Jackson and I started fishing this morning late, just before 10, in an effort to let things warm up some. The water is still about 1 1/2 feet lower than normal but it is up in the grass that grew up last summer while the lake was low. Temperature was 52 degrees to start and warmed to as much as 57.  Clarity was about 18 to 24 inches and there was a good green bloom. All that didn’t help us much as we only caught one and that was on a on a swim bait. We had two other bites with one of those coming to the top before it escaped. We rummaged through our tackle boxes but could not find the bait that would unlock the puzzle. Going to get cold so we will have to wait before going back. Lake Chicot is up 8 feet and is closed to boating, so it is out too.

That was the weather on Lake Chicot. Jackson and I caught 3 with Jackson doing the catching.  First we looked for the deep school that I saw the last trip but could not make contact. Then we tried shallow and of course I had on my trusty Booyah but it could not get a bite. Jackson put on a black and blue jig and caught 3 in relatively short order. I put a jig on but could not get a bite. If the fish had been cooperating the day would not have been so bad but with the weather so bad we cut it short.

The first bite came at 11:15 after two hours of fishing. The water temp started at 53 and saw 61 before the sunny day was over. Where I have been fishing, with very scattered success, was muddy with not even a foot of visibility. Farther down the lake it cleared up and was pretty normal clarity. The fish were shallow and on the bank (especially with rocks present) except for one on a secret sunken tree top in 5 feet of water and one on a cypress tree, the first one in three trips. All five fish were caught on a ¼ ounce Booyah spinnerbait, one of my favorite baits of all time. FOD was 3 ¾ pounds. Others were 2, 2, 2 ½, 2 ¾.

Pulling in to a good looking stretch of rocky bank I saw a good dropoff with a large group of fish down at about 12 feet. All were within 2 feet of the bottom. I guessed they were bass but continued to the bank. When I caught one on the bank, I forgot about the deep fish. The wind was blowing too and would have made fishing in that spot difficult. Thinking about it later I surmised that the fish in Chicot are mostly deep but come in to the bank thinking about a spot to spawn in a few weeks. All the fish I caught had a fat belly full of eggs. I marked the deep spot for the next trip.

Jackson and I met at the State Park on the North end of Chicot at 9:30 and were fishing at 10. It was so foggy I had to navigate by the GPS on the depthfinder. A short while after we started it started to rain pretty hard so we retreated to the shelter of a friendly boathouse for about 45 minutes. I believe Jackson had caught a four pounder  before the rain started. When the rain subsided we went right back fishing and had caught a total of four by 3:00. I thought both of the fish I caught were a stick at first but turned out  to be fish. The fish just were not “on it” today . The water was getting muddy because of the runoff from the rain. We called it a day at 3:00. Water temp 54 to 56 degrees.

Hal called to say he and Richard fished Beaverdam today for the first time this year and caught 24. After Richard went home at 2:00, Hal went to the Flower Lake borrow pits and caught 2 more, one over 5  and 1/4 or 3/4, I can’t remember which. They caught all the fish in one area that had some relatively clear water. They caught a few there and left to try some other places with no luck. Then they returned and caught some more.

I went to Lake Chicot this morning and started fishing about 9:30. I wanted it to start warming up before I started fishing in hopes the warming would start the fish biting. No bites for the first couple of hours even though the pad stems and cypress trees where I started looked like a great spot and I have caught fish this time of year there before. To start, it was a little cloudy which impeded the warming of the water by the sun. It was looking like it might be zero number two. About 11:15 however one “glommed” up on it right at the boat. Was glad to welcome her aboard. 3 3/4 . Tried to take a picture but did not want to keep her out of the water too long. It was fat with eggs. The guys on the fishing TV shows love to hold them and look at them as if they never have seen a fish before. They need to hold their breath when the fish is out of the water and then they would know how it feels. That really burns me up.  It was another hour before I got the next bite. This fish made my line sing in the water. That always brings on a little adrenaline. 3 3/4 made in the same mold as the first . I took a quick photo of that one.

As I went down the bank the water temperature was rising, 48 at the start and reached 57 before the day was over. The next fish swirled on top as the Booyah came over a stick. 3 even. It was obvious, things were picking up. Finally I caught two in the same spot and they were 2 3/4 each. After I had caught 7, I saw one hit on top and threw the Booyah to the spot. I was on a hair trigger and as soon at it hit, I set the hook and of course I missed it. My time was up so I had to leave but the fish were still biting. I really would have liked to go where I started after the fish had commenced to bite but time would not allow. The best 5 weighed 17 1/2 pounds. Not too shabby.

All was not lost the other day on Lake Enterprise. The fluorocarbon line I have been using was great for everything but casting. Least bit of wind in your face or a light bait and it’s a backlash guaranteed. To start a new year I decided to try a new line. The one I chose was Suffix Advance. It is a slick low stretch line. When I put it on I had to go out into the yard and see how it would cast. First three times = backlash each time. After making some adjustments it did just OK but it still worried me. On the lake it did much better maybe fuzzing up only a couple of times. The distance with it was good but I didn’t try to get the maximum. It’s going to be good after a little fine tuning.

