Before Jackson and I went to Lake Chicot we had made a pact that we would not fish in any of our known places. It was an effort to develop some new spots. We did not have a particularly fast start but we held to our resolution. I had a treetop marked on my GPS that I saw last summer when the lake was drawn down. It was out in deeper water than most of the other cover that I saw. We rode down to the waypoint but I could not find the top. I believe I marked the spot I was casting from and not directly over the top. Even with the sidefinder I could not find it. Need some lessons I guess. There was a tremendous amount of baitfish everyplace we went. On the depthfinder they looked like grass or weeds under the water. We finally enticed one out from under a dock with a worm. The fish was way back under the middle of the dock. I spooled Berkley Nanofil on both of my spinning rods at Hal’s urging. It is slick, has a small diameter, no stretch and casts great. Great for casting under docks because if your aim is bad and you hit the dock there is no backlash. After trying a steep dropoff we went up on the shelf and caught some on a red eye shad. That spot is going to qualify as a new one I think. We both had to leave at 10 and were not able to stay much longer even though the fish had seemed to turn on. We ended up with 4 and one new spot.

The Saturday tournament on Ferguson was at a bad time due to almost flood stage water levels and  rising water to boot. First place was 20 pounds, an impressive catch for sure under hard conditions, but the catch quickly tapered to 7 – 9 at 11th place. It was won by Matthew Bates who also had the big bass. Lot of 2 pound average catches after the first few places except for one that caught 2 fish that weighed 8 – 1. About half the field of both pros and co-anglers zeroed. My optimistic mind has been trying to talk me into going to Ferguson but I believe I’ll wait.

Jackson and I met on the North end of Chicot with the wind blowing 20 miles per hour. We started not to launch but changed our mind when the wind slowed slightly. Of course, it picked right back up as we prepared to fish. We started off  with lipless crank baits but quickly changed to spinner baits after getting hung up a couple of times. The waves were sloshing against the bank at an angle but if you had a spot where they hit head on you usually could get a bite. The fish were hitting light for the most part but if you threw up into a particularly wavy place they would have it when you tightened up the line. It was almost impossible to fish because of the wind. Some sheltered places were fishable but the fish either were not there or would not bite. On the North end willow thickets have grown up during the drawdown last year. They appeared to be perfect places for the fish but we got sparse action there. To make matters worse, I was having an off day and hanging up on everything in sight. Hanging up anytime is a pain, but in a 20 mile per hour wind, it’s the pits. Jackson was great about it and didn’t scold me as I deserved. We ended up with five bass, a 3 – 15 being the FOD. It was long and slim, but if it had been as fat as one Jackson caught it would have weighed 5 pounds. One of the fish we caught spit up 3 shad. I wondered why it would bite if it was that full. All in all a pretty tough day. On the way home as I passed the South west corner of the lake it was very smooth from before the welcome center all the way to Ditch Bayou.

At the ramp this morning there were three people with cast nets catching bait for catfishing. They were easily catching enough because the shad were everywhere. I just started right there and went South down the bank with a Booyah because it was too rough for a top water due to a Southeast wind. After two docks and not a bite, ( I don’t know why they would bite anything with all the shad around) I swapped to a 1/4 ounce Redeye Shad. It was just the size of the shad. I knew the size because they followed the Booyah on every cast and I even impaled one on the hook, so I got a good look. The Redeye began to get some bites in the area between the bank and the drop off. Bites only at first but the hooks are so sharp on the Redeye that if a fish gets close they are in danger of getting caught. Most of the ones I caught were hooked in the side of the head or under the belly. The bites quit coming so I crossed the lake to a favorite spot. There it is shallow and one volunteered quickly. The vegetation that grew with last summer’s draw down was a slight problem but the fish were down in it. They would hit the bait hard but were able to dodge the sharp hooks. One even pulled down my rod to hit the trolling motor and still did not get hooked. I fished a 300 yard stretch and still could not catch a fish even though there were bites and I saw small schools of fish feeding. Frustrated, I went to another dock where I have had luck in the past. On the first cast one hit as soon as the bait hit the water and had the Redeye sideways in its mouth. Same on the second cast. On the third another strike and hookup. As I brought the fish in, a boat was coming so I tried to be nonchalant  but the fish didn’t cooperate and jumped. The guy saw it. The boat slowed and stopped at the next dock about 250 yards away. The guy was watching like a hawk so I just tried to catch them all. He was trying to wait me out. Finally after I combed the area I left and went a half mile down the lake to try another dock. Caught nothing there so I returned to the place I was fishing and there he was sitting on the spot. I did something quite out of character, I said “so you got my spot.” To which he replied magnanimously “come on in and fish.” To which I replied something I can’t print because I try to keep The Bitespot clean.  From there I went to the squirrel log and caught another then went to the other side and caught another. To cap off the day I went back to the “confrontation” dock where I caught number 12. That did me some good. The fish were a little larger than they have been. Many were between 2 and 3 1/4.

Mickey and I put in Ferguson this afternoon at 3:30. The weather radar was showing a line of storms moving in rapidly from the South. I figured that they would do as they have been doing lately, dissipate as they arrive to Greenville. Out we went and at the first spot we caught a few fish. It started out slow but gained momentum. We started out with DT-6’s and 10’s but it quickly became  evident that a worm was the bait we needed to be using. It also became evident that the rain was coming and not dissipating. We made a break for the ramp but we soon saw we would not beat the rain there. The Yacht Club was close by, so we turned in and pulled into a boathouse. It had a large boat in it but there was room at the very back end for us to get halfway in. We both got in the front of the boat and stayed relatively dry. The weather improved but the radar on the phone showed the rain was not over. We decided to give it another try anyway. We got to the spot and caught a few more but were keeping an eye out for the rain coming down the lake. Here it came. We made a dash for the ramp and had decided we were going to quit this time. We made it past the Yacht Club but it was obvious we were not going to make the ramp so we ducked under the Lighthouse Casino. The first spot we stopped under there was pretty good but we moved to one that was much better but by then we were full wet. The rain finally stopped and we made it in. The count was 7 small bass and some stripes.

