Hal and I met Tuesday morning at 6:30 at the Wallace Creek ramp. We were looking to build on Hal’s trip last week where he caught a 6, a 5 1/2 and I believe 6 others, my memory getting bad. We were going to have to dodge some rain storms in the area but that was the day we could fish. To make a long story short, we didn’t get wet, caught 5 small bass and quit around 2:30 due to a screw that had backed out of the trolling motor that would not allow it to be folded down. It was time to quit because nothing was really going on.

I was nervous about going to the Garhole after talking to a person that fishes there often. Not only had it fallen 2 1/2 feet but this person did not have glowing reports of his fishing there lately. Fishing started at 7:00. For the first three hours, fishing was terrible. Nothing on plugs and missed bites and “pull it down and run” on plastics. I started with a rugby head and a 10 inch Berkley worm that I believe was intimidating to the little bass so later I swapped to a shaky head and a smaller worm that seemed to work better. The fish were deep in the tops and the only way to fish for them was to drift up to the top and dip the worm in between the limbs and jig it up and down. Sometime they wouldn’t hit it until you were pulling it up to put somewhere else. I was using a spinning reel with power pro braid with a leader so when I felt the slightest tap I set the hook. Hookups were good. Most of the tops were in 2 to 6 feet of water and it was amazing to me how many might be in a top. Caught 18 with a FOD of 2 pounds. No telling how many bites were missed for one reason or other. It was satisfying to figure the fish out even they were small. Now to figure out the big ones. I already have some ideas.

I went to Lake Ferguson at 7:00 and fished until 10:30 when Jackson called,with only one peck of a bite on a Carolina rig. He wanted to have lunch. I left immediately. ZERO.

Mickey and I launched at Lake X at 7:00 Saturday morning which is a little later than usual. The major feeding period was supposed to occur around 2:00 p.m. so we went a little later than usual to save our strength for when the feeding was supposed to happen. Trying to figure out exactly when the fish are going to feed is an exercise fraught with error. In my observation the real feed will happen 2 to 3 hours before the time shown in the table, most of the time. It seemed there was a little activity right at the start that declined until about 9:00. After that it was hard to get a bite at all, and when you did it was in the middle of a bunch of wood where you were likely to hang the fish for a short while and then get hung up, only for the fish to get off and maybe you having to break your line. Frustrating to say the least, but that was the game the fish were playing. Around 11:00 bites picked up a little, still down deep in the wood. One time Mickey had one to hang him up but the fish stayed on. We charged the top with my 11 foot pole with the big hook on the end. After reaching down amid the limbs, we finally hung the line and the fish was still on. We pulled it to the top and got the fish in hand. After dealing with the fish, we dropped the jig head back in to get it back out of the wood but it got hung again and eventually lost. We should have just cut it off, reeled in the line, and retied, but that is afterthought. We both lost a rugby head jig which is the first one I’ve lost in about a year as they are very weedless. They will get hung up but usually come out easily due to a hidden line tie. We quit around 1:30 with 10 fish caught and a FOD of 6-1. We had another 4-10 and 4 more in the 3 to 4 pound range.

You know how some of the worst time spent on a fishing trip is when you pull the boat out and it is the at the hottest part of the day. Mickey came up with a great idea to pull the boat out and go straight to a nearby shade tree to strap down the boat, get our equipment out, and to have lunch. There was a pleasant breeze and it was quite pleasant. The only problem was, I left my cane leaning up on the side of the boat when we drove off. I discovered it when I got home and had to drive back to retrieve it. That cane is perfect and handy so I was delighted to get it back.