Craig T. gave me some baits for my birthday a few years back and with them came this great poem he composed. It read

Someday the flood will pass

and the waters will go down

you’ll want to fish for bass

and get the hell outta town

By then the weather’ll be hot

and these baits you’ll need to keep

cos fish will not be on top

and you’ll need ’em to get deep

Mickey and I went to Ferguson this afternoon with the water rising slightly at 33.4 on the gauge. Before he left Mickey had  talked to Terry who informed him the bass in Lake Ferguson were 20 feet deep which is deeper than we usually fish. We started in bitespot #1 and drew a blank. 15 feet was about as deep as we fished there. We moved to another good spot with no luck there either. Finally we caught a small fish but it was shallow. We thought the Northeast wind and bluebird day might be part of the problem.  Two more good spots and nothing more. In the next place there were some bushes in about 10 feet of water where when your bait ran over the bushes a bass would hit but the volunteers ran out quickly. As always the next step was to put on a worm. That worked a little but when the worm came back to the boat I jigged it up and down and caught a fish directly under the boat. We backed out to deeper water and started catching more fish some still directly under the boat in 25 feet of water. I think that is the deepest I have ever caught a bass.  Today was a great lesson for us “shallow water”fishermen. We caught 15 with a FOD of 3 1/2 pounds.

1. Came today. Look at all those DT-6’S.

Went for a quickie this afternoon starting at 3:15 and ending at 6:15. Started at the number one spot where we had success Saturday but nothing doing today. Had something hit the DT-6 3 or 4 times but no hookups. When I left there I had plans to go to another spot where we caught some Saturday but as I cranked the motor another thought hit me of a place nearby. It was a good thought too because two came into the boat pretty quickly. After that I was trying to go to the Saturday spot again but got waylaid as I passed another good looking place where I pulled in. A couple cooperated there too. Another good idea. Finally I made it to the place I had been trying to get to but the wind was blowing so hard it was going to be hard to fish. I got out my Monticello anchor, which is a rope, and tied it to a tree which put me in just the right spot. We caught them deep there Saturday but there were no bites to be  had. The wind was blowing the waves around a point and I saw a fish hit in the shallow water. The anchor came off of one tree and went on another that allowed me to fish in the shallow water where I caught three more fish on a worm and a DT-6. I set the hook on what I thought was a fish but was a bass’s best friend, an ironwood bush in about 6 feet of water. Shallow hangup, no problem I thought. Neither my gitter pole or the weight on the rope could get it loose so I left it. When the lake goes down that 6 feet I’ll be back down there to get the DT-6 and I’ll take a pair of clippers with me to get even. Losing that one gets me down to the last one, a parrot colored beauty. Hal asked me what are my favorite colors in the Rapala  DT series baits and I told him the silver shad color and the parrot. Those are the ones I am preparing to order. Ended up with 7 and a FOD of two pounds.

I usually follow the rules, especially ones that I make. This morning Mickey and I broke the “no fishing on public lakes on the weekend” rule. We thought we would be fine because we went so early. The spot we had planned to fish was empty when we arrived. Empty of people and fish. I feel it had been picked over a few days earlier because one of the people that came by wanting to fish it said ” I heard they was stacked up in here a few days ago”. We caught three small bass and four gaspergous. We stayed longer that we usually would because the water was just right and it has been a great place in the past. The number one spot was just across the lake so we moved. A DT-6 was a good bait there and we caught a few on it and a DT-10. That spot played out so we moved again to the spot where I caught the stripes the other day. Someone was sitting on the spot and we got to watch them catch a couple before we left. The next couple of hours we prospected with no luck and on the way back by we tried the place that was occupied, since the boat had left. Caught one on the second cast on a worm. We sat there and ran the count up to 14 before we left for the number one spot again. At the number one spot we only caught one more to bring the total to 15 and a FOD of 2-14. Most of the fish were deep.

Had a late start this morning because my alarm did not go off. It appears to be a case of operator error. The landing in town was closed for repairs so launching took place at the one on the other end of the lake. The duckweed was solid and thick and it stopped up my tattle tail that squirts water to tell you the water pump is working. Not a real problem, just a pain in the rear. Fishing started at 7:15 and was slow to start. I fished the outside trees and finally caught 2 one being a 2 pound monster that was the FOD. A  DT-6 was my weapon of choice but I also had on a DT-10 for a few occasional casts to the middle of the lake. After those 2, it was slim pickings. About 9:30 I finally came to the 72 spot  from a few weeks ago. Right away it looked as if it was on with the DT-10. The first fish had 4 or 5 more trying to take the bait out of its mouth. The wind was blowing so I tried the old tie up to the tree trick. A few more were cooperative but it was obvious things were slowing. The fish were still around but not as many as I hoped for. I could tell the school was moving around and when I lost them again I turned on the side imaging on the depth finder and saw the fish out a little deeper. They had had enough and would not bite.  I’m mad at myself for not pulling out the Alabama rig. It might have been the ticket. Never caught another after trying two more places and coming back to the 72 spot again. Was on the trailer at 12:30 and 12 bass.

