When I started fishing on Lake Ferguson (33.3 ft.) this afternoon at 2:00 the lake was slick. Better to spot the feeding fish I thought. I went to the spot where Mickey and I caught a few the last time we fished Ferguson. It was just right but nothing. I couldn’t even find the Ed King spot due to the towing companies rearranging all the trees with the parked barges. I fished a couple of other spots, and in one, I spotted a fleeing shad. I noticed some shad jumping for joy today all over the lake but this one was getting out of town because something was after it. The water was 16 feet deep there so I threw a DT-10.  After several casts I finally connected and not surprisingly it was a stripe, and it was over 2 pounds. I could see the fish now on the depthfinder but they were hesitant to bite. The most effective way to get them to bite was to make a long cast and when  the bait got to where I thought they were, just sweep the rod and make the bait rip about 4 feet and stop. When I took up the slack the fish was there. I weighed a couple of the fish and they were over 2 pounds, big for stripes. Largemouths were non existent. I did get a few bumps on a Booyah but no hookups. I went to one place where there was an unbelievable amount of fish showing up on the depthfinder.  I could feel the DT-10 hitting them but no bites, carp I suspect. I took a screen shot and saved it on an SD card but I forgot and left the card in the depthfinder when came in. I will retrieve it tomorrow and update this post. Here it is:

I took the screenshot late.  Before I took it, the whole screen appeared like the left side.  Solid fish between 5 and 16 feet deep.

I went to Grand Lake this morning for a while and took a skunk.  The fish bit 6 times but none hung on. The Booyah got two to the top before they came loose and even the Ribbit got one to the top in some flooded smartweed. I really did not realize that I had a bite. It bit so light I just thought I had snagged a weed.  The other bites were just pulldowns, two on a swim jig and one on a 3XD crankbait. There was one other boat on the lake and it was gone by 9:30. One time I did see a bass chase a large shad out in open water but I could get no cooperation. I even turned on the sidefinding sonar and circled trying to locate the school but there was none. I saw a few fish but nothing that looked like a school of bass. The whole time I was casting a Yozuri. The only luck I had was when I was around some  cypress trees that were full of migrating swallows and martins. The little white poops were hitting the water all around but I was spared.

More photos from England courtesy of Gayden Bishop.

  

River Photos

  

Edward with a grilse  and a sea trout

  

A place for a streamside repast complete with champagne. It had a heater that felt good when we turned it on.

  

Gayden Bishop says she wants a flock. Then there was terror in the back seat. I was driving for the only time on the trip but it was only a one lane road so I couldn’t drive on the wrong side. It was 11:30 p.m. when this was taken, note the light sky.

  

The scene of the crime. We had a picnic out at Windsor at the tree where Edward hid the engagement ring for Gayden Bishop. It was delightful and we were kept company by some of the Queen’s deer under the tree and a large herd was running around. The sound they made was much like a sheep. Click the photo to make it larger and you can see the horns. There was also a good view of the castle.

  

Back to London in Edward’s and Gayden’s house. The last one is the flowers from Liz Jones, such an unexpected pleasure to see her.

I met Hal this morning at Moon Lake at 6 a.m. He has been catching fish on a swim jig and I wanted to get a swim jig lesson. Things started off slowly and continued that way. We started off in relatively shallow water fishing around cypress trees and roots. I started off with a Booyah and Hal was using about three baits trying to find out what would work. We fished most of the good shallow areas and then tried the deep water around the piers. The depth falls out gradually from the bank and then there is a good dropoff from 5 to 16 feet.  All along the shore there are fishing piers that stick out to just past the dropoff. We tried to figure out the deep fish but only caught one. About noon the weather started to act up with some thunderstorms in the area. We ran from one only to figure out we had placed ourselves right in front of it so we hightailed it back to where we started. A little past noon we pulled into a boathouse where we were out of the weather and had lunch. The storms moved through so we continued to fish but back in the shallow water that happened to be close to the landing. Round two of the thunderstorms chased us from the lake with a total of 9 bass, a crappie and a good swim jig lesson.

The day at the Private Hole started at 6:30.  Usually for some reason I start off counterclockwise, but today I went with the clock. It was still and quiet so the topwater Mickey gave me from the discount table got the call. Soon I had chased off the skunk. I saw a real one on the way that would not get out of the road. It just sort of hopped down the road in front of the truck no matter how much I blew the horn. I certainly was not going to get too close.  Finally it found a deer trail and let me by. I missed a good one that I got a good look at and caught another before the FOD showed up a fat 3-12. It looked as if it was getting ready to spawn.

