Tuesday morning Richard and I started fishing at Beaver Dam at 7 o’clock. We started off with booyah spinnerbaits going down the bank. After a short while we switched to a white and chartreuse swim jig. We caught a few here and there butt they were not concentrated in any one spot. One interesting thing we saw was an osprey circling and complaining about something that we could not see. After moving down the bank a little more we saw what the complaint was about. A full grown white head white tail eagle was sitting in the top of one of the large cypress trees. The osprey buzzed the eagle a few times and each time the eagle would bow up on the limb and fend the Osprey off. Finally the Osprey gave up on chasing the eagle away and left. As we continued down the bank the eagle was comfortable and did not move from his perch but peered over the limb and looked straight down at us in the boat. When we were directly under him he did not fly. Had he pooped it would have struck us amidships. When you get that close you can really tell what a massive bird a grown Eagle is. I truly need experience . After a short break for lunch we crossed to the west side of the lake and Richard switched to a baby Paca craw with a light weight. We reached a small Grove of trees where it was shady and relatively cool. Throwing through each opening there were numerous bass in that spot and Richard was catching most of them on the Paca craw. I was getting bites and catching a few on the swim jig, enough to keep me from changing baits. I really enjoyed fishing with the swim jig but hard headedness is not a good trait to have fishing. We reached another small hammock of trees and the fish were the same as the first, wanted the same bait as the first, and the results were the same as the first. We ended up with 30 fish. The FOD was 4 1/2 pounds and we had two more in the three and one half pound range. We also caught 2 grinners ,1 5 pounds and 1 4 1/2. I dictated this on my phone for the first time. We will see how it turns out.

Even with the water rising, the stench of dead carp all over the lake and not having been on the lake for quite some time, I insisted that Mickey and I go there instead of a nice landlocked chute close by. I was convinced that Lake Whittington was on the comeback just like Ferguson. The lake looked good where we started but everywhere you threw there was a gar. The high point of the day was when we found a small rivulet running over a dam. There was a small alligator on post waiting for a meal. We caught one fish on the other side on a worm but the splashing just aroused the gators interest. When Mickey’s spinner bait came by he struck at it just as a bass would. The second time it came by the gator struck at it and had it in its mouth. It was one of those “Uh Oh, now what do we do ” moments. Luckily the bait came loose and all was well. The gator learned its lesson and never hit at the bait again. We only caught two bass. I felt pretty bad about wasting a good day by being hard headed, that could have been good fishing. At least we didn’t get rained on.

In the past Wolf Lake has been great so even though I had a poor day there last year I had to go back and see if there was any improvement. There was more of the same, lots of gar. Also there were lots of minnows that looked like what my daddy called “potgut minnows”. I don’t see why a bass there would hit a artificial bait there were so many minnows. I was expecting a bad trip based on last year and when I reached the landing there were other bad signs. There was a lot of grass in the parking lot indicating not much traffic and there were no plastic bait remnants in the gravel indicating not many bass fishermen. I caught only one fish from 7 until 10 and had several other halfhearted bites. Most of the bites were when the bait landed right on the fish. I guess that’s called a reaction bite but the reactions were small. Not going back anytime soon. High points of the day were a three foot alligator that just came cruising by the boat and an osprey.