After my salmon fishing trip to Scotland, I was talking to some friends who like to fly fish.  Craig Tucker decided to tie some salmon flies for Edward,my son in law and my host in Scotland. Fly tying is an art, I think, just like painting . The result is just as beautiful. Here is a photo of the box of flies.

He also enclosed a page describing each fly and some info on how they originated. Here is the page:

You will note that on the lower right of the page is a fly that Craig designed that he named “The Metcalfe”. It is gorgeous.  He sent a photo but the file size is larger than the Bitespot will take. I think all the flies are beautiful and I encouraged Craig to tie some to put in the next Greenville Arts Council art show.  He will win for sure.

I was back fishing at the Private Hole at 12:05 this afternoon. Recency bias, doing again what worked last time, had me going clockwise around the hole rather than counter clockwise as I usually start.  I have started to try different baits for a short while and if there are no results quickly change to something else. A 5-XD, a shaky head, a red eye shad were tried but nothing. The DT-6 caught one on its first cast, albeit a small one. It caught another after a few minutes but then hit a dry spell that lasted halfway around the hole. The other baits came out but couldn’t change things. Not even one bite. The 5-XD came out at the spot where I usually start and it started going on. I started out deep and caught one on the first cast. Another on the second, and on the third I could see two fish trying to take the bait out of the mouth of the one that was hooked. NOW !  The fish were not any tight eyes either. I was scared of getting hung on a log that is deep in that spot but the fish were so close to it I just hoped I would be lucky and not get hung up. The fish kept biting and finally I found the log. Of course when the fish are biting like that, I took no chances and set the hook when I felt something. Set it so hard I squeaked the drag. I eased over to the spot and since it was 14 feet deep I used my lure retriever on the rope. After working with it, the bait finally came loose and I had a tangle of rope and fluorocarbon line.  I eased off the spot to get back in action. This is a photo of the retriever.

The neat part about it is you can insert the line into those loops on the top without taking anything loose . It saved the 5-XD twice today. When I returned to the action it had subsided somewhat. I decided to go at it from a different direction.  Sometimes that works to get things cranked off again. The bass in the Private Hole move around a lot so when I came at the spot from a different direction I covered  some new water too.  It worked and I started catching them again. Finally they really did quit in the deep, or went somewhere else, so I moved to the shallow. I threw the red eye shad into some shallow water and started out when I got what I thought was a bite. I set the hook and had it coming but it was feeling more and more like a stick. A  3 1/4 pounder jumped right at the boat  to dispel the stick idea. On the way back around the hole I threw a DT-6 by a log sticking up in 20+ feet of water and got a bite. When  set the hook the line quickly broke. Luckily the DT-6 floated up and was recovered. After tying it back on, I tried the log again and to my surprise got another bite. It ran toward the boat so fast it was hard for me to keep up but I was able to, and good thing, 5 pounds even. After trying the good spot again and catching nothing I called it a day at 5:00. The total was 21 bass with a 3-4, a 4-7, a 4-0, a 4-3 and that FOD 5-0.  No water Mexicans today but I was sharing the hole with a big gator. I was lucky that I went the wrong way because the fish would have probably not been at the good spot when I was.

I arrived at the Private Hole shortly after lunch Tuesday to find it covered with leaves. The wind blew them mostly to one end, which was a help, but fishing in leaves is tough because, if the leaves are thick enough, they hang on your hooks on almost every cast. I put the battery in the boat but the trolling motor would not run. The squirrels had cut into the wire in several places but it did not appear to be completely cut into. After taping the cuts, wiggling the connections, and checking the battery connections, I still couldn’t get it to run. Finally in desperation, I turned the foot switch on and off about 20 times and it ran. Not only did the rodents cut the wire but they chewed on any part of the motor that was plastic. Once I set sail, I pulled out a topwater and got a strike on the first cast, from a bream.  After seeing a topwater was not going to work, I put on a DT-6. Not too long after I put on the DT-6 I caught the first bass.  It was in a spot where you used to  could sit in the same spot and catch 20 but I could not get another to bite.  If they were too lazy to chase a crank bait then they might hit a worm, so I got out a Texas rigged worm and caught 3 or 4. The bites were hard to detect because they were so light. After the worm fishing slowed I tried a XD-5. I was pulling it fast when I hit a deep log. Thinking at first it was a bite, I set the hook and the bait ricocheted off the stump and stopped. When I caught up to it with the reel there was a fish on. Some of the fish looked to me that they would weigh 3 pounds but I had to laugh at myself because four I weighed were 2-13. That seems to be my favorite weight.  I put on a 1/4 ounce Red Eye Shad to fish some shallow water and caught the FOD a 4 – 8 with a 6 1/2 pound head and a sunken belly. A pretty good drought was next until I went to the other side with a DT-6 and caught a few where the wind had positioned them. The snakes are still out because  I saw a water moccasin, water Mexican, as Hal calls them swimming across the hole. If you go to the woods you still have to watch your feet. As the mosquitoes came out I quit with 14 fish. Most were the 2-13 size except the FOD and a few of this years spawn that have grown to 9 inches long.

