Went to Lake Ferguson early Thursday morning and went straight to the shallow bank in the upper lake.  I had a plan. With the water falling, the fish would be in the shallows feeding before it got too hot and they would be susceptible to hitting a Whopper Plopper.  I should change the previous sentence to “hitting at” a WP. They would hit at the bait but were a few inches short, not even touching it. The WP’s hooks are good so if they even touched it they would be in danger of getting caught. I have seen them miss a Ribbit but never a WP. The strikes were vicious too, not just a polite little nip. To make a long story short, I caught one on the WP and three on a worm and quit before it got too hot. Should have had 10.

Hal caught the carp king a few days ago. It was a grass carp from his lake and it looks well fed. He has caught 30 pound fish before and said this one looks like 50 pounds. His scale does not go that high so he had to guess. Caught on a DT-4 snagged in the tail and released unharmed.

Picked up mickey at 3:00 and we went to the lake, which was at 30 feet even. We went to a deep spot and first tried a crankbait  but nothing was doing. There were puffy clouds but zero chance of rain according to the Weather Channel. Some of the clouds were black under the bottom and soon a sprinkle started. You hear about fake news today a lot and that weather report would qualify because we got soaked. We fished on. The worms came out and finally we caught a couple, one being the FOD at 4-2.

 Note the 1/2 oz Snitch shaky head by Black Angel baits hanging out its mouth. It has a stout 6/0 hook that I was barely able to get out of the fish’s mouth. The 1/2 oz is great for fishing deep. They are also pointed in the front with a vertical hook eye which makes them very weedless. I wanted them because they are 1/2 oz, good for fishing deep. Couldn’t get them around here, had to order them from the manufacturer, blackangellures@gmail.com . Two was the best we could do in that spot so we moved down the bank to try other spots, one of which was pretty good and gave up 4 or 5 more including another 4-0. One of those was on a Dredger 17.5 crankbait I think. In another spot on the steep bank the dredger caught one and a worm caught another. As it was getting a little late, we went toward the ramp and were fishing an old barge that had been cut up for scrap. They were shallow there and working a worm rapidly was the key to catching a few more that got Mickey and me up to our magic number on Lake Ferguson, 15.

Mickey and I both went to early church today and afterward headed to the private hole, arriving there and starting to fish around noon. We started out probing the deep with crankbaits and worms but not even a bite deep. I caught a small one in 30 feet of water on an XD5 but the fish hit the bait as soon as it hit the water. We continued the deep try for a while with nothing doing. We headed then to the spot where I caught some a few days ago on a Whopper Plopper. Mickey being an expert with a crazy shad, had never used a WP. He put one on to try and soon one came up and hit it with a vengeance. It seems the bass hit the WP with malice and intent to kill it. We really like that attitude because it makes for exciting fishing. In the middle of the afternoon the fish surprised us by hitting topwater lures. We kept going around the hole and the fish kept biting. I was a little hardheaded and kept fishing with my trusty Booyah a little too long. After Mickey caught a few more, I put on a WP too and started to get with the program.  The fish were getting the bait and not more than  few missed the bait completely. We finally quit a little after 6 figuring that shortly the mosquitoes were going to get bad. We ended up with 22 and a FOD of 2 1/2 pounds. Out of the 22 fish 16 were caught on a WP.

In other news, Hal sent a photo of his record grass carp that he snagged in the lake behind his house. He guessed it weighed around 50 pounds. He snagged it with a DT4 and probably would not have landed it had a benevolent neighbor not come up with a landing net. I tried to include the picture but when I did it erased the whole post and I had to  write it again. I’ll try to include it later after this is posted.

