This morning for a change of pace I went to Lake Enterprise, arriving for fishing to start at 6:30. Not wanting to make the same mistake as last time, I motored directly to the 72 tree. As you would expect, there was nobody home. Thinking the school had moved, I fished in the area for about 45 minutes even running the side scan to try and find the school. Nothing worked. Then I went to a place where the duckweed was entirely across the lake. I was alternating with a Ribbit in the duckweed and a DT-6 in the open water. The DT-6 would work in the duckweed where it was not too thick but I caught no fish. Giving up on the open water duckweed, I started down the treeline fishing a Ribbit in the duckweed. Before too long I got a halfhearted bite and I thought the fish missed the bait. I finally tightened up on the line and saw the line was coming to the boat so I set the hook scared the fish would be hooked deep. It was hooked in the side of the jaw, just in the right spot. That was so good I continued down the treeline looking for more, but no more showed up. By now desperation had set in so out came a Rattletrap which had some of the sharpest hooks I have seen on one of those baits and I trolled with it. Pretty soon a real tight eye showed up, caught right out in the middle of the lake. The side scan showed no school but I went back through three times. Continuing on for a good distance another small bass showed up and again it was alone. Now I spied the end of the lake that was covered with duckweed and the wind was blowing directly into it.  The Ribbit came out and quickly started getting bites but from small bass. I caught a few but tried to find something that would work better. A few liked a shaky head with a small worm pulled across the top to the duckweed. Jackson and John Bishop came up in Jackson’s boat and caught a few but left because the bite seemed to be winding down. After they left, I pulled out in the open water just outside the duckweed and used a DT-6 and it started working. The fish outside the duckweed seemed to be larger than the ones under it but they were moving just like schooling bass do. The FOD of 3-2 came from there. There were a lot of tighteyes but some others in the 1 1/2 to 2 pound range. No real biggies but caught 27.

Tuesday morning I returned to the deep spot on Lake Ferguson. When I arrived nothing was going on deep but soon I saw a shad get blasted in the shallows. The worm was quickly laid aside and a 3XD was thrown into the spot. It was not long before a bass made it to the boat. It was not one every cast but more like one every now and then. They were shallow so I put on a DT-4. First time I have used one of those in a long time. It caught a couple but they moved out a little. I had on a 6XD because I was planning to fish deep. It got thrown into the mix and came out with one. I went back to the 3XD and just as the bait came up one hit it and when I set the hook the line snapped. Lazy me had not retied since last trip and about a two pounder made off with a brand new bait that had caught only one fish. To make matters worse the fish jumped trying to throw the hook a little later but still had the bait in its mouth. I could hear the rattle in the bait. The XD baits float rather high so I was looking for it to float up all morning but nothing showed. About that time, 9:20, things quieted down in the shallow water and the count was 10. The worm was called out into the 20 foot water and it was very slow from that point on. The fish would barely bite, very hard to detect a bite but they would bite. I caught 5 more between 9:30 and 11:30. It was so slow I left and tried some other similar places but no action. I tried the deep spot again when I came back by and had two bites but nothing got hooked. There were other places I wanted to try but I had to pass the ramp to get to them and by 12:30 the air conditioned truck was hard to pass by, so I quit. Caught 15 with 2 FOD’s at 3 1/4.

Craig T. gave me some baits for my birthday a few years back and with them came this great poem he composed. It read

Someday the flood will pass

and the waters will go down

you’ll want to fish for bass

and get the hell outta town

By then the weather’ll be hot

and these baits you’ll need to keep

cos fish will not be on top

and you’ll need ’em to get deep

Mickey and I went to Ferguson this afternoon with the water rising slightly at 33.4 on the gauge. Before he left Mickey had  talked to Terry who informed him the bass in Lake Ferguson were 20 feet deep which is deeper than we usually fish. We started in bitespot #1 and drew a blank. 15 feet was about as deep as we fished there. We moved to another good spot with no luck there either. Finally we caught a small fish but it was shallow. We thought the Northeast wind and bluebird day might be part of the problem.  Two more good spots and nothing more. In the next place there were some bushes in about 10 feet of water where when your bait ran over the bushes a bass would hit but the volunteers ran out quickly. As always the next step was to put on a worm. That worked a little but when the worm came back to the boat I jigged it up and down and caught a fish directly under the boat. We backed out to deeper water and started catching more fish some still directly under the boat in 25 feet of water. I think that is the deepest I have ever caught a bass.  Today was a great lesson for us “shallow water”fishermen. We caught 15 with a FOD of 3 1/2 pounds.