Hal and I went to Pickwick on the same schedule that Mickey and I had two weeks ago.

Monday afternoon:

After we launched, we headed straight for a cove where Mickey and I saw people fishing but did not go in. Hal and I went in and it turned out to be a large cove with a shallow sloping back to it. Additionally the wind was blowing into it which attracted the shad which in turn attracted the bass. It was full of schooling bass chasing the shad and refusing to bite anything we threw. Maximum frustration for an hour until we left in disgust without a single bite. As we were leaving, another fisherman came in and as we exchanged pleasantries he mentioned he had been able to catch a few on a dropshot the day before. Later at the landing he said he caught 8. Being sick of those fish we left anyway for an island where the fish had schooled two weeks ago. Nothing doing there either. Out came a map and right across the river was a cove that was large enough to have fish in it. When we rode in, we could see the fish chasing shad in the back of the cove. 1/4 ounce Red Eye Shads were very effective because they were about the same size as the shad. A few hit a topwater. We ended up with 20 and this 8 pound goo that I caught on 8 pound line. It had been in there eating shad too.

Tuesday:

We left early when the lake was smooth and headed to the island spot, where again, we caught only one or two. Boosted  by our success  in finding a new spot the previous day, we pulled out the map and went cove hopping. While in one particularly deep cove we noticed the wind was picking up so we made a break for the spot we found the day before. After a rough ride we found the fish in residence again, and again, we started to catch some. Hal caught the FOD that was 3 1/4. As we fished we kept an eye out on the waves on the river. Unbelievably the wind and waves started to subside and allowed us a smooth ride to the J.P. Coleman state park. We went to the back of Indian Creek which is the large cove right by the park. In the back of that cove, we found the gulls circling and going down to get shad while the fish were hitting them from below. There was one boat chasing the bass when they surfaced, another sitting in one place all afternoon, and then us. We went to the grass in the back of the cove and pulled out our Ribbits. A few bit the Ribbits but it was obvious the schoolers were the game to play. We fished until dark and ended up with 33 for the day.

Wednesday:

We put in at Yellow Creek because the boat needed gas and there was a station close to the landing. It was also close to the cove where Mickey and I caught  fish two weeks ago. First we went to our spot we found Monday. The fish were there but after us fishing there two days straight they were rather tired of us. Not to worry, we just went to the other spot that was good two weeks ago. We caught only three in there. Now what?  We put the boat on the trailer and headed back to Indian Creek. There were 5 boats there when we arrived. The place where the boat sat all day was empty and we pounced on it. It was a place where a small creek came out and there was some grass. Ribbit time once again. As we patrolled the edge two boats tried to come in on us. We went up and down two or three times to establish our area. All this time we caught a few on a Ribbit but also the fish were schooling in the open water. I used a topwater when the fish were chasing shad and a Red Eye Shad when they were down. After a stint with the schooling fish, we would make another pass down the grass with the Ribbit. It seemed that the fish would repopulate after a short period of time. It was on one of those passes that Hal caught the FOD a 4 1/4 and had lost one a little larger shortly before that. Again we fished until dark and this time we caught 27, for a total of 80 fish for the 2 1/2 days of fishing.

Mickey and I took off for Pickwick “fo day” Monday morning. We finally got there after getting lost a couple of times irregardless of the GPS which is old and probably should have been deposited in the lake. We checked in at Coleman State Park and hit the lake shortly after 1 p.m. . Appreciation goes out to Terry for letting us use his Corps of Engineers river maps of the area with notations of good places to fish. We headed to State Line Island because there was a lot of grass there and Ribbit fishing should be good .  There was grass but the Ribbit bites were halfhearted, and although we caught a couple, nothing was really going on. There was a duck blind close by  that was marked on the maps so we went over to try that. It was on a hump with a good drop off.  One fish there and as we were trying to decide our next move we saw some fish busting shad across the way. Over there we went and started throwing everything in the box at them trying to figure out what the wanted. The best thing we came up with was a small topwater Mickey found at the BPS on a bargain table.  Here is a photo at the end of the first afternoon.

You can see the topwater maestro in action.  We caught 18 the first afternoon.

Day Two:  The second day the wind was blowing straight down the river making a ride down to State Line hazardous so we trailered the boat down to Yellow Creek to launch. It also was close to State Line, and after going the wrong way to start, we ventured across the river to the island.  It was way to rough to even think about fishing so we came back across to yellow creek.  It was relatively calm there. The banks were straight down rock, 30 feet deep a boat length off of the bank. We started down the bank with different baits until a smallmouth came up and smashed Mickey’s buzz bait. We caught a few more mostly smallmouths but they were few and far between. The fish the day before had been in shallow water with grass so we went looking for some. We found some and were fishing down the bank when again we spotted bass chasing shad in the shallow end of the pocket. It was game on with the topwaters. We chased those fish around the very shallow water until late. We were trying for 50 but we ended with 48. Some of the fish were smallies which were evident by a vicious strike and acrobatics when hooked.

