Mickey and I visited Lake Ferguson on a sunny Superbowl Sunday afternoon.  We had plans to go to the 87 pound treeline even though the lake was a little higher than it was when we did well there last year.  When the lake was low last summer the coffeebeans came up and prospered. The water was 12 feet deep but the weed tops were sticking out of the water. When the water does get right there it’s going to be hard to fish due to the weeds. Also after the spawn, the fry are going to have a great place to survive. We started with spinnerbaits down the treeline and could not get a bite. Giving up there, we moved to shallower water and after a strong smell of skunk, one finally followed the bait halfway to the boat before he glommed on. It was tighteye but I was glad to see it. A few bushes later another one hit kind of hard .  We thought the riddle was solved but not so. No more were caught in that spot. The water was 5 feet deep there. We moved again, but due to the height of the water, we had a hard time getting to shallow water. So much wood was floating it was hard to fish so I put on a swimbait due to its weedless qualities.  We came upon a shallow spot that had some cockleburs  showing and as the swimbait came through one nailed it.  Surprisingly, I was able to hesitate before the hookset. Usually when I first start with a swimbait it takes a while before I don’t snatch at first contact. We only caught 3 small fish for the afternoon. The water temperature was 49 degrees.

This morning Mickey and I went to the private hole to start the fishing year. After we cast off from the bank, I tapped the trolling motor switch and was greeted with a terrible noise. The motor would run but sounded terrible. I believe the motor was from the 70’s and had had a long productive life but I was determined to get one more day from it. After an hour it shot out. Edit: It has now been replaced.  We paddled over to the bank where there was another boat with a trolling motor on it and we proceeded to “borrow” the other motor.

    

These are the before and after photos.  If you recognize your trolling motor, thank you, we put it back when we finished.  The fish were timid as we only caught 5 bass with a FOD of 3 1/2. They were caught deep with a shaky head and just barely would pick it up.  Continuing in the private hole tradition, I caught a 5-0 grinner before we left. We tried suspending jerk baits, spinnerbaits, deep crankbaits, and a new swimbait I found this winter . I thought about a drop shot but never put one on.  When I arrived home there was an email from Hal saying he and Richard caught 30 with dropshots in 43 degree water. Next time.  I passed Taff on the way home and he had a tough day on Ferguson according to Mickey. Here is a picture of Mickey with the FOD, it’s especially for Frank.

My fishing in 2012 was affected by a wedding and low water. I only fished 48 times, the lowest total since I retired.  The pattern of the location of my fishing trips changed drastically too.  Some of the main lakes from the past years were visited only once or twice. Monticello and Wolf Lake fell off the map almost. Monticello dealt the only zero. I fished the “Private hole” 18 times, almost half the trips and over half the fish came from there. Lake Ferguson yielded fewer fish than usual probably due to the low water and due to my daughter’s wedding June 2nd , before which the lake was yielding a lot of fish. Lake Lee yielded the FOYear, a 6 – 0, caught June 20th. My average per trip was 14 1/4 fish compared to over 18  last year. The trips to catch a fish over 4 was 1.71 as compared to 2.16 last year, better this year. Last year in the wrap up as I looked forward to the new year,  I said I wanted to learn to fish with 1. a drop shot  2. a suspended jerk bait 3. a Carolina rig and 4. an Alabama rig. I half way succeeded as I did catch fish on the Carolina rig and a suspending jerk bait. I did not even break out the Alabama rig or a drop shot. That leaves me a couple to master for 2013.

I received this photo today by email.

Mickey went to Meridian to visit a brother and fish in his lake.  When I inquired of the weight, “about 5 pounds” was the answer from his brother.  The picture is very familiar, Mickey holding the FOD or a large bass. Out of curiosity I went back into my Bitespot photos and found 24 similar ones. It was familiar for a reason.

After getting chased to the truck by rain at 8:00 from a deer hunt, I made a run to the private hole to check out the fish. Fishing started at 11:00 and started with grinners. They have taken over my favorite place in the entire hole which I went to right off the bat. Caught 2 grinners there, one on  a shaky head and one on a Booyah.  Chased off by the grinners, I started to search for some bass. Upon seeing one make a move on a bream close to the bank, I put the trolling motor on high and motored over to try it out. Out came the FOD, a 5 – 3 on the Booyah. Shortly afterward a 2 – 13 volunteered. ” I’ve got it figured out now “, I thought but it was not to be.  I tried the shaky head but it didn’t help me find any either. It seemed the fish were next to or right off of cover, of which, there is a diminishing amount as the water continues to fall. The first two were out on a naked point however. No pattern whatsoever, hence the title of this post. After making the first circle I tried my favorite spot again only to , again, come up with another grinner. The grinner today were particularly lucky, except for the first one. The first one, unfortunately for him, got a full dose of anesthetic, whereas the others came unhooked the second before it was administered. I was rared back and ready to strike, just waiting for the right angle when they came unhooked. The size of the bass was good. Of the 8 I caught, there were 3 others beside the FOD that were over 3 and a smattering of 2 – 13’s as usual.

We went to Houston to a friends wife’s 60th birthday party that was held in the Museum of Natural History in the hall of the dinosaurs since she had turned into one. Not really, she is very cute still.   Also in that museum is a butterfly center. You walk in and the  beautiful butterflys are flying all around you.  I pulled out my phone camera and went to work. The first one is a photo that came up that is of one of our hackberry butterflys that was sitting on my arm this summer.

