I couldn’t decide how to title this post so I just used both ideas that I had. Both were appropriate.Mickey and I went after Church today and arrived at the fishing spot at 1:45. The water was at 18.2 feet on the Greenville gauge. We caught two pretty quickly at the first spot, one on a DT-10 and one on a worm. Then a gar snipped Mickey’s DT-10 and luckily it floated up but was right in the good part of the spot so we said we would wait until it floated away until we would go get it. We fished and got distracted and then could not find the bait. We fished on down the bank  having given up on finding the floating bait. Then there it was and it was recovered. It’s amazing how far it went in just a moderate wind. I think the super moon must have put some kind of tide in the lake. The fish were definitely not feeding very aggressively. One at the first spot followed the DT-10 almost to the boat before deciding to eat it. Mickey threw his worm over an underwater tree top and he could feel it over a limb. He pulled the bait up and bumped it on the limb 3 or 4 times before a bass finally bit. It was a beautiful day and as usual we had a lot of laughs and solved a lot of problems. We did not catch many fish so today we were fishing as opposed to Friday when we were catching. We caught 7 with a FOD of 3-10 and one other at 3 1/4 that was worth mentioning. The last super moon, when the moon was this close to earth, was in 1948 when I was 2 years old. The next one will be in 2038 and while it’s possible I will be around to see it, I’m not betting on it. Here are some photos of this one.

Mickey and I started fishing at 7:45 this morning and by  8:26 we had 27 fish. The bite was hot and heavy right off the bat with us catching one almost every cast. A gar snipped off my DT-10 after I had caught a couple of fish. The bait floated up but it was right in the bitespot and I couldn’t go and get it without messing things up so I pulled out the rod with a DT-6 on it. The DT-6 caught a few but I was falling behind holding up my end of the string. Finally I got the 10 back and started catching again. Some fish were caught on a worm but that was later in the day. Some of our spots from Sunday afternoon were empty but we found some new ones that were hot. For instance we caught 17 in one spot that we only caught a couple in Sunday. The size was good today but only one 5-0. Others were 3-0, 3-2, 3-8(2), 3-12(4), 3-14(2), and 4-0(2). We only had 7 small ones that would have averaged 3/4 pound each. The 66 others would have averaged 2 1/2 pounds each.  We caught 85 bass in all that would have weighed 213 pounds. Best 5 would have weighed 20 3/4. No pictures today because the action was too fast. It was Mickey’s turn today to break a rod. It broke after he lifted a fish into the boat just as I did Sunday. I had a new one that replaced the one I broke last Sunday afternoon. It did fine and was better than the one it replaced. Today was a good day to break it in.  Another new item made its debut today. It was a pair of  6 1/2 inch aluminum pliers in a scabbard that Hal sent me. It was a good day to have them and needless to say they got used a lot. We fished until late but most of the catching was before noon. Another great day of fishing but I will have to say I’m pretty worn out and ready to put my head on a pillow.

Today Mickey and I went to early church and then headed for Lake Ferguson around 11:00. The water level was 18.4 on the Greenville gauge. We immediately went to the scene of our last trip that was so successful. Since I was out of DT-10’s, I put on a Poe’s crankbait that I found some years back. It was in pretty good shape when I found it but it had small hooks so I replaced them with large ones. We started off where the fish have been the last two times and again they were there. Most of the first ones were caught on a worm and weighed 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 pounds. After we caught around a dozen there, we headed off down the bank with the crankbaits and that’s when the ones over 5 pounds started showing up. Mickey was using a DT-10 and I had on the found Poe’s. Both were working.  I noticed a small, almost unnoticeable point and mentioned that we ought to try it. The FOD came from it at 6-0, along with several others.  By now the size had picked up some. As we went down the bank we would hang up every now and then on some underwater treetops. As I “jiggled” my bait trying to get it free all of a sudden it pulled back. I set the hook and a nice bass had unhooked it for me. I was nice too. I unhooked it and threw it back. That happened twice to me today. Early the bass were relatively close to the bank, but as the afternoon went on we caught more from the underwater tops. We caught 6 or more off of one particular top. Needless to say I marked it on my GPS. We took a few photos but it would take too much time to take photos of all the good ones. Here are a few:

