This post covers two fishing trips, one Thursday afternoon and one Friday morning.  The one Thursday afternoon was at the “L” Hole and started around 3:30. I used my small sneak boat and sat on a cushion on the ice chest. I used a paddle for propulsion but found out a few casts with a deep crankbait would pull you where you wanted to go. After a time around I only had a couple of fish. The bites I did get were after setting the hook on a stick and then reeling to get the slack out of your line. When you would catch up, the fish would be on. I saw a bass in the 4 pound range make a break after a large bream. When the bream got away the bass just herded it down the bank keeping it in shallow water. Never ate it.  I figured that was a lay up but I could not get the bass to hit anything I threw at it. I was asked to bring some fish home and got worried there might no be enough.  Toward dark things picked up a little on both the cranks and a worm but still didn’t get wide open. I ended up with 11 and a FOD of 3.

The next morning the Private Hole got the call at 6;15. I figured the fish would be right on the bank so early so the start was with a spinnerbait.  After a few casts one struck, I set the hook, it struck twice more and we both missed, and I reeled in quickly only for the fish to miss again as the spinnerbait skipped across the top.  I needed a bait with more hooks. Alternating baits, I started around the hole and once again was treated to a slow start.  I had on a Strike King 5XD and began to catch one every now and then. Between that and a worm, I began to put a few in the boat. Around 10:30, bass started to chase shad in the shallows next to the bank. A “found” Struke King KVD 2.5 got the call and was working well until a grinner bit and after I saw the fish the line got cut with those sharp teeth. A Strike King KVD 1.5 was next and was catching fish. A short time later another grinner, made in the same mold as the lure thief, bit and as I had it coming  to the boat I was looking for my lure. No such luck. I was continually looking for the bait to float up as the day went on.Again no luck. Later on even another grinner grabbed the bait, and as it was coming to the boat, another one tried to take the bait out of its mouth. Too many grinners! I rotated between three main spots for most of the day and, as is normal in the Private Hole, one of the best was a bank that the wind was blowing toward. The FOD was 4 1/2 but I think I lost unseen two others. Both pulled drag and were not easy to turn. One was under the boat and about to make an appearance when it just came unpinned. The other was coming out to deep water from the bank pulled some drag and then just came loose. I ended up with 28 by 2 p.m. A little before I left, I saw a fish that appeared to be one hooked too deep that was not going to make it. I went over with net in hand to keep it from going to waste. It was not one that I had hooked as it had a 5 pound head, was skinny. and had no tail. The tail had been bitten off. Even its eyes were sunk back into its head. When I got in it weighed 3 1/2 pounds and had almost white gills. The flesh from the side I filleted was white as opposed to the translucent flesh of the other fish. I was scared to keep it. Some photos of the fish.

    The whole fish

   The missing tail

The sunken eyes