Ten days since I last fished. This afternoon I had it all planned. The major feeding period was around 5:00, I’d get to the lake at 4:00 and load the boat. Right. I was on Lake Chicot at 4:00 and went straight to a spot where the fish have been schooling. There were plenty of shad around and plenty of least terns diving on them.  Not a schooling fish to be seen. That’s OK, I’ll just wait them out. Up and down that stretch I went. No fish chasing shad, not even a nervous shad. Before leaving that spot, I “dipped and dunked”, as Richard calls it around a dock with a shaky head. Did not feel a thing, but my line moved off to the side a little. Up came the first fish.  I always try to do something I’ve never done in a lake where I don’t fish much so I put on a 6XD and visited the deep side. There is a great drop off from 7 – 8 feet to 20 just past the end of the docks. I got my exercise for the day but caught no fish along a 300 yard stretch. Fished another dock or two catching another fish and then returned to the “good” spot. Still no activity and no bites. One thing I have learned this terrible fishing year. If it’s not going on and not getting better, don’t beat a dead horse, just go home. I hate to give up, but go home I did at 6:30.

Mickey and I went to Chicot this afternoon and started fishing after 2:00. We went to the spot where I caught fish last time I went to that lake. Nothing was happening . We fished along a stretch of bank with our eyes peeled looking for activity.  After catching a lonesome tighteye, we finally spotted the smallest amount of bass chasing shad. The least terns were circling and dropping on the shad also. We had a little flurry catching the fish on a redeye shad but then someone turned off the switch and they quit. We tried shaky heads with no results.  A new spot was in order so we hit out for the squirrel log. Not much happening there but we did catch one on a worm. Back to the tern spot where we caught nothing. In hunting for a new spot we took a long ride down toward the East end of the lake. We tried a few places down there but did not get a bite. The tern spot yielded one more on the way back before we headed for the ramp. I’ve learned this summer in the bad fishing conditions that when things aren’t working it’s time to quit. We ended up with 7 bass.

Oxbow problems: Short term or long term?
Tough bass fishing concerns some, accepted by others
Bobby Cleveland
1

August 07 at 9:00 am | Mobile Reader | Pring this storyPrint

Fall fishing is when oxbow lakes peak, and will provide the best look at the health of the fishery. The big largemouth stack around structure, like a point where a spring empties in the lake, which is where Sidney Montgomery found this fat one.
Bobby Cleveland
Fall fishing is when oxbow lakes peak, and will provide the best look at the health of the fishery. The big largemouth stack around structure, like a point where a spring empties in the lake, which is where Sidney Montgomery found this fat one.
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Bass fishermen struggling through a poor year on Mississippi River oxbow lakes are beginning to question why catch rates are far below average years.

Others, like Dan Smith of Ridgeland, have a pretty good idea why largemouth aren’t biting and veteran fisheries biologist John Skains, who has long worked the oxbows, agrees.

Said Smith: “When we have water levels as high as we’ve had this late, and, then, when the river does fall, it does so so fast that it drops right through the prime levels at two feet a day, You aren’t going to catch many bass if you can catch any bass.”

Added Skains: “The conditions just haven’t been right for a good bite this year. And when the bottom drops out like it has in recent weeks, forget it. Fish are hard to find or pattern, and even if you were able to find them, they’re usually not in the mood to bite. They don’t like it falling like that.”

But that isn’t satisfactory for other fishermen, like longtime oxbow fisherman Joe Pettway, who is having what he calls a horrible year. He fears the poor season could be a sign of deeper problems.

“A bass tournament at Yucatan (a connected oxbow on Louisiana side) on Aug. 2 yielded only one bass, and that was 18 boats with 36 fishermen,” said Pettway of Vicksburg. “Louisiana wildlife officers told fishermen that all oxbows were having oxygen level concerns and all of the game fish were in deep water until the river stops falling so fast.

“My concern is that fish were not there through all the stages, and I am concerned that the low water that we had last year has caused this abnormality in our oxbows. Chotard, Yucatan, Palmyra, all have been terrible so far yielding only a handful of fish. I am a fisherman that has spent 40 years on these oxbows. I have always been able to put a few in the boat.”

Skains didn’t rule out the oxygen problem, but has his doubts.

“If we were talking landlocked oxbow lakes in the Delta, like Bee, Wolf or Eagle, then yes, low oxygen levels are an annual problem,” the biologist said. “I have never seen it being a problem in the oxbows connected to the river, at least not until the river falls out. I’d bet it’s more a situation where fish have just been harder to find this year due to different conditions, especially the last few weeks when the bottom started falling out of the river.”

Bite never materialized

Smith had hopes last week when he saw one river level forecast that showed the fall slowing from an average of between 1.5 to 2 feet a day to just a few inches. The forecast later changed and the rapid fall continued.