The largest fish weights were 6-0, 5-12, 5-10, 5-10, 5-0, 4-4, 3-12, 3-8, 3-6, 4@3-0 . We had 20 others that would have conservatively weighed 2 1/2 each. We weighed some when we first started trying to get over 3 but most were 2-13.  We had 3 small bass that together would have weighed 1 1/2. The heaviest 5 fish weighed 28 pounds. There were 36 bass in all. If you add all the weights up it came to 106 pounds of bass. I have had days catching over 100 fish but the quality was not there as it was today. Hal and I back in antiquity caught 27 that weighed 87 pounds that was about the best up until now. Today was not without mishap. In bringing aboard a fish and trying not to let it hit the bottom of the boat too hard, I broke a rod. First one I can remember breaking but there are others at the Basspro just waiting for me to come and get.  Mickey fished with the same DT-10 almost all day,  hung it up and got it back several times. He said “I hate to say, but I’ve been fishing with this bait all day and have been getting it back”. Was not too long before it was gone.   I’m 70 years old and to think I can still have my best fishing trip ever gives me optimism that there may be more good ones to come. All that laughing we did today had to be good for our souls. I’m just glad I was not chasing a white ball on some golf course. WHAT A DAY ! !

Mickey and I went to Ferguson (19.9 feet) this afternoon with a wind that was forecast at 11 MPH out of the NNE. When we launched it was more than that I think. We went straight to the 70 spot, where after a trip up and down it, we caught 8, mostly on a DT-10. That spot was out of the worst of the wind. The next place we went was not but had fish to be caught. Here are two examples:

 

One was 4.91 pounds and the other was 5.22. A DT-10 was the bait of choice. Most of the fish were of good size including several between 2 3/4 and 3 1/2 .  We left the windy spot and went back to the 70 spot where I hooked what I thought was a monster. When I came into sight I saw it was a silver carp hooked in the mouth. I wanted my bait back but I also wanted to weigh it because we were guessing that it weighed 25 pounds. It wouldn’t behave when it came close to the boat so Mickey administered a little sedative. They can’t stand too much of that cut off hoe handle. The fish weighed 13.7. We didn’t believe it and got out the other scale but 13.7 it was. When we looked at the fish it was naturally thin and skinny looking. After the 70 spot we went back to the windy spot where I lost my third DT-10 of the day. I hooked a bass that jumped and on the way to the boat got tangled with or hooked up with a silver carp that panicked and broke off my DT-10 right at the boat. The second one was lost to a gar that was hooked and had the line wrapped around its snout. When I administered the sedative the line broke and the fish swam off, with a headache I hope. The other DT-10 was lost on a hang up. When I let the lure retriever down the chains hooked on something that I thought were the lures hooks but when I put a strong pull the line broke and that was that. We caught 20 bass, the largest five were 20 pounds. A splendid day, even with the DT’s lost.

I met Jackson at noon today at the landing. The lake is low and launching was a little difficult but with two people it was not too bad.  We stopped at one of Jackson’s favorite spots. He had on a 3/4 oz red eye shad and I put on a DT-6. He said “Throw over there by that tree” but I had some issue with my gear. Then he said “Watch me catch this fish” and made a cast to the tree. He immediately came out with a 2 pound fish. We moved to another part of the lake where the fish are usually scattered. We had trouble finding them so I suggested trolling. By now I  had a 3/4 oz. red eye shad on too. We trolled and Jackson caught another fish.  We trolled further and caught none but saw one chasing shad. We rode over to the place the fish struck and caught another fish. I was beginning to like the big red eye shad because you could throw it a mile and it stayed down pretty well on the retrieve. We went around and around in that general area and caught a few more. Finally things slowed down so we started our trek home. On the way we trolled some more trying to find some new spots but there were cypress leaves on the water making it hard to keep your bait clean. We ended up with 8 bass and the first one was the FOD.