Day Three:

It was raining lightly when the alarm clock rang. At the Yellow Creek landing we put on out rain gear and cast off knowing we were going to get wet. First we rode to State line Island and fished the grass without much luck. The waves were too much for the fish where we caught them Monday so we made a break back to our good cove. We stopped in a vacant boat house for a dry lunch and saw no fish chasing the shad. As we pulled out of the boat house the fish were chasing shad between the boathouse and the bank. The topwaters came out but the fish ignored them or just made a halfhearted pass at the bait.  Mickey pulled out a worm and they started to cooperate. The fish were in schools but scattered up and down the bank so we went up and down the bank catching a few from each. It was getting late in the afternoon and it had been raining the whole time at varying intensities. The automatic bilge pump had come on 6 times.  I was wet from head to toe. Mickey was only wet around his ankles. We never were cold but wet is not good. We quit at 3 p.m. with a total of 41 fish.  We caught the FOTrip Monday that weighed about 3 pounds. The rest were smaller than that but every one of them put a good pull on our lines. After the fishing around here this summer it was a great trip even considering the bad weather. I’m in the process of ordering a new wet suit just like Mickeys.

Even my son, who does not fish, has been complaining about the paucity of Bitespot posts.  Since fishing is so terrible around here the urge to go fishing has not been strong, so I have not been fishing. Some of my friends have and again they are furnishing me with a report. Richard and Hal again went to Beaverdam and Richard caught a 6 1/4 after Hal had to leave to go to the eye doctor. They were caught on swim jigs as opposed to spinnerbaits last time. Here is a photo of the FOD.

I received an email from Hal today reporting on the fishing at Beaverdam. He and Richard have been catching around 30 per trip and some good ones have been showing up. When I went up there the bass were hitting a worm with a flapping tail but now spinnerbaits are the hot bait. Hal said he threw behind the boat and hung a fish in the 5 pound range and was feeling pretty smug when he heard a splash in the front of the boat and Richard was holding a 6 + pound fish that he caught when Hal’s back was turned. That’s getting it done. Here’s the photo of both fish.

Hal just returned from a trip, I believe his 10th, to the Boundary Waters of Canada. His guide service dropped him off with his canoe, fishing equipment and packs. He had to paddle and portage the canoe and etc. to his campsite on one of the myriad of lakes in the area. Keep in mind he had a quadruple bypass less than a year ago.  The fish were mostly smallmouth, or brownies. You can see in the photo the reason for the name.

There are some of these devils with plenty of teeth up there also. The second is a walleye which is good in the skillet.

Your hooks have to be barbless, which makes catching an acrobatic smallmouth rather difficult. The visibility was around 20 feet which made fishing a blast. One of the best baits was a Ribbit frog. With a smaller mouth and no barb on the hook, you can imagine how hard it was to catch a fish. Hal took 24 Ribbits and only returned with 2. Since a Ribbit is my favorite bait to fish with ,I was extremely jealous of all that action. A spinnerbait and a plastic craw were his other most productive baits. One day he caught 70 fish. Three of the smallmouth weighed 5 pounds or better. There were only two largemouth out of all the fish he caught. The scenery was pretty good too.

Click on the second photo and you can see the small horns on the young moose.

The last photo is of a gorgeous smallmouth. He has it laid out on a paddle which is a great way to photo a fish when you are by yourself. I think I’ll copy that idea if I ever catch another one worth taking a picture of.

Richard was nice enough to have me fish with him at Beaverdam again Friday. We started out the day swimming  paddletail worms with a light weight. You could feel the vibrations the tail of the worm made.  Richard caught one and looked into its mouth and was amazed to find a half digested snake.

You can see that it was all wadded up. What you can’t see is the horrible smell that was coming from the snake. Richard pulled it out with his pliers.

The wind was blowing and we seemed to catch the fish where the waves were hitting a group of cypress trees. We reached one place where we encountered fish chasing shad last week. This was out in the open. I had been thinking about that spot and put into my tackle a chartreuse One Minus bait that I had found on a limb in Lake Chicot. A few casts and out came a 4 – 11 FOD Richard caught a couple on the paddletail and I caught another on the One Minus. Since last week I also had been thinking about using a Booyah around all those Cypress trees. I caught one early, and kept picking it up during the day only to get 3 or 4  more bumps and no takers. It was a bad day for me. Richard had to earn his pay going to get my hangups loose. We ended up with 18 bass and a goo. It’s been a snakey week for me. I saw this jewel in the woods the other day while looking for a place to bowhunt.  It would make a beautiful bracelet or necklace.

Richard invited me to Beaverdam,of Nash Buckingham fame, today to fish. I met him there at 6:30. Beaverdam is a cypress lake with mostly shallow water, meaning you can stick your rod down and hit the bottom almost anywhere. We started with paddle tail worms marketed through Basspro. They have a great buzz or thump when you give them a little pull. We were dippin’ and dunkin’ mostly at close range. We caught some early but after about 10 things seemed to shut down somewhat. We ended up with 10 bass and two Catfish. The FOD sat and chewed on the bait before finally blasting off after it felt the hook and it was finally realized that there was indeed a fish chewing on the bait. 4 – 13. Richard was a little disappointed with 10 because they have been catching in the mid 20’s. I was happy for us to be in the double digits for a change of pace for me.