This morning Mickey and I arrived at the private hole early but someone was there even earlier. When we arrived the mosquitoes were a problem out on the water. As it gets lighter the dragonflies start flying and the mosquitoes go away rather than becoming a dragonfly breakfast. According to the solunar tables, one of the bite periods was going to be right at daylight, from 5:30 to 8:00 and another was going to start around 2:00. I have found over the years by casual observation that the real bite starts about two or three hours before the time in the tables. That came true today, as when we started it was over because bites were hard to come by. We caught a few but had to resort to worms to get anything going and then not too much. Then the rain came. With a 20% chance of rain, neither of us brought rain gear and that guaranteed we would get wet. The rain was gentle but it was indeed wet and enough of it got us soaked. Bites became more numerous here and there as the morning progressed. About 11:00 things picked up noticeably as a DT-6 started to catch fish. It caught Mickey too. When he stuck his thumb down it the mouth of a small bass to dislodge the hook the fish wiggled and stuck the hook into his thumb. A trip to the doctor with the needle nosed pliers removed the hook relatively easily. He had a firetiger DT-6 that the had replaced a damaged hook with some of those little red hooks. Those little red hooks were so sharp they were almost dangerous. He was impaled lightly a second time before the day was over. It seemed to me that the 2:00 period started about 11:00 confirming my theory. By 1:00 we had dried out almost completely but the clouds were getting darker. The fish were still biting but a distant rumble of thunder, which was verified by a quick check of the radar, sent us scurrying to the ramp. The rain started just as we closed the doors of the truck. We caught 18 bass with a FOD of 4.32 and we had a couple more in the 3 pound range. One of the three pound fish had broken someones line and had a fresh worm hooked it its mouth which we dutifully removed. Just another day in paradise.

I’ve been too narrow minded on Ferguson lately, focused on too deep. Went Wednesday morning determined to fish some shallow. At 9:00 the first fish, a 4-0 FOD showed up on a Booyah. I saw the fish hit the bait as it came over a log. It came up from deeper, about 7 feet deep is my guess. It bit on the third cast into that spot between two logs. A second fish followed on the next cast. But no more there. Another fish came from another top but it was from the last top on that bank. A DT-6 caught one just on an arbitrary spot along the bank. In another place in the lake the Booyah caught one from around a fuzzy willow and another followed nearby. I thought I may have found a school but I circled that spot and could raise no more bites. Just travelling down the 70 bank, another hit a DT-6 but I could not coax another to hit it. That spot was close to some willows in about 4 feet of water so I picked up the Booyah and tried the trees. Sure enough, one scarfed it but no more showed up. 8 bass in all, not the best trip ever but better than lately. SCATTERED.

That’s what the guy that was my foreman when I first started farming used to say when we would start in the field and half of the equipment we sent out would come back with a need for repair or adjustment. Needless to say I didn’t think about it that way.  I thought about that saying going down Lake Ferguson this afternoon when I looked around and the tattletail (the thing that squirts the water to tell you your water pump is working) was only dribbling water. Figuring the hole was stopped up I poked a piece of large weed eater string in the hole. The hole was clear. I turned around and put the boat back on the trailer. With the cover off. I unhooked the hose to the tattletail and poked the weed eater string in that hole. It was partially stopped up. With the boat back in the water heading down the lake it partially stopped up again. By now it was probably 5:00 so I kept going. The first place I stopped, the 70 spot, was covered with willow cotton and hard to fish so I left there and went to another spot. On the way I noticed the GPS was not working on the depthfinder. Going to have to send it in for repair I thought but first I turned it off and back on and it worked. Then I caught the first fish on a worm. Tried two more spots with no luck and at the third caught another fish on a big Bomber Fat Free Shad. Hung another good fish that ran for the boat and powered by the boat pulling drag until the hook came out. Hung another that acted the same way but this one was hooked better albeit outside the mouth. Got this one in the boat, 4 – 1 FOD. Caught some more but then had another one to power by and pull out the hook. The bomber FFS has some sharp hooks. I’ve always been sort of scared of them because they were so big and sharp but they didn’t work so well today. Caught 7 in all but let two good ones pull the hook out. Losing those two good ones hurt my feelings. If they had just come to the boat I would have let them go. Still a pretty good ending.