“We knew the fall was coming and coming fast, but originally they said the brakes would come on last week,” said Smith, whose favorite fishing each year is that magic summer day when everything comes together on Albermarle, which is connected to the river by Chotard Lake. “When the river is falling slowly through the mid 20s on the Vicksburg gauge, that’s prime time. They come out of the flooded timber and stack on that roadbed on the upper end of Albermarle.

“I’m afraid the magic number has done gone and went for that roadbed, and the river was dropping too fast for the fish. Looks like we missed it this year.”

OK. Let’s stop for a minute. It’s not like the year is over. Oxbows are at their best in the fall months, when the levels are stable.

Bass fishermen should still get some good fishing in on the oxbows, especially those two connected lakes north of Vicksburg. Skains thinks so.

But that ridiculous bite Smith refers to that happens when the water hits a certain level, about 25 feet at Vicksburg, and is on a slow to moderate fall — half a foot or less a day, didn’t happen.

Is the best yet to come?

Let’s hope so. The falling river level should work for fishermen, once it slows. Fishermen then simply follow the fish, which are following the shad as they get pulled toward the river. Structure like points, boat ramps, springs and steep banks with timber offer great action.

Has his doubts

Pettway fears that strategy won’t work this year, not based on what he’s seen.

“I fish the current, where oxygen has never been in question, points with current running over and around them, roadbeds and culverts, all of these places have held fish when other places would be dead,” he said. “That to me means the low oxygen content is just an easy way of saying ‘we don’t know’ what’s wrong with the lakes, but something is.”

Further proof, Pettway said, is in other species.

“The white bass are not schooling like they have in previous years,” he said. “They used to be a nuisance, now they would be welcomed.”

Doubting a bass angler with as much experience as Pettway is never easy, but then my history of 40 years of covering outdoors tells me not to jump to conclusions.

Fishermen are quick to look for any reason that explains why they aren’t catching fish, before accepting that the fish are simply winning the game this year.

I sure hope that’s the case here. Tracking the fall bite will give us the answer.

THE BITESPOT’S VOTE IS ON THE OXYGEN when the water first covered all the low water vegetation.

Mickey and I went to Lake Ferguson today just to see if lowering the water level helped with the fish numbers. First off, with the water level just right, we first went to the “Mickey’s 70 spot” where a couple of years ago he sat in one place and caught 70. It is one of the first spots we visit on a fishing trip because of the success we have had there. Today we did catch 1 there and ran off the skunk that has lurked in the bushes on a lot of fishing trips lately. We caught one other fish on a trip from 5 to 7:30 in the afternoon. I hate to admit defeat, but Lake Ferguson has whipped me. In stock market parlance, it has hit my sell stop. That is when you buy a stock and it goes down instead of up. When it reaches the point you can’t stand the pain of losing any more you bail and sell. I have reached that point, and judging by the low number of  boats on the lake many other people have too. I have heard of people catching a few bass, maybe 5 decent fish, but have heard of no one loading the boat. What ever has happened it has not affected the jumping carp. They are plentiful. I’m off for greener pastures, and I’m not talking about the golf course.

The low water then high water malady, whatever it is, continues to affect anything connected to the river. I went to the private hole this afternoon about 4:00 and fished until 7:00 catching 4 fish, 2 on Ribbits and 2 on a hydra headed Senko swim. I call it  hydra headed, because if you look closely at the photo you can see the skirt like appendages on the head of the bait. It resembles the many headed monster in Greek Mythology that was slain by Hercules.On the shaky head it looks almost like a jig with a long swimming tail. All of the appendages slow the fall of the bait and the tail swims on the fall.

I bought them on a guess and I’m really beginning to like them. The private hole is primed for the future. There are 4 inch bass swimming everywhere as well as small bream. What I saw today that makes me optimistic is millions of shad. They swam by the boat in droves and they were showing up on the depth finder. The future is fine but after fishing in some great spots and not getting a bite, spots where at this water level you can sit in one spot and catch 15 or more, I’m going to take my boat out of there . I really don’t know where I’m going to put it because every place to fish around there is connected to the river one way or another. By the way the FOD was 4-9 and was caught on the Senko in the first 20 minutes.

When I started fishing on Lake Ferguson (33.3 ft.) this afternoon at 2:00 the lake was slick. Better to spot the feeding fish I thought. I went to the spot where Mickey and I caught a few the last time we fished Ferguson. It was just right but nothing. I couldn’t even find the Ed King spot due to the towing companies rearranging all the trees with the parked barges. I fished a couple of other spots, and in one, I spotted a fleeing shad. I noticed some shad jumping for joy today all over the lake but this one was getting out of town because something was after it. The water was 16 feet deep there so I threw a DT-10.  After several casts I finally connected and not surprisingly it was a stripe, and it was over 2 pounds. I could see the fish now on the depthfinder but they were hesitant to bite. The most effective way to get them to bite was to make a long cast and when  the bait got to where I thought they were, just sweep the rod and make the bait rip about 4 feet and stop. When I took up the slack the fish was there. I weighed a couple of the fish and they were over 2 pounds, big for stripes. Largemouths were non existent. I did get a few bumps on a Booyah but no hookups. I went to one place where there was an unbelievable amount of fish showing up on the depthfinder.  I could feel the DT-10 hitting them but no bites, carp I suspect. I took a screen shot and saved it on an SD card but I forgot and left the card in the depthfinder when came in. I will retrieve it tomorrow and update this post. Here it is:

I took the screenshot late.  Before I took it, the whole screen appeared like the left side.  Solid fish between 5 and 16 feet deep.

