The second Lake X trip started with a flat on the boat trailer on the way to pick up Mickey. It was only a few blocks from his house so he came to help me change it. When I left home something did not sound right and I even tried to look in the mirror and check the boat trailer tires but I couldn’t see the one on the right side. It is the one on the dark side of the garage next to the wall. We got it changed and took off for the lake. When we arrived at the lake there was a cold wind blowing out of the North, so cold in fact I put on my rain suit to help me keep warm. It had rained more there than in Greenville and the bank was a little muddy. I did not wipe my feet before getting in the boat and soon the foot pedal to the trolling motor was very slick making it almost impossible to maneuver the boat. I had to get out on a grassy spot and wipe my feet off and then use a rag to clean off the pedal. We fished along the bank with a variety of baits, got a few bites, hooked a couple but catching none. Finally we caught one on a wacky worm and then one on a jerk bait. Due to the wind we were confined to one short stretch of bank. We had tried to fish with the wind down the bank but that was going too fast and we caught nothing. There was one other boat on the lake with three people in it that had caught 6. We continued to try as the weather started to slowly improve. As the wind died we were able to fish more of the area. The fish were close to the bank mostly. We caught a few more and finally the 5-15 FOD bit the wacky worm.

Characteristically, we fought it until late. We ended up with 7 bass and a funky little catfish. The other boat caught in the high teens and had “several 5 to 6 ” fish.

A friend is pretty well along in the process of making a big bass lake and needed some small fish under 16 inches taken out. I was more than happy to help out. The lake is 30 acres and has been sculptured with deep spots channels and has all sorts of cover. I didn’t start until around 10. When I started two boats were leaving and a guy said they had caught a 9 pounder along with a 7 and a 5. A 12 year old caught the 9. The guy that told me was using a spinner bait for his last few casts. The trusty Booyah was the first bait out of my bag after seeing that. I went a long time with no bites. After two small fish made a pass at the Booyah and neither really hit it, I changed to a wacky worm. I have been watching Major League Fishing and a lot of those good fishermen catch a lot of fish on wacky worms. They can take a spinning rod and skip those things right under a dock or up into a top. I had a small spinning rod with a reel spooled with braid. The pros use a fluorocarbon leader so I did some knot research and tied one on. The hook I used had a wire loop weed guard. Threw it right up into a fuzzy top and on about the third cast a small one grabbed it and came to the boat. Caught another quickly and was liking the wacky worm setup. The wind was blowing pretty hard and that made line control and bait control difficult but I managed to catch a few more but then ran into a pretty long lull in the middle of the afternoon. There were some people still catching a few however and I wanted to figure out what I was doing wrong. There is a lot of stringy green moss in the lake and about every other cast my bait would come up with some. When I figured out how to avoid the moss the results improved but still no really big fish. There were some over 16 inches but no really big ones. Finally later in the afternoon a 5-7 bit and gave me a tussle on that small spinning rod although it had 30 pound braid and a 12 pound leader. Bites were coming more rapidly, the wind was decreasing, and the gnats were getting a lot worse. The gnats were so bad they made me keep my shades on to keep them out of my eyes until almost dark . Before I quit, another 5 pound fish came to the scales making me feel a lot better. I ended up with 19 fish, 13 of which came home with me and 6 were released. Had a fun day and learned about how to fish a wacky worm. I also figured out that since you use a leader you might as well use some hi vis braid so you can exercise better line control and see a little more of what you’re doing.

Have not been fishing due to the turkey season being open, thinking about it a lot however. The turkey season is still open in Mississippi but it is closed on my hunting spot due to the high River. We closed it at 39 feet on the Arkansas City gauge and it has continued to rise to 43.3 presently. I got my two turkeys out of the way by the day before it closed. The MS state limit is 3, so I have another, but the only place I have to hunt is a small parcel in Claiborne county that is good for about a hunt a week after an early two hour drive. I have tangled with a character down there who cooperated but I defeated myself. Looking at it from another direction, at least I can still hunt.

The ramp on Lake Ferguson was full of trailers Saturday with at least a dozen of the double axle bass boat variety. I have not heard any reports but that many participants indicates to me that something is happening there. Those people were not just tired of being cooped up from the Wuhan stay at home. I want to go but it’s been raining, or forecast to, every day. Speaking of rain, it is raining outside right now.