This morning at 10:30 I started fishing in the Garhole. It was cold this morning so it didn’t bother me that fishing started a little late. Water temperature was 51 degrees. It took 30 minutes to get the first bite and it was just a peck on the DT-6. The next one however meant business and hit hard. When it finally came to the boat it was a pretty 4-9. The water in the Garhole is beautiful this time of year and the visibility is very good. When you have a fish on it really looks pretty when it comes to the boat. A 4-9 is a good way to start the year. A little while later I drifted up next to a treetop and dropped the rugby head down between the limbs and a 3 1/2 grabbed it. I missed another in that same treetop and caught a smaller one. A new rod to pull the DT-10 came out and I was trying it out in the open water just to see how everything was going to work and surprisingly a small one bit and got caught with only one hook barely fastened. That happened a couple of times today. Must be those new hooks I put on both the DT-6 and 10’s. In some areas a vibrating jig was able to cover a lot of territory but the only fish it caught was a chain pickerel.

They show up when the water is cold in the spring and are generally not seen for the rest of the year. They must go very deep to stay in cold water during the summer. I keep a cut off hoe handle in the boat to act as anesthesia to the undesirable fish. Mine was lost by some means or other so today I replaced it with an 18 inch piece of large bamboo. This was its first victim. The pickerel has a big mouth with a lot of sharp teeth. I would hate to see a large population of them in the Garhole. The bite came to a halt. I had about a 3 pound fish come up and boil at the DT-6 just as I took it out of the water. Shortly another small fish just followed it up and looked as the bait came out of the water. To remedy this a shaky head came out of the tackle box. In one spot I had some strange bites but could not connect. Another bite and it was a grinner so out came the bamboo again. The very next cast another bite and again a grinner and more bamboo. I thought maybe they were getting ready to spawn or something. The ending water temp was 55 on the North side of the hole when I quit at 4:00. I ended up with 12 bass with a FOD of 4-9. Probably had 6 more that followed it up. One even hit at the rugby head with a craw on it on top as I was rushing to make another cast.