Started fishing at Lake Enterprise at 6:30 this morning. I was planning to pick up Bland’s 13 year old grandson Jack at 7:30 so I just hit a couple of spots to check out the “lay of the land” before I picked him up. He was waiting on me when I drove up to the dock. We started fishing and tried several places with no success. I watched a boat fishing close to the trees and figured they would be having some luck just dropping a jig in quietly. Jack and I tried the trees and the middle and all points in between with no luck. Later in the morning we crossed paths with the boat I thought was doing such a good job. They were having a tough day too. Misery loves company. Shortly after visiting with the other boat, while fishing with a swim jig near the bank, I got a bite, but when I set the hook I thought I was pulling in a limb. When The “limb” broke the top of the water it turned out to be a cormorant. It looked like an immature one but it quickly spit out the bait and flew off. I’m usually observant, but that thing came out of nowhere. After the cormorant caper we left and visited the spots I visited first this morning. At the first one the bass were schooling. Not large ones but we were glad to see some fish that were hungry and finally caught 7 fish in all ,3 pound FOD. The fish would chase some shad to the top, hit them and go right back down to the bottom in 12 feet of water. Drop shot next time. It was past the time Jack needed to be back so we left. I thoroughly enjoyed my day with Jack. A delightful young man. I hope we can fish together again soon.

I went to the Garhole this morning not knowing whether I would have a boat to sit in. Been a long time since I have checked on it. I usually take a leaf blower with me when it’s been a long time since I have used the boat but rather than spend the time riding around to the house, I preferred to spend it fishing. The boat was a mess but it was fishable. Fishing started at 6:00. The DT-8 is a new crankbait that fills in between the 6 and 10. I had one and intended to try it out today so it went first. It looks like a junior sized DT-10. The body is the same size as a 6 but has a little larger straight diving bill like a 10. I am impressed by it . Casts as good or better than a DT-6 and it caught a fish in the first 10 minutes. That fish was the first and I thought was going to be the last. There was a long drought afterward that lasted an hour or two with a good many different baits in really good spots. Finally with a Carolina rig I had a bite, a sharp peck, but nobody home. I thought it may have been a gar but the plastic came back with all its appendages. A gar usually gets one of them. Over a short time there were two more with only one holding on for a short time. A little later I threw a DT-6 next to a log coming in to the water intending to fish the tree top, but a bass grabbed it before I made three turns of the reel. Next I dipped and dunked a worm in a top and caught another. Then another bass hit a DT-6 beside a log just like the other one and ended up the FOD 3 3/4. Had some more worm bites where the fish held on for a few seconds but then escaped. Had some other small ones on a 6 or 8 but nothing was really ever going on. The water temp was 91 on top but there was shade and the depth finder showed 31.7 feet deep at one point, plenty of cool water was available. I ended up with 7 bass. A pretty poor day in the Garhole.

Hal and Richard caught 37 the other day at Beaverdam fishing back through the cypress trees. It must be the shade keeping things cool.

Started early this morning, and thank goodness for it. Ran into some small ones with a 1/2 oz. redeye shad to get things rolling and was feeling some slight optimism. Then I went all the way down the 70 bank without a bite both deep and shallow. That put things back in perspective. On some very good places I just sat on with a DT-6, 10 and 16, a Carolina rig, a worm and a 3/4 oz. jackhammer, casting it out and letting it sink to the bottom and pulling it slowly up the drop off. Nothing. Finally, I stumbled onto another small one with the redeye. Tried one more good spot and then quit. I did see something this morning to foster a little optimism. When I launched there were a good many 3 to 4 inch bass swimming around harassing the little minnows in the shallows. Until they grow up I’ve got to figure where I’m going to go fishing.

Hal had an interesting morning on Arkabutla. When he arrived at the landing there was a line of boats, trollers for crappie , waiting in line. Not wanting to wait for that mess to unravel, he headed for another landing 15 minutes away. On the way, he had to stomp the brakes to avoid hitting a deer but the deer’s pal ran into his boat. We all hate the unpleasantness of hitting an animal, so after stopping and looking without leaving the vehicle, he continued to the landing. When he launched, he found a reel handle in his boat from his worm rig. None of the other six rods on the deck were hurt. On the way home he stopped by the scene and found the remnants of his rod and reel.

Mickey and I hit Lake X at 6:05 this morning and the first cast was soon thereafter. There were no bites for an hour after we started. Mickey broke the ice with a 6-2 .

He did it with a worm near the pipe that was adding water to the lake. We just knew that we were going to wear them out there but no more were present. I feel that perhaps that well water may not have enough oxygen in it but that is purely a guess. We continued to search for fish but they were slow starting to bite. We discovered that we had more luck fishing the humps with a redeye shad or a Yozuri. This 7-0 went for a 3/4 oz redeye

We were looking for the humps and had two main spots. In between those spots we tried every top or woodpile we could find but no fish were in them. Did I say it was hot today. It was, but there was a nice breeze to keep us comfortable. We fished to around 1:30 but never got really uncomfortable until on the way home we stopped on the side of the road to get something out of the boat and it was stifling. We caught 17 fish. Large fish of note were 7-0, 6-8, 6-2 and 6-2.

Mickey and I met at the wharf at 7:00 this morning for a lone awaited low water trip to Ferguson. We started down the 70 bank expecting a bite with every cast. The little stripes were there but not many bass and it was a little surprising. The bass we caught were small and shallow although we tried deep as well. We left and headed to another area where we struck fairly quickly with DT-10’s, only a few but they were better fish. When that played out, we continued our quest in another area with Carolina rigs, worms, deep (16 feet) diving crank baits and DT-6’s to no avail. We than revisited the place we caught the fish and a couple more came to the boat. After that, we tried a spot that was gangbusters last year at this water stage and nothing but a gar. The lake seemed to be full of them today. It was full hot so we tried another old time good place and caught one more. We stopped at the old metal barge on the way back to the wharf but we couldn’t even get hung up. We finished the day with 8 bass . FOD was 5-0 and we had a 4 1/2, a 4, a 3 3/4 and a couple of 3’s. 20.25 pounds for the best 5. Good size but not much action. I must be getting old . The action was so slow I would forget the details on what we had caught and have to keep asking Mickey. It’s easy to remember when you are catching fish for some reason but when it’s slow it is very difficult. I going to have to start marking them down again.