“Bad start makes a good ending” is what one of my employees told me after we had a terrible first day of fieldwork on the farm. I took it as pure rationalization of not doing a good job of preparation. Bad start is what happened today and preparation had nothing to do with it. The fish just did not bite on Lake Enterprise. Jackson and I went even though we knew that the winner of a two day tournament had two fish that weighed 3 pounds. We also knew that Tom fished there five times recently and caught only two fish and he is an ace on Lake Enterprise. We must be a little hardheaded.  Three years ago there I went with Tom and we caught 20 with a water temperature within a degree of what it was today. We caught them in the same places and with the same baits we tried today and in the same spots as we tried today. Recency bias, if you want to call three years recent, may have come into play. Desperation played a part too as I haven’t been fishing in two months. With Tom three years ago:

The bottom line is no fish and even no bites. A bitter pill to swallow on the first trip. I WILL be back!!

On November 24th I ponied up to the hospital to have a hernia fixed. It all went well and was much less painful than I had imagined. I am on the mend but still have to pay attention to doctors orders, lift nothing over 5 pounds. So I am laying low. My tackle bag weighs 18. A couple of days before the operation, I took Mary Grace White, Harley IV’s girlfriend deer hunting in the rain. We drove into the woods in my truck that has street tires and had no problems as the rain had just started. We chose the last covered stand that was available and made the 400 yard walk without getting soaked. Pretty soon a doe walked out and crossed the disked up lane that had a good stand of wheat on it. The deer was at a 90 degree to the way we were pointed and time was spent scooting chairs around to get in the right direction. The deer took that time to cross the lane and get behind a bush. Mary Grace is from Seattle WA and had never held a rifle before. Some instruction before we set out on where to shoot the deer, safety, and how to hold the rifle was accomplished. I felt confident of her competence because his summer she did shoot a crossbow with a scope and bulls eyed the target offhand.

The doe was turned the wrong way and would not cooperate by turning around. About that time a hog, that I estimated at 75 pounds, came out into the other lane.  Again we scooted around and she got lined up for the shot. It was dead on and the hog dropped dead in its tracks, at which time there was much happiness. There was conversation about how good the hog was going to be after spending some time on the grill. Then some smaller hogs came out and one of them bit the dust, or rather mud as it was still raining. After about a minute that one scuffled off into the woods. We stayed a little longer, went back to get the truck, and drove down to the spot, spinning tires all the way. When we drove up, after the first try to lift, I had to go up on my weight estimation to 175 pounds. We struggled, tried a rope and anything else we could come up with to get the hog into the truck without even coming close. Finally as it was getting dark we gave up in disappointment and decided to try to get back to the camp. I was a little worried about the condition of the muddy road but we encountered no trouble. Back at the camp we reported in and when asked where was the hog we said it was still in the woods with a pair of deep ruts leading right to it. A couple of young boys said they would go down and get it for us.  How wonderful ! We went back to the cabin to change clothes and have a celebratory pop. By the time we made it back no one was visible except Rob, that when asked about if the boys found the hog said “its in the cooler”.  Again, how wonderful !

The next day I came and butchered the hog and put it in my freezer. On the day they returned, I had wrapped 1/2 of a backstrap, put it in a ziplock and put it in the checked luggage. It was still frozen on arrival.

What a great time we both had! Just don’t let me judge the weight of the hog you are about to shoot.

Once again Lake Monticello sent me home with a zero. A few years ago I had a great day in October so I went looking for a repeat but I got one of those zero repeats. This is what I have been doing lately but have completed my required herd limiting requirements.

The wind was scheduled to blow at 15 MPH out of the South which means there will be no place to hide from it. I fished some of the North pointing coves by tying up to some of the snags and then fishing around the boat mostly with a swim bait. I hit one spot in 12 to 14 feet of water where I got two bites, one I hung and broke my line the other just grabbed the tail. The line breaking was because of a bad spot on the line because the bait had been dragged over so many limbs and bark. Throwing across the wind was treacherous as the bait would go where you wanted but the line would blow up against the nearest tree with bark still on it and you would become hung.  The Arkansas Game and Fish has done something that I think is really going to help the lake. The water has been lowered for dam repair and the banks are covered with vegetation. They have also cut trees and placed them on the banks especially on points.

I can just see a Ribbit frog coming over those weeds or a Rex spoon coming through them. At the landing I talked to a good fisherman who was willing to share what he was doing. He caught 6 the largest was 4 pounds with a 6 pound head. The larger fish he has caught lately have been skinny. Those 6 were caught by throwing a worm next to trees in 18  to 20 feet of water. The bites would come on the drop, about 10 feet down, as the fish were suspended. Was his first time to fish the lake in about a month but sometime this summer it was three times a week. When he fished last with his wife they caught 27 on Pop R’s. He saw the fish on his sonar about 4 feet deep schooling in the middle of one of the coves and backed off and caught them on top. A very nice guy.  Not a fun day but very educational.

This 8 -1 is the reason for no fishing posts lately.

  

First grandchild Albert Augustus Redvers Oldham was born October 5th in London. If you notice in the second picture, I have a firm grip on the little tyke because he made a “hoppergrass” move, one of those sudden jumps that babies do, and almost got away.