The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Instead of going fishing in the nice cool morning like I have been doing recently, I went to the Private Hole at 4:00 in the afternoon. It seemed the right thing almost immediately, as there were squirrels running across the road the whole way to the hole. If they were out feeding the bass should be too. Fishing started at 4:30. Since it has been so hot, the fish should be deep I thought. After fishing a good spot that falls from a flat out to 25 feet and another tree on the bottom in 30 feet that I have marked on my depth finder with no luck, it was time to reassess. The DT-6 is an old trusty and if you are a little confused it is a good one to try so it got the call. Very soon it came up with a good fish off of a submerged log. The fish flashed so I could see it was a good one and it was pulling drag like crazy. I took that reel apart recently for grease and forgot to tighten the drag sufficiently. That being done the FOD of 5-0 came into the boat. It had a pot gut and I believe it was going to spawn soon so I hastened to release it due to the hot weather. It was foul hooked in the gill plate which was one reason it fought so well. It also had its last meal’s tail sticking out of its gullet.  Soon in that same area another smaller bass made it to the boat. It was near a log too so I went log hunting. Two more came from logs but then no more. Fishing along, A spot came up that has been good with a worm and three came from there. I replaced the swim bait I had on with a 5XD and started to try a little deeper and caught only one small fish. Back to the DT-6 going around the hole, picking up one here and there. I had my hopes set on 10 fish and when number 10 came I thought about leaving. One more spot. The depth finder showed a jungle of trees and limbs under this spot. The DT-6 was just right as it came across the top of all the limbs and would not get hung. It was getting late but the fish were there. Finally at 8:00 it was time to quit and not get carried off by the mosquitoes. By 8:20 I was on the road back and had to have my lights on the Jeep on. In a grassy spot in the road, right in front of the Jeep a 4 or 5 foot long RATTLESNAKE appeared. Instinctively I floorboarded the jeep and got across the snake. I then stopped and backed up to see if the snake was writhing in the road – gone. I was not about to get out and look in the dark. Not really afraid of snakes if there is time to calmly assess the situation. In this case “fight or flight” came to the front and it was flight that won. I ended the fun day with 16 bass.

Went to Grand Lake and it was not grand. Had a lot of bites on a Ribbit but the hookups were non existent . Nips on a swim jig except for about a 2 pound catfish. Jackson came closest to catching a bass when he had one come up with a chatterbait to where we could see it and then get off. The coon tail is everywhere but the bass were just on the outside of where it has reached the surface. My guess is the fish are out deep in the cool. There are some lily pads but they are mostly the stand up kind. We had a bite or two on the periphery but none in the boat. There were a lot of gar.

Mickey and I checked out the private hole Saturday morning. The last  time we were there, top waters caught the fish. They are so much fun to fish not doubt that is what we started with. We went straight to the place we caught them the last time we went there.  It was the top water time of the day and it was overcast, perfect. The first one hit 6 inches behind my Whopper Plopper and would not come back for seconds. The WP moves along rapidly so Mickey tried his famous crazy shad routine, which is very slow. A fish that would have been the FOD blasted at it but did not touch the bait. We took that as the fish just didn’t want anything on top so we changed baits. For most of the day I used a DT-6 and Mickey rotated from worm to top water to DT-6. I had to leave early so we left at 11 with a total of 10 fish, no biggies.  I think the fish were biting in the afternoon. I say that because when I got home and let the dogs out nothing was moving. With the dogs back in I decided to take a nap but the squirrels started coming to the bird feeder and the dogs took offense because they can see it. I have two hounds and they can really make a ruckus. When the squirrels were chased off they came back in 10 minutes. I set a Have A Heart trap and caught two before the afternoon was over. Without a nap I did not have a heart when dealing with the squirrels. If we had been at the Private Hole when the squirrels were causing problems, I’d bet the fish were going after it. As hot as it’s been I believe we would have been hot, sweaty and tired to say the least.