I thought I was the first person on Lake Monticello this morning, but as I launched I spotted another boat tipping through the dark.  The lake was slick, which is unusual.  I started in a large cove with plenty of lily pads and of course with a Ribbit frog. Some fish volunteered quickly but they really did not want to. None of those blasting strikes like you really like. One just made a wake behind the bait. I saw it, stopped the retrieve and just let the bait slowly sink like it was dead. Soon I saw the line twitch and start to move off. Then I set the hook and caught the fish. It was  about then a cold wind started quickly. The next bite was even more tepid and the fish was missed. Another one hit like it was supposed to and was the 3 – 2 FOD. At 8:00 I was beginning to think it was going to be OK but I was wrong. No more fish until after lunch and then only one. There is no telling how many waked up behind the bait and finally bit after I stopped the bait, only to have grabbed a leg of the frog. The fish must like frog legs too. After trying to set the hook, my Ribbit would arrive back at the boat with the hook still pinned under the plastic. Once after one waked up behind the bait, I waited almost 30 seconds before the fish took the bait and then it was only by the leg. It was infuriating. To make matters worse, I got hardheaded and stayed two more hours. The fish would bite but not get hooked that whole two hours. After catching only 4 bass I left.

In my experience catching a fish on the first cast has lead to bad luck. Catching one on the first cast leads to an initial blast of optimism but I can’t tell you how many times that might be the only fish you catch or one of the few. This morning I arrived at the private hole at 9:05 due to rules letting turkey hunters have the daybreak hours, a good rule I think. When I crossed the levee all the cows were standing up eating, a good sign that the fish were probably eating too. When I arrived, Cruising in the water just behind the boat were 5 bass between 2 and 3 pounds. The water has risen since I last put the boat on the rack so some water had come through the drain hole. I winched the boat higher on the rack and had to wait for the water to drain. The fish were still behind the boat. Not wanting to catch one on the first cast, I walked down the bank a short way and cast the Cripple Killer top water bait out into the open water. When I put my best impression of Mickey working a crazy shad on the Cripple Killer, one came up from the deep, smacked it, and got caught on the first cast. The first cast Hoo Doo was on. After I got the boat into the water and started fishing, the CK got the call and responded by catching fish all around the hole. Here is one it caught with a growth of some sort on the underside of it’s mouth.

After about an hour the top water bite started to subside. One fish, the 4 – 0 FOD, just came up and hit it like a bream. I didn’t set the hook until I saw it was a lot larger than any bream. Another waited until I completely stopped the bait when I was distracted by a bird ( I was bird watching too) before it smashed the bait. I changed to a shaky head with a Zoom trick worm and caught a few more. Even that bite slowed. The bites were hard to detect but even when detected the fish were not eating the bait. The worm would be pulled in half on the hook set. After two had been pulled in two, and suspecting a grinner, I let the next one have it for more time. When I set the hook on that one there was a fish on but it was a bass. The fish was hooked on the outside of its mouth but it had one of my trick worms it its gullet. Things had slowed to  trickle by 4:30 so I quit, all the time suspecting that around dark the bite would rapidly pick up. I ended up with 27 bass and a crappie, caught on a DT-6. The first cast syndrome didn’t work today thank goodness.

In a continuation of the last post, Bobby emailed some photos of some fish that his father caught on Lake Ferguson. One of the strings is amazing. The first one is of Jack Burke, Bruce Hitt and Rhodes Wasson.  Jack Burke and Rhodes Wasson caught the fish and Bruce Hitt just happened to be there when the photo was taken.

The pictures were in the Democrat and the caption says the 26 bass weighed over 100 pounds and there were 11 over 5 pounds. A terrific string of fish. The next photos are of Jack Burke and Rhodes Wasson with another great string of fish.

I believe both photos are of the same string of fish. The next one is of Jack Burke with a 6 1/4 pound bass that the caption says was caught on a plug that “came from Arkansas that looks like a number 13”. They wouldn’t tell you exactly what they caught them on even back then.

They kept all they caught back then because there were only a few bass fishermen. I guarantee none of the fish went to waste. People used to love to see you coming with a big string of fish when they were going to get some. If people kept fish today like they did then we wouldn’t have any to catch. If they had the good equipment like we have today they would sink the boat with fish.

At my recent 50th class reunion, Bobby Burke brought some photos and some hand drawn maps that were his father’s. They were maps of some of Mr. Burke’s fishing spots in Lake Ferguson and photos of the same. The photos were taken in late 1960 and some of the maps were dated 1950. Bobby said that although they were keepsakes to him, he was giving them to me because he does not fish and they might be helpful to me. Very thoughtful. The river was cut off and Lake Ferguson made in 1932 only 18 years before the earliest of Mr. Burke’s maps.

When I started fishing on Lake Ferguson there were only a handful of people who regularly fished for bass. Mr. Burke and Horace Polk were two who fished together and caught big strings of fish. They did it with direct drive reels (the ones that the handles spun when you would cast), braided nylon line, none of the good baits like we have today with the super sharp hooks, and no electronics with depth and GPS maps. They did not have trolling motors so they anchored and fished spots. Since they did not have all this good electronics, they took photos and drew maps. Here are four of Mr. Burke’s maps. You may have to turn your head sideways to read some of the writing and if you click on the picture it will zoom.

These are of “M” chute. I do not know what “M” stands for but I know what the chute is.  The next three are of a hole across from the gravel company, another of the chute, and one of the rockpile.

Note that “X” usually marks the spot.  The next ones are of a spot across from an orange barge, a spot at the sandbars and a spot across for the old Greenville Yacht Club where the “X” is where you anchor.

Then there are the photos. The first two are of the rockpile and were taken 12/3/60, over 53 years ago.

The next two are of places on the steep bank. I think I know where both are located.

The next ones are of the sandbars. You have to know many of the sharp dropoffs have eroded in the 53 years since these were taken.

The next one is of the mouth of the cute. The way it meanders I would bet the exact mouth has changed locations several times since this photo was taken.

This gives you an idea of how the fishermen of the 50’s and 60’s had to really work at their craft and use ingenuity to bring in all those big strings of fish. I thank Bobby for sharing his daddy’s maps and photos.

This is a screen capture from my depthfinder of a sunken barge in Lake Ferguson. It shows just how good we have it now. The next time you turn on your depthfinder / GPS just give it a little love pat.

I have not been fishing lately but Hal has been. He thinks this is the largest fresh water fish he has ever caught. Estimated weight 35 to 40 pounds. It was snagged where a culvert runs into Horseshoe Lake in Arkansas. It ran out into the main lake between some cypress trees and somehow did not get broken off. The bass were not biting so Hal and Richard resorted to snagging.