1. Came today. Look at all those DT-6’S.

Went for a quickie this afternoon starting at 3:15 and ending at 6:15. Started at the number one spot where we had success Saturday but nothing doing today. Had something hit the DT-6 3 or 4 times but no hookups. When I left there I had plans to go to another spot where we caught some Saturday but as I cranked the motor another thought hit me of a place nearby. It was a good thought too because two came into the boat pretty quickly. After that I was trying to go to the Saturday spot again but got waylaid as I passed another good looking place where I pulled in. A couple cooperated there too. Another good idea. Finally I made it to the place I had been trying to get to but the wind was blowing so hard it was going to be hard to fish. I got out my Monticello anchor, which is a rope, and tied it to a tree which put me in just the right spot. We caught them deep there Saturday but there were no bites to be  had. The wind was blowing the waves around a point and I saw a fish hit in the shallow water. The anchor came off of one tree and went on another that allowed me to fish in the shallow water where I caught three more fish on a worm and a DT-6. I set the hook on what I thought was a fish but was a bass’s best friend, an ironwood bush in about 6 feet of water. Shallow hangup, no problem I thought. Neither my gitter pole or the weight on the rope could get it loose so I left it. When the lake goes down that 6 feet I’ll be back down there to get the DT-6 and I’ll take a pair of clippers with me to get even. Losing that one gets me down to the last one, a parrot colored beauty. Hal asked me what are my favorite colors in the Rapala  DT series baits and I told him the silver shad color and the parrot. Those are the ones I am preparing to order. Ended up with 7 and a FOD of two pounds.

I usually follow the rules, especially ones that I make. This morning Mickey and I broke the “no fishing on public lakes on the weekend” rule. We thought we would be fine because we went so early. The spot we had planned to fish was empty when we arrived. Empty of people and fish. I feel it had been picked over a few days earlier because one of the people that came by wanting to fish it said ” I heard they was stacked up in here a few days ago”. We caught three small bass and four gaspergous. We stayed longer that we usually would because the water was just right and it has been a great place in the past. The number one spot was just across the lake so we moved. A DT-6 was a good bait there and we caught a few on it and a DT-10. That spot played out so we moved again to the spot where I caught the stripes the other day. Someone was sitting on the spot and we got to watch them catch a couple before we left. The next couple of hours we prospected with no luck and on the way back by we tried the place that was occupied, since the boat had left. Caught one on the second cast on a worm. We sat there and ran the count up to 14 before we left for the number one spot again. At the number one spot we only caught one more to bring the total to 15 and a FOD of 2-14. Most of the fish were deep.

Had a late start this morning because my alarm did not go off. It appears to be a case of operator error. The landing in town was closed for repairs so launching took place at the one on the other end of the lake. The duckweed was solid and thick and it stopped up my tattle tail that squirts water to tell you the water pump is working. Not a real problem, just a pain in the rear. Fishing started at 7:15 and was slow to start. I fished the outside trees and finally caught 2 one being a 2 pound monster that was the FOD. A  DT-6 was my weapon of choice but I also had on a DT-10 for a few occasional casts to the middle of the lake. After those 2, it was slim pickings. About 9:30 I finally came to the 72 spot  from a few weeks ago. Right away it looked as if it was on with the DT-10. The first fish had 4 or 5 more trying to take the bait out of its mouth. The wind was blowing so I tried the old tie up to the tree trick. A few more were cooperative but it was obvious things were slowing. The fish were still around but not as many as I hoped for. I could tell the school was moving around and when I lost them again I turned on the side imaging on the depth finder and saw the fish out a little deeper. They had had enough and would not bite.  I’m mad at myself for not pulling out the Alabama rig. It might have been the ticket. Never caught another after trying two more places and coming back to the 72 spot again. Was on the trailer at 12:30 and 12 bass.

Today was not shaping up well. Trailer lights did not work to start things off. Bending some contacts finally solved the problem once it was located. Then on Lake Ferguson one followed the swimbait  under the duckweed but would not hit once it once it hit the open water. The places I went needed the lake to fall a little more before they would be right for me. Here and there was a “I’m really not hungry but I’m going to bump it anyway” bite, none of which got stuck with a hook. A silver carp did get the hook, but thank goodness that one did come off after a short fight. I stopped at the last spot on my agenda and saw some surface activity.  A DT-6 quickly found out it was some stripes and they were not particularly rabid about eating.  Most that I caught followed the bait up and I could see them eat it in the clear water. After I had caught 3 or 4, a particularly large one scarfed it just as I was about to pull the bait out of the water. That’s always good for a little adrenaline. It put up a good fight and finally I got the plastic version of vice grips in its mouth so my fingers could dodge all the crankbait hooks. The hybrid striper weighed 6 1/4 pounds.

A few stripes later and a 5 1/4 bit and made it to the scales. The bite was on the downhill slide. They quit biting and I could see no more on the depthfinder so I quit. Thankful that the Hybrids had saved the day.

Have not been fishing in a while but am preparing to go.  A couple of times in the past the drag on two different Shimano reels has been jerky or has been stuck until they were loosened, the line pulled out a few times, and then tightened. Afterwards they were not as smooth as I would like. I have never greased the drags on my reels, but was wondering if I should. I read and read on the internet to find the answer. The answer was I probably should but with a special drag grease. Regular gear grease was said to be a no no. Since I had no drag grease in inventory, a good cleaning would have to do. One reel’s drag was full of grease that came from the gear itself. The other had no grease on it at all. On both gears where the drag washer applies pressure had more black residue than I wanted and it was hard to get off. A light steel wooling still left more than I wanted. The internet research said this residue could be removed with brake or carburetor cleaned. Again, none in inventory, so more than I wanted was what it ended up with. One good thing that was in inventory was a syringe that I got a while back from the drugstore. It made putting oil on the level wind a snap. To lubricate most level winds you have to hold the reel upside down and try to drop the oil in without getting it on your line. The needle makes that exercise easy. Everything is ready. Now I just have to go.