Ben called and wanted to take advantage of the weather change to manage the fish population in one of his ponds. He said Thursday afternoon at 2:00 the pressure was forecast to start dropping and the fish should be ready to feed up. He was dead on ! When we arrived at the pond it was obvious the fish were feeding. We launched and started catching immediately. The drouth has caused the water level to be down by 3 feet or more concentrating the fish and the shad in the deepest part of the pond. It was basically cast around the boat in any direction especially where the creek was located. Pretty quickly he came out with a 5-15 pound fish that had a 7 pound head. As we traveled back toward the shallower part of the pond the bites stopped and so did any sign of baitfish so we turned around and got back out in the middle. This 9-1 came out then.

You can see the bare bank of the pond in the background. Rain began to threaten but putting on a rain suit top scared it off for a while. Ben was fishing with a Bandit flat maxx and a DT-6 and I fished with a DT-6, an unknown crankbait and a Strike King king shad jointed swimbait that I put on to try and it did pretty well. I had a couple of “failing to retie fiascos” but otherwise a good day. The rain appeared to be imminent and “discretion is the better part of valor” so we put the boat on the trailer with a cooler of bass.

We ended up with around 30 counting the extreme tight eyes that were thrown back and of course the bigger fish. A great afternoon with the weather perfectly played. I’m going to consult with Ben before going fishing again so I can get the right day weather wise. He had it dialed in.

They shocked Lake X Friday for a fish census and I went yesterday. I’m using that for an excuse for catching only one (5-1) on the only real bite I got except for the catfish. Caught 3 of those on plastic . Also saw and dipped up a bass in distress swimming in circles. The 5 1/2 pound fish looked fine fat and healthy with no wounds and had not been hooked deep. I put it back and did not see it when I left but recovery was doubtful. As I was loading the boat a mature bald eagle flew by and lit in a tree next to the pond. It may have been looking for stragglers. Don’t think it could have picked up that fish out of the water but I would have liked to see it try.

Went to Lake Chicot Saturday morning breaking my “no public lakes on the weekend “rule. Had some tips but they were weeks old. The lake was down a good bit. Caught a tight eye in the first place on a red eye shad getting rid of the threat of a skunk. I tried brush around some docks on the shallow side but most was not deep enough. Tried a Booyah some shallow cypress trees with 2 feet of water around them and caught one quickly but no more and the trees ran out. Moved to a place they used to school up years ago along a slick bank with a couple of brush piles. Couldn’t get any interest with a small red eye but saw some bass activity. Changed to a Booyah and caught three going down a slick bank, largest 2 1/2. Checked on the squirrel log and it was gone but saw a couple of rock piles and marked them for deeper times. Wanted to go to the deep side but lots of boats visiting the docks there. Water in Chicot was beautiful and was full of threadfin shad. I will go back on a weekday but maybe to the north end.