This morning I met Hal at the Cottonmouth Lake gate at 6:00. That meant me driving out of the driveway at 3:26. The 40 acre lake is in Desoto county and has 20 members. The visibility is in the neighborhood of EIGHT FEET. With that clarity there is plenty of grass at any depth under 16 feet. I took my boat so we could look at the bottom with the side finder depth finder. We started in one of Hal’s favorite spots a deep point with some wood underwater. Along that stretch of bank there is a top lying out into the lake that a lady caught a 9 pound 10 ounce fish off of recently. We caught a couple of small ones as we fished down the bank. I had a 10 inch ribbontail worm with a weighted swim bait hook installed. Needless to say we came up with plenty of grass on almost every cast. I thought I had a wad of grass coming to the boat but it started moving sideways. On the hookset I could tell it was a good fish. Hal got the net and pulled out this 5 – 6 for me. If you click on the picture to blow it up, you can see an orange tag that Hal installed. The fish are cooperative. One five pounder that Hal tagged has been caught twice by the same man, both times in the same spot but across the lake from where it was tagged.

Shortly thereafter Hal caught a 5 – 0. He said that generally the fish bit very lightly but slightly after that I felt another electrifying tap and set the hook. It was another good bass that jumped like  two pounder but weighed 7 – 5. Hal caught a couple more good fish that rounded out our best 5 fish at 25-11.  A little later the small bass began schooling out in the middle. There was already a Redeye shad tied on so I heaved it out into the middle and one got it as soon as it hit the water. It jumped and got free as did the next four that I hooked. They were all small. Anything under 15 inches must be removed so those were some good to eat fish for me or Willie that escaped. As the temperature rose the bite slowed to nothing so we motored around looking for fish or at the bottom . We saw a few fish but the grass made it hard to see the fish unless they were out in the open. A pic of the 7 – 5 is below.

It is a beautiful lake that is over 30 feet deep. It seemed like most of the depth readings were over 20 feet when I looked at the depth finder. It sits on the edge of the hills overlooking the Delta. Based on today, if the lake was a little closer I would try for membership. We ended up with 22 bass.

After church today I made a snap decision to go fishing. The firetower at Belzoni has been on my mind since I perused my fishing logs the other day. It came to my attention that I have not been there for a couple of years at least. Google Maps shows it as Hard cash Lake when I looked at it to refresh my memory. Since we’ve had all the rain for the last month or so, I figured it would be muddy. Not only was it muddy, it was high by about 4 feet. The stumps that you can usually see and are a good place to fish  were well under water. I tried them anyway with a 1/2  ounce Redeye Shad to no avail. A chatter bait was next, as I figured its vibration would help in the muddy water. The vibration did not help so out came the trusty Booyah with the two Colorado spinners. After a short while I caught a couple. They were right against the bank and in the shade. They would bite before I could swap hands with the rod and turn the reel handle. There were bushes along most of the bank that kept you from being able to cast to the bank so that limited your chances. None were caught on the outside of the bushes. When I ran out of good spots to fish, I swapped sides of the lake and caught a couple more but the spots ran out there too. I rode a little and stopped to fish a place where the bank went from flat to steep and the vegetation changed. I caught one there, again right on the bank. On that bank there were some dead tree tops coming out into the deeper water. I couldn’t stand not fishing that top even though none had been caught away from the bank. The fish there had not received the memo because they were there. There were tops all along the bank there so I proceeded to fish them all and managed to catch some more. My Booyah had broken in the neck on a fish so I tied another on. I lost three fish shortly thereafter. I checked my hook and indeed it was not up to the usual Booyah sharpness, so I touched it up. I believe I caught one more to make it 8 for the day. The bank is covered with vines almost everywhere. Today I had more hangups than usual where when the lure hit the vines it just stuck with no chance to jiggle it and get it out. Absolutely maddening.

Jackson had me over for another shot at Enterprise. He has been catching some fish in about three spots that have no apparent reason for the fish to be there. As you fish them, the reason becomes apparent. There are snags under the water that you can’t see but the bass like to use for cover. They also increase the chances of your getting hung and exacerbating the problem are trotlines that were tied to many of them when the lake was low. I had a DT-6 stuck on one that would still be there except for the heroic efforts of Jackson and his “gitter”. Shortly after retrieving  it, the bait found another one that defied rescue and still resides there. Jackson had been catching fish of good size but most of the ones we caught were on the small side. They were in his spots but something seemed to have changed and,  by chance, we found out the possible reason. We came upon the head of fisheries in the Southeast Region of Arkansas who told us there was a leak in the water control structure. To overcome the leak they were pumping water into the lake from Bayou Bartholomew and raising the water level in the lake. That got the blame for the lull in the fishing. When we asked her about Lake Monticello, she confirmed that the fish numbers were down there. As is usual the blame could not be placed on any one factor. I don’t think I will be going back there for quite some time. In Enterprise, we caught 10 fish on a variety of baits including, a 3/4 oz. Redeye Shad, a Yozuri, and an Xrap XRD 8. The FOD was around 2 1/2 pounds. The river is forecast to start falling about Wednesday. I believe there is going to be good fishing in the river lakes.