When I went to the waterfront this morning, I was expecting to see one or two trailers but there were 12 hydroblasters. They were from the Jackson area and must be prepping for a tournament this weekend. On the way to the upper end I stopped by the “number one bitin spot” broke the ice and had another jump and spit the DT-10 out. From there I proceeded to the upper lake but could not get anything going in the spots I had planned to fish. There is a copse of willow trees, now snags, in the very end of the upper lake. When those trees were alive, probably 1958, my father and I were trolling around them in a 26 foot Chris Craft that my father and 3 other men kept at the Yacht Club. My father hooked a bass that was 6 or 7 pounds and was fighting it. I was standing by with the landing net but the hook came out. Daddy didn’t make a big fuss or cuss but I could tell he was disappointed. I still remember how bad I felt for him. I went back to those snags to try to even the score. Did not even it too much as a crappie and a pound and a half bass were the best I could do with a Booyah. I left the upper lake and went to the big lake but could not make contact. Finally on the steep bank with a 17.5 Dredger I caught another crappie. Then in about 6 cast I caught 4 bass. The water was almost covered with willow leaves which really made it hard to fish. Something happened and no more bites. I even came back later after the wind had cleared most of the leaves but the fish were still gone. Got some new 1/2 oz shaky heads for the deep bite but it was not there today. Only had one bite deep (16 feet). They are made with a pointed head and seem to come through the brush better than the ones I have been using. Ended up catching 7 bass with a 2 1/2 FOD.

Early this morning I could not sleep well so I arose and decided to go fishing. Lake Chicot has been on my mind for a while so that was the spot. Fishing began at 6:30 with a whopper plopper.  It was not long before one knocked the tar out of it and came into the boat. No more were willing to hit on top so the trusty 1/4 oz Booyah spinner bait got the call. Before long the total was up to 6 and I had not even been to the spot that I thought would be the best. When I hit that spot it was pitiful, not even a nip. Then in some other spots there were just nips and it was getting time to think about going home. As that thought was entering my head about 11 the bite started to pick up but then seemed to fade after a short flurry. I tried some other places but then returned to where the bite was and it was on. Between 12 and 2 I caught 16 more, some on a Booyah, some on a red eye shad and some on a DT-6. I ended up with 24 and 3 coFOD’s at 2 1/2 pounds each.

 When I went under a bridge these were everywhere. There were probably around 100 . They are cliff swallow nests. The birds are in the process of finishing the rearing of their young. Some have already left for South America. You will notice them on the wires this time of year, along with the purple martins and other swallows that are in the process of migration.

Since the high water this spring my boat has been sitting under the house on the trailer. The day before yesterday I put the rack and winch in the boat, waxed up the runners with paraffin, hauled it to the hole and got it all set up. I would have gone fishing yesterday but the radar was showing rain. The rain fooled me and evaporated before it arrived. Today fishing started at 7:00 and I caught a tight eye on the first cast with a Whopper Plopper. Catching one on the first cast unnerved me a little. It’s usually a bad sign. Since it worked so well I continued with it. The fish were around sticks or logs in deep water just like you would expect them to be. They were willing to hit on top, and how. When going from one spot to another I threw a DT-6 sometimes out into the middle in the deep water and managed to catch a couple more tight eyes. The fish were mostly in the 2 pound range. The good top water spots ran out so I went prospecting and that is when it became strange. Nothing came from around the cover as I expected but when I threw out into the open one would hit it with gusto. There was a spot that Hal and I had some luck when the water was high last year. I remember seeing a bass just cruising there and it crushed the top water when I presented it. It didn’t take long to catch a couple there right out in the open with the WP. The third one caught there was a 4 1/4 FOD that just blasted the bait. It was one of three memorable bites today that made me laugh as I marveled at just how aggressive a bass can be. Another happened when I made a bad cast to the wrong side of a log. When the bait hit I snatched it to the other side to  keep from getting hung. As I snatched it a bass jumped into the air and came down onto the bait. I had slack in my line and the fish immediately jumped and shook the hook. I just had to laugh. Another one was later in the day. When the bait was coming out of the shade, I hurried to reel in to make another cast and as the bait was 3/4 way to the boat a fish caught it in a blast.  The reel is a 7.6 to 1 ratio but that just shows you that if the fish really wants it you can’t reel fast enough to get it away from it. I ended up with 16 bass and had a fun day catching them but the day was not over. When I put the boat in, I saw some bream around the landing in the clear water (3 to 4 foot visibility), so today I took a fly rod with me. After the bass quit, and I suspect went deeper, the fly rod came out and any that cooperated were invited home for dinner. The fillets were sauteed with a little olive oil and butter and a lot of lime juice. They were mighty good.