I left a little late this morning because the wind on the Star City weather decreased to 7 MPH. At 3:00 it was at 11 MPH and I was not going to go with it that high. The 7 must have just been a lull because when I got to the lake the wind was really blowing. Fishing started at 6:55 and the first fish was caught at 7:05. I thought that was not too bad but it proved to be the old Indian trick. It was a long time before another bass came to the boat. Something hit at my ribbit on 4 straight casts and when finally hung, a 20 inch pike made a rousing jump before cutting the line. There were several other pike bites only one causing a retie. I did not realize the pike werre in that lake. A lot of small bass would make a run at the bait or give it a half hearted slap but they were not serious. I tried hard where there were a good number of fish last Tuesday but nothing. When it got hot I figured the rain was not too far off so I quit. Only 3 fish in all.

Last night I had intentions to go fishing today at Eagle Lake but during the night I thought about the intelligence I had received about things not really going on at Eagle. Fishing with a Ribbit was really on my mind so I changed fishing spots. I planned to go very early and both spots were the same distance away so wake up time was the same for both. I arrived at the landing at a little before 6 a.m.. The moon was full and was not long before setting. There was no activity on the surface to start off and the pads were not as thick as they have been before. It was an hour before the first bite. I saw a fish make a move and threw to it and it did not hesitate to hit the Ribbit. I hesitated, set the hook, and the fish came to the boat. The water was clear and when a bow wake appeared behind the Ribbit I let it drop but nothing so I pulled it in and the wake continued and parked under the bait. It was an enormous grinner. It just sat there and had its dorsal fin just waving from front to back. I threw over some thick pads to a shallow opening and a nice bass charged 15 feet to get the frog. The hook was set and the fight was on but the fish got hooked on one of the pad stems and since I was holding tight it had a something solid to pull against and pulled the hook out. Had four to do that to me today. On a fish later in the day that dove and became hung up in the pads, I immediately gave slack and it became unhung and got caught. The fish bit pretty much all day. They were still biting when the wind came up at 2 p.m. and made me quit. I was a good way from the landing and had to idle all the way back. That lake is so stumpy you have to idle everywhere you go. Hit 6 stumps on the way back. Got back at 2:40. I caught 7 fish out of probably 25 bites and the FOD of 5 3/4. Wish I could have landed a higher percentage of the bites but I got to see each one and had a ball. By the way, the full moon was the first full moon in May which is when the shad spawn. I didn’t see a damn shad.

On my second trip since turkey season, Hal and I went to the Garhole with fishing starting around 7:30. Still a little rusty, I had a pretty bumbling start, while Hal caught a few fish to start off. We had a few topwater bites but it was evident that the fish really were not too keen on the topwater bite. Plastics were best but Hal had a small swimbait on a spinning rod that he could skip under green bushes that was effective. I caught a grinner on a topwater after it hit at Hal’s bait and missed. I “saved his place for him” , as Mack would say, by immediately casting to the spot. Most of the fish caught were near the bank in the shade and on some sort of plastic. As the day went on my fishing improved somewhat. As we went in to retrieve a snagged bait near an old boat rack of mine that floated off during high water, four two pounders came out from under it and one caught a small bream three feet in front of the boat. I dropped my plastic right in and caught one of them. Tried for another but too much activity had made them shy. Not long thereafter, I had a good bite, and upon hookset, the fish made a line singing run to deeper water just as big fish do. Alas it was big alright, but a catfish, and not that big, 3 pounds. After noon clouds began to appear and we began to cast a wary glance at the weather since we went to the hole in the jeep and the top was not up. We continued to fish until we heard some thunder, which is usually too late. I took Hal to his vehicle and almost made it back to the house before it really started to rain. We ended up with 20 Bass and coFOD’s at 4 3/4 pounds each.

Went with Ben on Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 and Thursday morning for two hours. Everything was perfect, in that the weather was most comfortable, we were not overwhelmed by bugs and the water clarity was good. I started off with a cripple killer and Ben started with a DT-6. It became obvious that the fish were feeding when we started and the bite tailed off after a little while and picked up again late. Caught a couple on the cripple killer and Ben caught some on the DT-6. I thought I had a DT-6 on but three hours later I finally figured out it was a DT -10. I also caught one on each a swim jig and a swimbait. We ended up with about 30 (I didn’t count close like I usually do) and had a Big fish of 4 3/4. Ben had one to get off that was larger than that. The lake record there is 14+. The lake is well managed and all under 16 inches are taken out. I had a wonderful time because there was the great expectation on every cast of catching a monster.