Today was not shaping up well. Trailer lights did not work to start things off. Bending some contacts finally solved the problem once it was located. Then on Lake Ferguson one followed the swimbait  under the duckweed but would not hit once it once it hit the open water. The places I went needed the lake to fall a little more before they would be right for me. Here and there was a “I’m really not hungry but I’m going to bump it anyway” bite, none of which got stuck with a hook. A silver carp did get the hook, but thank goodness that one did come off after a short fight. I stopped at the last spot on my agenda and saw some surface activity.  A DT-6 quickly found out it was some stripes and they were not particularly rabid about eating.  Most that I caught followed the bait up and I could see them eat it in the clear water. After I had caught 3 or 4, a particularly large one scarfed it just as I was about to pull the bait out of the water. That’s always good for a little adrenaline. It put up a good fight and finally I got the plastic version of vice grips in its mouth so my fingers could dodge all the crankbait hooks. The hybrid striper weighed 6 1/4 pounds.

A few stripes later and a 5 1/4 bit and made it to the scales. The bite was on the downhill slide. They quit biting and I could see no more on the depthfinder so I quit. Thankful that the Hybrids had saved the day.

Have not been fishing in a while but am preparing to go.  A couple of times in the past the drag on two different Shimano reels has been jerky or has been stuck until they were loosened, the line pulled out a few times, and then tightened. Afterwards they were not as smooth as I would like. I have never greased the drags on my reels, but was wondering if I should. I read and read on the internet to find the answer. The answer was I probably should but with a special drag grease. Regular gear grease was said to be a no no. Since I had no drag grease in inventory, a good cleaning would have to do. One reel’s drag was full of grease that came from the gear itself. The other had no grease on it at all. On both gears where the drag washer applies pressure had more black residue than I wanted and it was hard to get off. A light steel wooling still left more than I wanted. The internet research said this residue could be removed with brake or carburetor cleaned. Again, none in inventory, so more than I wanted was what it ended up with. One good thing that was in inventory was a syringe that I got a while back from the drugstore. It made putting oil on the level wind a snap. To lubricate most level winds you have to hold the reel upside down and try to drop the oil in without getting it on your line. The needle makes that exercise easy. Everything is ready. Now I just have to go.

Jackson and I met at the Lake Enterprise ramp this morning at 6. The lake was slick as glass. We hit our regular dependable spots and only caught one small one before heading to where I caught them the other day. Nobody home. Things have changed. The weather has turned a little cooler and that was accompanied by a North wind which is a major negative in my book. Also the duckweed which was blown into the trees on the North side of the lake is now in the middle of the lake thanks to the North wind.

 If the fish were up under the duckweed waiting on a Ribbit frog that would be great but it was not the case. The best thing about the trip today beside spending time with a friend were the ham sandwiches for lunch.

I arrived at Enterprise at 5:45 Thursday morning with the intention of catching up on my Ribbit fishing. The Ribbit fishing, or rather catching, has been elusive for me lately and I dearly love it. The fish were not in a cooperative mood as there was only one serious bite early and a frog malfunction (wadded up) let about a 3 pounder escape. A deep water spot with stumps underwater yielded a couple of fish and another deep water place yielded another, all on a DT-6. In that spot the wind had swirled the duckweed into a solid mass out in the center of the lake and there was activity in it, as Hal calls it, nervous water. Missed another on a Ribbit and then one jumped all the way out of the water and came down on top of the bait. Caught that one. I kept on fooling around fishing here and there and figured out a slight pattern of fishing the first outside trees with shade with a DT-6.  That fizzled out and called for a change which came when the DT-6 got hung, I think on some rope, and then broke off when I tried to get it off with my “gitter”. The wind was howling straight down the lake and blew the boat into an underwater trot line where a hook snagged on the trolling motor. At this point I had caught 15 fish. I was a little mad and discombobulated. A DT-10 was on another rod so I just picked it up and made a cast toward the center of the lake, and surprisingly caught a fish. Another cast, another fish.  It was one on every cast for quite a while. Finally the trot line and the boat separated ways so I went out toward where the fish were and tied to a tree because of the wind. When the boat floated over the school I looked at the depth finder and it was covered with fish from 5 to 10 feet deep. The count went up to 54 and the bite slackened I thought, but in reality the school had just moved.  I searched down that stretch of bank for another school but found none, so I returned to the good spot and tied up. It was on again, this time with a DT-6. Finally, with the count up to 72 at 3:30 with two doubles for the day, they moved again and I could not locate them . All of the fish in the school were small, the largest was about a pound and a half, but I’m a sucker and will keep catching them when they are biting like that. Earlier I did catch the FOD at 4 and a couple of 3’s. Today was a good lesson in that when things are going to hell, success can be right around the corner if you just keep trying.

 This is one that looks as if it rubbed up against a poison ivy vine.

During a slight respite from fishing, Hal added up the fishing results since he retired in April 1998. He fished 2154 times and caught 23,230 bass for an average of 10.78 per trip. That’s a trip every 3.22 days, or 113 trips per year, using a smooth 19 years of fishing. A lake in the backyard helps on the number of times but the figures are pretty impressive. Here he is with a couple of tight eyes.