise will help the river lakes too but too much high water will hurt the turkey hatch. Hopefully the water level will be like Goldilocks’ porridge, “just right”.