When I arrived at the private hole Thursday morning I found a closed road sign and a business card propped against my boat.

Frank and John Howard just wanted me to know they had caught them all. But alas, they had not, although at first it seemed that might be the case.  The best spots yielded only a slight hookup and escape on a jerkbait. The first fish was a Goo caught on a tube. There were lots of bites and bumps with no hookups before the first bass made into the boat.  It was a good day to try baits that are not normally in your arsenal. Here are four that I used.

Pictured are a tube, a small BBZ 1 swimbait, a wackey worm, and a 4″ Netbait swimbait on a jighead. The Netbait swimbait has been touched up with a small paintbrush and some Spike It garlic.  I caught my first ever on a wackey worm that had been dipped in Spike It on both ends. Finally I found a spot of cooperating fish that would eat the swimbait with the jighead. When that gave out, I knew of another like it, and sure enough, it was good too. Trading between these places two or three times I managed to do pretty well although the results declined with each visit. Once when I had a bite on the swimbait, I set the hook and pulled the bait out of the fish’s mouth, the fish not getting the hook at all. As I quickly reeled up the slack, it bit again and got it that time. That just shows you that you can’t reel fast enough to take the bait away from them if they really want it. There were acres of geese on the other side of the levee that were continuously flying over the hole. One time something aroused them and as they came over they pooped all at once, as if one had announced “bombs away”. None of “it” came close to me but I was leery of the geese for the rest of the day.  The day ended with 26 bass, all but three caught on the swimbait, and those were caught on the wackey worm. The FOD was 3 1/2 pounds.  The River is falling now so the private hole is due for a rest.