It has been three years since I last fished in Wolf Lake. The last trip was in 2011 with perfect conditions. The fish did not get the memo however. On that trip there were baby gar everywhere and only a few bass. After a three year hiatus I thought the lake would have repaired itself. Unfortunately the only thing that happened was the gar have grown, perhaps fed by the addition by the State MDWFP of a good number of fingerling bass a year or so ago. I MAY have had two bites from bass this morning in the three hours I fished.  The only thing I caught was a heavy metal chair that had blown off of a dock into 9 feet of water. My DT-6 snagged the cushion that was attached. My lure retriever straightened the hooks but would not pull the lure loose. After the line snapped, as I was drifting the chains on the retriever became tangled in the expanded metal chair seat and allowed me to pull the chair to the top. I then used my knife to free the bait that was stuck in the cushion. The very next cast with a DT-10 I became hung on another immovable object. After the retriever freed the DT-10, I immediately fled for the landing with tail between my legs. I believe another hiatus is in order for Wolf Lake.

Jackson and I met at the ramp at 6:15 this morning which was about 30 minutes later than it should have been. When we launched we just started fishing. I had on the trusty Booyah spinner bait and Jackson had a super spook junior. He caught one on the second cast. A few casts later he had another strike but the fish missed. Finally after a couple more missed strikes I changed to a cripple killer but could not buy a strike even with it.  After we moved I did manage to change to a super spook junior and caught one quickly. They continued to bite the quiet topwaters although they missed a lot. The lake is being drawn down and is 2 feet lower than normal with 4 feet left to go. There is a current in the lake that we thought might make the cut between the North and South ends a good place. When we arrived there, we caught fish under the bridge immediately but they were white bass (stripes).  Only one black bass did we see there and that was when he jumped and threw my red eye shad.  We checked back with our spots on the shallow side only catching a couple more on shaky heads and red eye shad. Jackson and I have talked about giving an hour or two to just running the deep bank and using the side finder to find some spots with some larger fish. We did that today, looked that is. Some spots had some fish but nothing that seemed to be enough to stop and fish for. What we did see were shad, shad  and more shad. The bait in that lake is amazing. We then traveled down to Ditch Bayou where the water is being drawn out. Catching nothing there, we fished a few docks, caught a couple more and then hightailed it to the ramp. We ended up with 15 and a FOD of 3-1.

Since it rained all day yesterday, I knew the ride to the private hole on the 4 wheeler was going to be a muddy one. I packed up all my stuff and headed out. This is an old photo but it’s about what the Yamaha looked like.

When I shoved off and was rigging up I heard the sound around the corner of a bass striking in the shallows that made me put on a buzz bait to start. After a few casts one shot out of the flooded grass and pounced on it. I tried a few more times but it was obvious something else would be better. DT-6 came out next and caught a couple. Seeing some activity in some shallow water I put  a curly tail grub on a jig head. It was on a spinning rod so I could begin the retrieve quickly and keep the bait shallow. That worked a couple of times too. Here is a photo of the grub and jig.

Still thinking shallow out came the Yozuri. It was great because you can cast it a mile and you do not have to get too close to the fish in shallow water and scare them. When all that action subsided I pulled out a shaky head but on the back I put on a crawfish looking thing with claws that waved when it went through the water. Caught some on it too. Then I hit a lull and bites were nonexistent for about an hour or so.  I changed to a Strike King 5XD  crank bait and started catching a few again. With 12 pound line it goes down 15 feet because I got hung and had to get directly over the bait to get it free and the depth finder was reading 15 feet. After saving the bait, I had a small bass close to the boat that jumped and snapped my line. Not only was my line frayed but the drag was pretty much locked up. It was fine after I loosened it and then tightened it back down to the proper setting. I looked for the bait to come to the top all day but the fish was hooked too well. I caught 15 fish in all on 6 different baits.

This morning early I arrived at the banks of the L Hole. Not having fished in 3 weeks I wanted to go to a place unaffected by fishing pressure. There were no tracks on the bank to indicate any intrusion. I took a small 9 foot sneak boat and put a folding chair amidships.

When launching I noticed movement under a bush that I initially attributed to a gar. Upon closer inspection, I saw the motion was caused by two 18 inch alligators. My first reaction was “where is mom”? Not seeing the mother, I continued to launch the boat, but keeping “mom” in the back of my mind. After I set sail there was nothing going on. The Booyah had nothing working as did the shaky head. There was an hour without any sort of bite right at the best time of the morning. Finally a crankbait enticed one to bite and another succumbed to the shaky head. There were baby alligators in every place that would afford them the slightest amount of cover. The small (18 inches long) gators would come running to the slightest splashing on the surface. They made a squeaking noise as if to ask “where is something to eat”. They would hang close around the boat. If you splashed the rod tip in the water they would come and pose for the camera. If you grabbed one they would probably squeak to high Heaven and bring Mama charging from whichever hole she was in. She probably would be longer than my boat and that would have made me uncomfortable.

There is no way you could have fished a topwater. The fish that did bite did so so softly they were hard to hook. Finally, I saw a commotion next to the steep bank and threw the shaky head at it. Out came a bull of a bass that was the FOD of 4-15. When I lipped the fish to put it in the boat I noticed it was one of those with what seemed like extra teeth. Some bass have more teeth than others. I do not know why this happens but it does. This particular fish would not be still, whether in my hands or even on the scale. It roughed up my thumb pretty good. When I finally tamed it here is what it look like.

A picture of me and the fish . There was a smattering of rain and a lot of mosquitoes so I quit before 11 with 6 bass.