I arrived at the private hole this morning a little later than normal because I was a little tired from getting the boat and the rack it’s parked on in place yesterday. I sounded like the first day of dove season. A nearby farmer had the noise making cannons wide open to keep the deer out of his soybean fields. When everything was in the boat and it was shoved off, I started putting on baits and setting the cast control and drag on my reels due to recent maintenance. I put a worm on one and pulled off line to check the drag and set the cast control. I noticed the line was  moving sideways so I set the hook and came up with a tight eye. Catching one on the first cast will put the hoo doo on your day but this wasn’t even a cast. The starting baits were DT-6, worm, swim bait, and Whopper Plopper and they were alternated as I generally do starting off when I have no idea what is going on with the bass. I had an inkling of where the fish were, but being open minded, all of the baits had a good try. I thought the Whopper Plopper was going to be the best today because my friend Hal has been catching a lot on them and the water was clear with 4 foot visibility. It was indeed the topwater that produced the second fish. Here it is:

The ironwood bushes were flooded and no telling how many fish were in them but the only ones I could catch were the fish that for some reason came out or that the WP called out. Things slowed as the day progressed and it showed itself by several airballs. Those did a professional job of blasting a topwater except they missed the bait completely. Caught the 3 – 1 FOD with a shad tail sticking out of its gullet.

In the clear water you could see a zillion carp cruising, lots of bream and I even saw a 4 foot alligator gar. Tempted to take a fly rod next time. Ended up with 12 bass, first one on the worm and all the rest on the WP.

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Jackson and I were in the boat in Lake Monticello this morning at 5:45. We were able to run the skunk off in the first five minutes when Jackson caught one on a Rage Tail Shad. Today we used a Rage Tail, a Red Eye Shad, various top waters and swimbaits. The best luck was had in 10 feet of water around wood stumps or small trees down to broom stick size with a swimbait. Let the bait sink to the bottom and then a slow retrieve. Most fish were small except for the FOD at 4 – 8 and two in the three pound range. We caught 11 and left at 2:00. When I drove into my driveway my phone rang. It was Mickey preparing to go on Ferguson and asking if I wanted to go. It had been hot today so I had to decline. He was caught in the rain but found shelter and stayed on the lake. I am awaiting his report.

EDIT: After the rain, Mickey returned and caught four bass, three in the 3 pound range and one smaller. He caught them on a Carolina rig and on a 5XD. Very good for a short trip.

EDIT 2: The larger bass we caught in Lake Monticello had bigger heads in proportion to the rest of their bodies. The one that weighed 4 1/2 looked like it should have weighed a pound more.  It appears that the fish may not have enough to eat. When we did see schooling fish but they were small and chasing small minnows. I know the fish have spawned but enough time has passed for them to gain back some weight if there is enough forage.

Mickey and I hit the ramp at 6:00 this morning. We had a good spot in mind for this water stage. There was nothing there early but we tried some other places and were going to come back. At one of the other places we managed to catch one but the lake is still mighty high for our spots. We then came back to the starting spot and caught a small fish and a stripe. We just couldn’t get it to happen today so we headed for home. Tried 6 spots in all and one of those twice. Two bass, not very good.

EDIT: I found out that a tournament was won later this week at our starting spot. We only fished 10 feet deep at the most. The fish were caught 15 to 20 feet deep on plastic. Once before at this time of year, I remember the fish going deep. It seems early for that to me but I’m not going to forget the lesson learned.

When Jackson and I talked about going to Cane Creek, I said I wanted to go in my boat because it needed washing out. There was a 50% chance of rain and the boat had been in the garage for a month. We were on the lake at 6:00 ready to fish. Jackson had on a rage tail shad and I had a Ribbit although there were some waves in the open water. The rage tail shad soon caught one and had another bite that did not connect. By then I had changed to a swimbait for the open water and the stumps. One bit and was snatched up out of the water but came unpinned.  Soon we were in some lily pads and I changed back to the Ribbit that caught the FOD that was 3 pounds.  Almost immediately thereafter it caught another . The lily pads are like everything else this year, a little late, and are just unfurling their leaves. There were many beautiful places to fish. The Ribbit was catching one every now and then. Bites were few and far between. Jackson went through a collection of hollow body frogs with no bites. One popping frog I thought was particularly good but not even a bite. By 2:00, with 8 fish, we were discussing calling it a day when Jackson said that he came with a bait tied on and had not used it and wanted to try it before we left. He had a fluke on that rod and proceeded to fish with it. After he caught one, he then proceeded to give a fluke fishing demonstration. The fish were in the openings in the pads and a fluke thrown there was going to get scarfed. We ended up with 16 when we quit at 5:00. It did not rain on us except a little in the morning so the boat looked like it was not going to get a bath but on the way home in Lake Village there was a toad strangler that did a great job.