I went to Grand Lake this morning for a while and took a skunk.  The fish bit 6 times but none hung on. The Booyah got two to the top before they came loose and even the Ribbit got one to the top in some flooded smartweed. I really did not realize that I had a bite. It bit so light I just thought I had snagged a weed.  The other bites were just pulldowns, two on a swim jig and one on a 3XD crankbait. There was one other boat on the lake and it was gone by 9:30. One time I did see a bass chase a large shad out in open water but I could get no cooperation. I even turned on the sidefinding sonar and circled trying to locate the school but there was none. I saw a few fish but nothing that looked like a school of bass. The whole time I was casting a Yozuri. The only luck I had was when I was around some  cypress trees that were full of migrating swallows and martins. The little white poops were hitting the water all around but I was spared.

More photos from England courtesy of Gayden Bishop.

  

River Photos

  

Edward with a grilse  and a sea trout

  

A place for a streamside repast complete with champagne. It had a heater that felt good when we turned it on.

  

Gayden Bishop says she wants a flock. Then there was terror in the back seat. I was driving for the only time on the trip but it was only a one lane road so I couldn’t drive on the wrong side. It was 11:30 p.m. when this was taken, note the light sky.

  

The scene of the crime. We had a picnic out at Windsor at the tree where Edward hid the engagement ring for Gayden Bishop. It was delightful and we were kept company by some of the Queen’s deer under the tree and a large herd was running around. The sound they made was much like a sheep. Click the photo to make it larger and you can see the horns. There was also a good view of the castle.

  

Back to London in Edward’s and Gayden’s house. The last one is the flowers from Liz Jones, such an unexpected pleasure to see her.

I met Hal this morning at Moon Lake at 6 a.m. He has been catching fish on a swim jig and I wanted to get a swim jig lesson. Things started off slowly and continued that way. We started off in relatively shallow water fishing around cypress trees and roots. I started off with a Booyah and Hal was using about three baits trying to find out what would work. We fished most of the good shallow areas and then tried the deep water around the piers. The depth falls out gradually from the bank and then there is a good dropoff from 5 to 16 feet.  All along the shore there are fishing piers that stick out to just past the dropoff. We tried to figure out the deep fish but only caught one. About noon the weather started to act up with some thunderstorms in the area. We ran from one only to figure out we had placed ourselves right in front of it so we hightailed it back to where we started. A little past noon we pulled into a boathouse where we were out of the weather and had lunch. The storms moved through so we continued to fish but back in the shallow water that happened to be close to the landing. Round two of the thunderstorms chased us from the lake with a total of 9 bass, a crappie and a good swim jig lesson.

The day at the Private Hole started at 6:30.  Usually for some reason I start off counterclockwise, but today I went with the clock. It was still and quiet so the topwater Mickey gave me from the discount table got the call. Soon I had chased off the skunk. I saw a real one on the way that would not get out of the road. It just sort of hopped down the road in front of the truck no matter how much I blew the horn. I certainly was not going to get too close.  Finally it found a deer trail and let me by. I missed a good one that I got a good look at and caught another before the FOD showed up a fat 3-12. It looked as if it was getting ready to spawn.

Just like last time the fish hit with gusto but finding one was the hard part. As the morning went on things slowed down. Around 11:00 I put on a Ribbit because there were some patches of moss and some standing weeds. The first place I tried was a bust but on the way out of it I got a good laugh. A small bass hit the Ribbit in the shade and close to the boat as hard as any fish could. He just blasted it and I laughed but not before I hesitated, set the hook and caught him. It seems like the middle of the day is a good time to fish a Ribbit. The visibility is about 4 feet so the fish were getting under the small patches of moss to escape the sun. I’m sure some were deep too but I could not get any of them to cooperate. There are some tall weeds that are inundated just like the ones in Upper Lake Ferguson.  I think I got a small look into what is going to happen when the river falls out.  Bass were in the weeds but the weeds made it hard to get your bait to the fish.There were several signs of good for the future. There were a good many small 3 to 4 inch bass hatched this year. There were also a good many small bream and small shad that the bass will dine on. There was a persimmon tree with persimmons coming on and a pecan with small nuts beginning to form. All good things for the future of the fish and other animals. I almost forgot, 10 was the final count.