Just like last time the fish hit with gusto but finding one was the hard part. As the morning went on things slowed down. Around 11:00 I put on a Ribbit because there were some patches of moss and some standing weeds. The first place I tried was a bust but on the way out of it I got a good laugh. A small bass hit the Ribbit in the shade and close to the boat as hard as any fish could. He just blasted it and I laughed but not before I hesitated, set the hook and caught him. It seems like the middle of the day is a good time to fish a Ribbit. The visibility is about 4 feet so the fish were getting under the small patches of moss to escape the sun. I’m sure some were deep too but I could not get any of them to cooperate. There are some tall weeds that are inundated just like the ones in Upper Lake Ferguson.  I think I got a small look into what is going to happen when the river falls out.  Bass were in the weeds but the weeds made it hard to get your bait to the fish.There were several signs of good for the future. There were a good many small 3 to 4 inch bass hatched this year. There were also a good many small bream and small shad that the bass will dine on. There was a persimmon tree with persimmons coming on and a pecan with small nuts beginning to form. All good things for the future of the fish and other animals. I almost forgot, 10 was the final count.

I went to a site provided by George Ross who was my ghillie in Scotland and found my photo and one of Edward, much to my surprise and delight.

This is the link :  http://feeds.feedburner.com/http/wwwoykelsalmonfliesandtacklecom/category/theriver

On our recent trip to the U.K. we went to Scotland and I fished for salmon on the Oykel River, courtesy of son in law Edward. The guys drove up from London and the girls rode the overnight train to Inverness where they hired a car for the ride North to the Oykel Bridge Hotel. The drive was a good bit of the length of the country and took around 12 hours. We went fishing as soon as we got our gear stowed away. I used a 16 foot fly rod, as long as my boat at home, and Edward’s father’s Hardy perfect fly reel. The reel is around 100 years old and works perfectly. We were so far North and the days were so long, we could fish a long time after dinner. This photo was taken at 11:00 p.m.

The next photo is of our arsenal of flies.

The Oykel is set in a beautiful part of Scotland where the misty rain came often, but a waxed cotton coat kept it at bay, and due to the temperature, felt mighty good. The next two photos are of Edward, one at a steep walled part of the river just behind the hotel, and the other where the bank is flatter with a salmon on.

Rick, Edward’s friend who went with us, struck first, and then I caught one (the next photo) and then Edward caught two. They all were about the same size but we saw some biggies jumping at the falls trying to make it upstream to spawn. I was alone when I caught the fish so I could not take a presentation photo. The one I did get was hurried as I wanted to return the fish quickly to the water. You might notice my foot next to the fish to give some perspective of the size. The second photo is of a sea trout that I caught.

 

We went to an old cemetery not too far from the river. As you can see from the photos, Scotland was beautiful and lichen was growing on everything.

 

 

The food at the Oykel Bridge Hotel was superb. Some in London was also. Among some of the goodies for me were smoked eel and a smoked Isle of Man kipper that I had for breakfast. The kipper is in the photo. Note the “Sylvester the Cat” effect on the right side of the photo.

Needless to say, the trip was outstanding fun. Much of that was due to Edward’s heroic efforts.

On Lake Chicot today I got to try out a neck gaiter and some fingerless gloves that limit your exposure to the sun. I have an appointment with the dermatologist next week that made me think about trying to do something about exposure. It may be a little late. I should have started in about 1960. Although the ads said they were cool, I figured they would increase your temperature some. I was wrong. They were really cooler than nothing as the sun didn’t hit your skin and heat it up. The best part was after I came off of the lake, I didn’t feel all burned up by the sun. The only downside is you look like a Martian.

Now to fishing.  Last time on Chicot I had 12 by 7 a.m. but today it was 3 on a Booyah. Had problems to start but I put on a tailspinner and managed to catch a few more. Being observant helped today, as I looked down the bank and saw some bass bustin’ shad about 300 yards away. After motoring down there it was one every cast on a red eye shad for a while. It was 9:45 when they started and they quit promptly at 10:30. Had a hard time after that except for a few on a Senko with some fuzz on the front that made the shaky head look like a jig head with a skirt. It also had a swimming tail that I dipped in the red garlic scent.

I ended up with 19 at noon and the FOD’s were right at 3 pounds.