Lake Chicot
Monday, June 15th, 2015 | Author: admin
At the ramp this morning there were three people with cast nets catching bait for catfishing. They were easily catching enough because the shad were everywhere. I just started right there and went South down the bank with a Booyah because it was too rough for a top water due to a Southeast wind. After two docks and not a bite, ( I don’t know why they would bite anything with all the shad around) I swapped to a 1/4 ounce Redeye Shad. It was just the size of the shad. I knew the size because they followed the Booyah on every cast and I even impaled one on the hook, so I got a good look. The Redeye began to get some bites in the area between the bank and the drop off. Bites only at first but the hooks are so sharp on the Redeye that if a fish gets close they are in danger of getting caught. Most of the ones I caught were hooked in the side of the head or under the belly. The bites quit coming so I crossed the lake to a favorite spot. There it is shallow and one volunteered quickly. The vegetation that grew with last summer’s draw down was a slight problem but the fish were down in it. They would hit the bait hard but were able to dodge the sharp hooks. One even pulled down my rod to hit the trolling motor and still did not get hooked. I fished a 300 yard stretch and still could not catch a fish even though there were bites and I saw small schools of fish feeding. Frustrated, I went to another dock where I have had luck in the past. On the first cast one hit as soon as the bait hit the water and had the Redeye sideways in its mouth. Same on the second cast. On the third another strike and hookup. As I brought the fish in, a boat was coming so I tried to be nonchalant  but the fish didn’t cooperate and jumped. The guy saw it. The boat slowed and stopped at the next dock about 250 yards away. The guy was watching like a hawk so I just tried to catch them all. He was trying to wait me out. Finally after I combed the area I left and went a half mile down the lake to try another dock. Caught nothing there so I returned to the place I was fishing and there he was sitting on the spot. I did something quite out of character, I said “so you got my spot.” To which he replied magnanimously “come on in and fish.” To which I replied something I can’t print because I try to keep The Bitespot clean.  From there I went to the squirrel log and caught another then went to the other side and caught another. To cap off the day I went back to the “confrontation” dock where I caught number 12. That did me some good. The fish were a little larger than they have been. Many were between 2 and 3 1/4.