I got off to a late start this morning, arriving at the ramp at about 8:00.  The lake is falling and is somewhere around 20 feet with a water temp of 73 degrees when I started.  Here is a photo of the baits I used today.

From top to botton there is a DT-10, DT-6, shakey head, Yozuri, and a Basspro tailspinner. All caught fish today with the most being caught by the DT-6. Close behind was the tailspinner. It was more the size of the shad the fish were feeding on.  I stopped on the way up the lake at a spot that my daddy called the number 1 bite spot. I caught a few small ones close by. Next was Mickey’s 70 spot. I caught none there but moving down the bank searching I bumped into some and started catching in earnest.  There were lots of “nips”where you could feel the fish just nip at the bait and miss it .  I used an “old Indian trick” to get them to take the bait and get hooked.  When the bait got to the spot where the “nips” were happening,  I would quickly sweep the rod from the 10:00 position to the 2:00 position and then stop the bait. When I would catch up with the slack, there would be a fish on.  The fish were running larger today than they have been, lots of 2 – 13s and very few dinks. The FOD was 4 – 2. The tailspinner was deadly on schooling bass in the shallow water. You could throw it a mile and most of the time they’d hit it as soon as it landed.

I had one of these today that was worse than this one.  A neat way to get a backlash to come out is to press your thumb down on the spool and reel for a couple of handle turns. Then you pull out what you can and repeat the same thing. You will be amazed how it helps.  I saw it on a fishing show and did not believe it would work but later had such a bad backlash I would have tried anything to get it out.  Surprisingly the thumb trick got it right out.  I ended up the day with 83 total and was catching them almost every cast when my time ran out. I had to go home to meet an electrician. Little did I know Willie had told him not to come because there was going to be no one home.