It’s been a cold 10 days since the last excursion to the Garhole. I’m sure the water temperature has dropped like a rock, but the temperature sensor on my depth finder is broken, so no help. Fishing started at 8:30 this morning and of course with a DT6 . I quickly changed to a jig after no interest in the first spot. One reason for the change was there were no bites and another was because of all of the floating leaves. Almost impossible to use a crank bait without catching a leaf on each cast. The jig was better in that you could work your line through the leaves better. The jig got a bite too, so light I could barely feel it, and when I checked it out by tightening my line a little to feel if it was indeed a fish, I felt it leave. This went on for quite some time until I got desperate and tried a swim bait hoping I would feel the bite and let the fish swallow it before I set the hook. If they wouldn’t chase the crank bait, I wasn’t sure they would chase the swim bait. I threw it the first time over a submerged tree top and slowly retrieved it and when it came over a submerged limb a bass smacked it. I set the hook and a 2 1/2 chased off the skunk that was trying to become a reality. Thinking I had found the bait I was looking for I continued with the swim bait, but it was a good while before I caught another on it. I tried all the spots that were productive on my last two successful trips but not much was going on. The fish that I caught were cold as ice. Fish are cold blooded and when the water is cold it slows their metabolism and they get lethargic and move a lot slower. All this figured in to my bait selection. I finally caught one on a jig in surprisingly shallow water. I had figured they may be deep because of the cold water. By now it was just past noon. I kept moving trying to find where the wind was positioning the fish. Once when moving, I picked up the DT6 and started throwing, working it slower than I had earlier. Much to my delight, I caught one, and then another. They hit right at the boat, indicating they were still not just eating it up. I had on a jerk bait that I wanted to try. One hit it on the first cast as soon as I pulled it down and stopped it. It felt like a big fish. When I got it to the boat I saw it had been hooked in the middle of its body when it hit at the bait. Sharp hooks.

The photo gives you an idea of the leaf problem and shows another cold blooded animal trying to soak up a little heat in the sun. Back to fishing. After a few more casts with the jerk bait, and no bites, I went back to the DT6. It would get bites but some would come unpinned showing they were still a little slow. If you stopped it they would usually bite. Finally that spot ran out of bites. It was where the fish were grouped up the Sunday I caught 43. I put the trolling motor on high to go to the place I caught them 10 days ago. They were there too but were a little smaller fish on average. The DT6 I am using is the same one that I posted the photo of about two posts ago that is so beat up. I’m going to take another photo of it because there’s no way it’s going to last much longer. It was getting late, probably close to 4:00 and the fish had quit biting so I quit. The final figure was 14 with a FOD of three pounds even. Lucked up and snatched the fat out of the fire today.