The private hole is full of bass and even though they are for the most part small, I thought it would be a great place to go Sunday afternoon.  I have not fished there in some time and the water had dropped so the back end of the boat had three feet before it hit the water. I found some old boards to keep it from digging into the mud and launching was accomplished rather easily.  My fishing idea for the afternoon was to start off with a DT-6 and if that did not work go deeper with a 5-XD. For the first few minutes I had trouble getting a bite. There is an underwater point that is usually productive but nothing today. As I trolled across the hole I looked under the front deck and pulled this out. It’s not exactly what you want to find in your fishing boat when you are out in the middle of the hole.

It’s a snake shed. There was no snake seen or heard so things were fine unless something changed. When I arrived at the spot a 3-14 loaded on the very first cast with the DT-6. At first I couldn’t figure out whether the fish were coming out of the large tree top or they were ranging out in the open water. Casting close to the top I got hung with the DT-6. I was just “jiggling” the bait trying to get it free when trolling over to it. Then the line just started to move out to the side. A nice tight eye saw the bait wiggling and unsnagged it for me. When this spot slowed I cruised over to another where a 4-7 ate the DT-6. The last time in the private hole a Whopper Plopper was the ticket so about 5:30 I put one on. The first volunteer was a 2-13 that hit about 10 feet from the boat, scared the daylights out of me, and had the whole bait in its mouth. The bite heated up toward dark, not only the fish but the mosquitoes. I figured if I quit around 7:00 I would be able to get everything loaded before the mosquitoes carried me away. I quit a little after 7:00 with a total of 33 fish, a lot were small but there were enough decent ones to make it all worthwhile, especially since a good many were caught on top water.