Monday I went to lake X and faced winds of 15 to 20 all day. I fished until around 2:30 or 3:00 and quit because I thought my batteries might be getting weak. I would not have been able to fish at all but for the spot lock. It really affected my abilities of detecting bites on the plastic bites. I ended up catching 8 with 3 in the 4 pound range, 4 3/4 being the largest. When I felt most fish was when they were leaving. Next day was perfect but I had planned to go to Bussey break. The guys that did go caught 35 with a 9.93 FOD.

In Bussey Break Jackson and I hunted for the fish in relatively shallow water. A 4 pounder was caught on a spinnerbait. I had seen the Major League Fishing program that was filmed there, I think last year, where the guy caught one over 12 pounds and I think I figured out where he was in general terms. We went to that spot in 7 feet of water. Jackson had on a black and blue jig and soon had a bite and set the hook. We were near some willow trees and some bushes. A heck of a fight ensued and I scooped up this giant for Jackson. 11 pounds 9 ounces. He caught one other small one.

We talked to a nice man in the parking lot who said he had caught a 10 and a 6 that day and a 10 Saturday. How about 2 10 pound fish in 4 days?

I went to the Garhole Sunday after 8:30 church an was able to start fishing about 11:00. I went down the bank to a relatively shallow spot where I caught a 2 1/2 on a swim jig right where it should have been. There were shad in the extreme shallows but no bass feeding on them. Back out to the deep and no bites, I saw some small fish come up out in the middle chasing some shad. Maybe they are in the middle. I took off across the middle, 20+ feet deep, with a deep jerk bait. The water was clear. Sure enough a 3 1/2 loaded on and came to the boat from out in the dead middle. I made a circle or two but could not catch any more so I went to the North bank where the water temp was 61 degrees. None were in the tops until I drifted up next to one and just dipped the worm in through the cracks in the limbs. In the clear water I could see a big bass excitedly swimming around but I couldn’t tell whether it had my bait. Soon the line started to move and I set the hook. The fish thankfully came straight up out of the limbs and was out in open water. 5 3/4.

That was the last top so it was out to the deep again. Soon a 4 1/4 bit and I got a little optimistic, but could raise no more good fish. After a few more small ones I had to leave to get home to let the dogs out. Nice to have something worth writing about.

Not really too much to update as fishing has been slow for me lately. No zeros but no big numbers in either size or numbers. It’s still February but should be more to write about. This one was caught in February but in 2006.

I dragged the Garhole boat two boat lengths to the water by lying down sticks like railroad ties and then pulling it over them. The sticks kept the boat from digging in the mud. After I got it in the water I put the winch in the jeep and tied the rack to the bumper and dragged it down to the new spot. Spent the night and went early the next morning. The weather man was predicting showers in the afternoon and a high of 70. That didn’t seem like the case as about 9:00 there was a misting rain. The water temp was 52+. Caught one on a DT-6 fairly quickly, small and on the back hook. had a few bump type bites as I started but no hook ups. Went down to some shallow water and had two solid hits on a Jackhammer but no hook up finally caught another by drifting up to a top and dipping a shaky head down through the cracks in the limbs. I caught this crappie on a DT-6. Took its picture to prove that there were still some in the hole. Some people have said there were none left. I also wanted to try out the camera on my new phone.

Since the hole is much lower, I went to the spot where I fell in last year but it was not low enough to expose the sun glasses that I lost. The deck patch from last year that was eaten around the edges was in very good shape despite no paint to protect it. Going on around the hole I caught another on a DT-6 and thought perhaps the fish might start to bite, but I was wrong. I tried the shallow spot again with the jackhammer and had another strong hit but no hook up. When I looked at the hook, the point was bent sideways. I had been fishing with it all day and had not a chance of catching anything on it. Made me mad because I didn’t check it sooner, and since nothing was really going on, I left. That morning, I had threatened to drive to Wilmot to Lake Enterprise and the way the fish were acting and the bent hook made me glad that I had not gone.

Hal and I went to Enid this morning and the water level was sitting at 236 just where we had a terrific day two years ago. A north wind, a full moon, a lunar eclipse and a time change had the bass and us all confused. We caught 4.

Mickey and I met at 9:00 this morning at the waterfront and left for the North end of the lake. The wind was blowing but not enough to effect our fishing…to start. We started on the steep bank and went a good ways before we caught the first fish. The first one came on a DT-8. It was another good ways before another one was caught on the DT-8, but this one was caught when the hooks became tangled in the line and one hit it on top as it scooted across the water. The waves were large enough to where you would think no bass would hit a top water. When that one hit on top, Mickey got out the crazy shad and caught 3 in a relatively short time. The crazy shads he uses are the large ones that are not sold any more, one in particular that he has had since the 1970’s. One of the bass when hooked dove into a treetop and became hung up. We went over and Mickey stuck the rod down and freed the fish but as it came up the line broke. There was panic because the bait was in the fishes mouth, but the fish, now free, jumped and shook and the the bait came flying out of its mouth and was quickly scooped up to the great relief of all. The wind was increasing all the time and finally got to the point to where we had to search for a protected spot to fish . There were a couple of spots but they were small and there were no fish willing to bite present. Rather than beat a dead horse we headed for the wharf after catching 5 fish with the largest around 3 pounds.

