This morning early I arrived at the banks of the L Hole. Not having fished in 3 weeks I wanted to go to a place unaffected by fishing pressure. There were no tracks on the bank to indicate any intrusion. I took a small 9 foot sneak boat and put a folding chair amidships.

When launching I noticed movement under a bush that I initially attributed to a gar. Upon closer inspection, I saw the motion was caused by two 18 inch alligators. My first reaction was “where is mom”? Not seeing the mother, I continued to launch the boat, but keeping “mom” in the back of my mind. After I set sail there was nothing going on. The Booyah had nothing working as did the shaky head. There was an hour without any sort of bite right at the best time of the morning. Finally a crankbait enticed one to bite and another succumbed to the shaky head. There were baby alligators in every place that would afford them the slightest amount of cover. The small (18 inches long) gators would come running to the slightest splashing on the surface. They made a squeaking noise as if to ask “where is something to eat”. They would hang close around the boat. If you splashed the rod tip in the water they would come and pose for the camera. If you grabbed one they would probably squeak to high Heaven and bring Mama charging from whichever hole she was in. She probably would be longer than my boat and that would have made me uncomfortable.

There is no way you could have fished a topwater. The fish that did bite did so so softly they were hard to hook. Finally, I saw a commotion next to the steep bank and threw the shaky head at it. Out came a bull of a bass that was the FOD of 4-15. When I lipped the fish to put it in the boat I noticed it was one of those with what seemed like extra teeth. Some bass have more teeth than others. I do not know why this happens but it does. This particular fish would not be still, whether in my hands or even on the scale. It roughed up my thumb pretty good. When I finally tamed it here is what it look like.

A picture of me and the fish . There was a smattering of rain and a lot of mosquitoes so I quit before 11 with 6 bass.