Idle speed only to keep from damaging peoples docks and not put waves into some houses. Wardens there to check on the speed and to write tickets. Jackson and I started at a little after 7. I was a little nervous because, on the way over, a herd of cows at Eudora was lying down. Cows not eating = fish not eating. We started with topwaters and I also had a DT-6 on but none of that was working at the first spot. At the second spot the DT-6 connected and chased off the skunk. As we worked down the lake, we came upon one of Jackson’s favorite spots where we caught 3. Things seemed to be improving but nothing was caught at the “best spot on the lake”. At the place where I caught 72 2 years ago we drew a blank too. Since it was idle speed only, we decided to troll to the next spot. To my surprise, one bit out in the middle and came to the boat. It was only a little bigger than the Red Eye Shad that it was caught it on. After a dry spell we revisited the 72 spot where we caught one that was equal in size to the trolling bass. Retracing our steps we went to the “best spot in the lake” again. By now, I had put down the DT-6 and picked up a DT-10 because the fish that I was seeing on the depthfinder were a little deeper than the 6 feet that I was seeing them at most of the morning. We had caught one out from under the flooded cypress limbs when a pretty good group of fish appeared on the depthfinder. I was not sure if the fish I saw were indeed bass. When One bit and came to the boat I was sure. After a while the FOD, 4-10, came to the boat. It had inhaled the DT-10. We thought “Oh Boy, we’re getting ready to tear them up now”, but what happened was what usually happens, you don’t tear them up. We caught 11 fish total and had a great time.

Went to Beaverdam Thursday and caught 21 bass two crappie and two drum. They caught most on a rage blade but some came on plastic of some sort. The water is up 3 feet higher than normal so they went to where they could reach the bank. When the water is higher than normal in the cypress trees the limbs make it difficult to fish. You can’t throw under a limb that is in the water.The water, while not perfect, was not as muddy as I thought it would be. They had a good day under the conditions.

Jackson and I made a trip back to Lake Columbia with topwater fishing in mind . The lake is full of lily pads and we figured the bass were over their spawning effort and would be ready to eat some frogs. We went over the afternoon before so we could get an early start. It was so dark when we started that I had to turn off the depthfinder running down the lake because the brightness from it was destroying my night vision. What we really wanted to hear was the Ka-Woosh of bass striking in the pads and especially wanted to hear it if it pertained to our bait. We fished with Ribbits, hollow body frogs , swimbaits, buzz baits but not too much was going on on top. I took my binoculars to do “research” while out in the lake. Most of the people that looked like locals were fishing out in the lake away from the bank. That meant to me that the fish had retired to the deep. A few small bass came from the pads but not many and FOD was n/a. In desperation we even trolled for a bit watching the depthfinder, and sure enough in the middle of the lake, there was a hump. We didn’t fish it because there was a boat already on the spot. He did catch a small fish , the only one we saw caught all day, and believe me, I was looking. He left shortly thereafter. Over dinner we plotted and planned to adjust our course and drive to Lake Monticello the next morning. It is sort of on the way home and we know some spots to fish there. The lake had been drawn down for dam repair which killed all the lily pads. It also allowed a thick cover of weeds to grow up around the banks. A big difference from what we were used to there but a pretty place to fish. The water was up about 2 feet higher than normal which made fishing a little easier in that the boat floated over a lot of the stumps that you would normally get stuck on. The fish were again small and not very plentiful although the water was clear and the wind was very reasonable, which is not usually the case on Monticello. Around 2:00 we called it off, again FOD n/a. We never found Ka-Woosh, but it’s May so we’re going to keep looking.