Hal and I met at the Wallace Creek landing on Enid at 7:00 on Tuesday. We had a great trip there two years ago with the water a little lower but we wanted to get a little jump on the water. We had a slow start as there was nothing on one of the primary spots. We just caught one close by but shallower than we thought. We left there and went to the main primary spot and were not disappointed as we caught 5 or 6 there including the coFOD’s at 3.5 each. Caught them mostly on spinnerbaits, some by the snags and some out beside them slow rolling where there are some rocks on the bottom that you can’t see above the water. From there we went to individual stumps and caught at least one fish on a little over half of them. It was hard to find stumps with enough water, about 3 feet, around them to hold fish. From there it was to a rocky point, but the water had fallen too far and was too shallow. Next we went across the lake to some other stumps that were hit or miss, although on one with some brush around it, we caught 3 on spinnerbaits and plastic. Next we revisited the first place where we caught fish but there were no takers. A deep spot on some rocks was next but only one tight eye on a portion of the smooth bank. Around the corner, we ran upon a school of stripes and caught a few, but left them because they were small. There were some tops in the distance that we tried but they were too shallow. Fishing our way out of the shallow spot, Hal spied some “nervous water” on a shallow bank where we “every casted” them with red eye shads until we caught 9 of varying sizes. Two more just going down the shallow bank and it was time to go. We ended up with 28 and the aforementioned FOD.

Mickey and I launched at the waterfront this morning at 9:00 a.m. with a slight Northeast wind. The wind eventually turned East and picked up a couple of notches. We rode down the lake aghast because it is so low, seeing things we had never seen. Upon reaching the North end, we started to fish going a long way down the 70 bank with no bites except from gars. All the wooden barges were visible but not all were completely out of the water which surprised me. I figured they would be high and dry. We finally caught a bass on a DT-10 that was right off of some rocks but could not get another bite. We rode across the lake to mark a place for the future when the water comes back up next year and the depth finder just lit up with fish.

What kind of fish is unknown but there are a lot of them. It was that way all over the lake. I hope they are not silver carp. We finally came upon a spot, again rocks, where we caught some on a DT-10 and a River to Sea tactical DD crankbait that dives a little deeper than a DT-10. I got the feeling those fish were just coming up out of the deep to feed. Someone has put a lot of fish attractors out in different spots and you can see them now. It was a lot of them and I’m sure it took a lot of work. Here is a photo of one.

Very simply made, cut open with a reciprocating saw and sunk with a concrete block inside. This was one of four in one spot. We ended up with 7 fish and I guess the largest was 2 1/2 pounds (not weighed).

The first time fishing in a good while due to the Wuhan, pneumonia, and the walking pneumonia. It was with great expectations that Mickey and I around 8:00 launched at Lake X. I had looked at the forecast but had not put enough attention to the wind, which was blowing pretty good when we started. We fished around some of the places where we usually have luck but nobody home except one smart aleck that pulled my rod down and escaped. We let the boat drift against a treetop in 3 to4 feet of water and dipped and dunked a worm in between the limbs, ala Garhole tactics. It was not working to start but soon one cooperated and came up between the limbs without getting hung up. We tried that two more treetops with no takers. By 10 the wind was howling making fishing hard. Had it not been for the spot lock on the trolling motor fishing would have been impossible. We would pull up beside a top, hit the spot lock, and fish until we got hung up or until we were satisfied there were no hungry fish there. Then on to the next one. The fish were very reluctant to bite and it took many casts to the same spot to entice them to finally bite. When they did bite it was hard to detect because of the wind. To make any progress against the wind, the trolling motor had to be on at least 8 and on spot lock the motor was running almost continuously . I was convinced that the batteries ( two 12 volts hooked in parallel) would not make it through the day. They did, but it will take until tomorrow to charge them back up. We ended up with 7 fish and a 3.87 or .78 FOD, I can’t remember which. The 4 we kept, <16 inches are going to make great table fare.

Hal and I met Tuesday morning at 6:30 at the Wallace Creek ramp. We were looking to build on Hal’s trip last week where he caught a 6, a 5 1/2 and I believe 6 others, my memory getting bad. We were going to have to dodge some rain storms in the area but that was the day we could fish. To make a long story short, we didn’t get wet, caught 5 small bass and quit around 2:30 due to a screw that had backed out of the trolling motor that would not allow it to be folded down. It was time to quit because nothing was really going on.