  It is followed by some from the center

   

 

The blue one and the one just above it  are the same one except in the lower one the wings are opened to reveal the beautiful blue.

  Gayden called this one the camouflage butterfly.

This large iguana looked like a plastic toy. They put it out in the sun to get it’s body warmed up and it only would move if you crossed it with your shadow. This last guy was watching over the birthday party that night.

There were many different complete skeletons in the hall. They were just amazing .  Remember, you can click on the photo to make it larger.

After deer hunting this morning, I arrived at the private hole about 10:30. The water has dropped a good bit since I was there last on October 6th. The boat was high and dry. When I left it last, the back of the boat rack was touching the water.

I used  my leaf blower to get the leaves out and after a little heave ho was ready to set sail. To start, a DT-6, a spot remover, and a swim jig the Mickey gave me were tied on. Look what caught the first one, and notice the fish only had one of the rear hooks.

The next one was hooked the same way and after a while there were no more bites. I started to get the feeling they really didn’t want it. The spot remover shakey head was next. A spot remover has a flat front of the lead head to make it stand up on the bottom and the worm stick straight up. They have good large hooks that are effective. If there is a downside, it’s that they seem to get hung up more because of the flat front of the head. The spot remover caught some but you had to shake it to make them bite and when they did it was light. Today was a blue bird day with a Northwest wind so you could assume it was not going to be easy. Most of the fish were relatively shallow. There is new wood showing each time I go. This time a tree appeared in 20 feet of water. Another top appeared in a favorite spot that gets fished every time but I never knew it was there. The 2011 flood placed a lot of new tops in new places.

This is the 4 1/2 FOD. There was also a 4 and a 3 1/4, 10 fish in all.  I quit at 3:00.

I have heard some good things about Lake Enterprise lately and Mickey and I decided to give it a try.  It’s a beautiful lake with relatively clear water.  The rumor was that spinnerbaits were the ticket in the cypress trees. We fished for a long time before Mickey caught the first one. It was right up against the bank so we started targeting anything close to the bank. Finally I caught one and Mickey had another to hit his bait three times, the last time snapping his line. That was it. We both had come as close to taking a zero as you can come without actually zeroing.  We have no excuse. The only adverse thing was the leaves out of the cypress trees were covering the water in some places. They were hard to keep off of your lure but if the fish were biting we would have caught some regardless of the cypress leaves. Since we didn’t catch enough to write about, I took some pictures of the plug knocker that I have been using to save my deeply hung up crankbaits. I saw it in a trash can when I was throwing away my trash about two years ago. It had a sissy string on it and no chains.

    

Notice the small rope and the strong key ring that holds the chains.  I added the rope and chains. The second photo shows the loop that you can stick your line into without disconnecting it. You just slide the knocker down the line until the lead head hits your lure or the object it is hung on. If just bumping it will not free it the chains will catch your hooks and you can pull the lure free. At worst you may have to change hooks. I love to use my pole and hook but it is only 10 feet long. With the rope you can go to 20 feet or more. I think it originally came from Bass Pro but the stronger rope and chains make it much better.

Mickey and I went to Ferguson this afternoon with the gauge at 9+ feet. My last fishing trip was October 6th so we had no real idea on where to go or what bait exactly to use. We started in relatively shallow water with Yozuris and after no results switched to spinnerbaits after Mickey caught one .  I try not to be too hardheaded and swap baits when someone else has success with one I do not  have tied on. With the spinnerbaits we had some bumps and nips that happen when the  fish really don’t want the bait. We soon left that spot and went to the North end of the lake, where we caught  a couple in very shallow water. The bait had to hit a limb on the tree top to get the fish to bite. We came down the bank from there and could not get a bite shallow so out came the 5XD. After numerous hangups, it finally caught a fish in 12 feet of water. So far, from 2 feet to 12 feet of water.  The hangups were all saved by a piece of lead with a rope attached. On the end of the lead are some chains to catch the hooks and free the hung bait. The gizmo has a piece of metal shaped to enable you to run your line through it without having to unhook anything. If the hangup is too deep for my pole, the other gizmo gets the call.  I found most of it in a trash can at Lake Monticello and just had to add the rope and chains. I have no photo but will include one with the next post. We continued to try both shallow and deep and caught a few more but had more bumps than fish caught. We ended up with just 7 fish but talked to others that struggled too. The fish are still in the lake however because we talked to someone who fished last weekend just before the front and caught 21 pounds for the day. The next day they caught 5 pounds on the bluebird day after the front. The winner of the tourny caught an impressive 19 pounds a day for the two days.

Wednesday night we had a tremendous windstorm in our area of Greenville. It was a straight line wind that blew down a lot of trees in our neighborhood, some large white oaks were over 200 years old. Some trees fell on peoples houses and did a tremendous amount of damage, but thankfully, no one was hurt.  My boat was in the garage so my truck took the direct hit. Not too much damage to our house thank goodness.

            

It was the first time since I have lived here that I have felt the house moving during a windstorm. Tremendous wind. The view from the garage.

     and toward the garage

There were widow makers everywhere.

    

Heavy equipment was at my house all day. I’ll probably have to mortgage my boat to pay the cleanup bill. In the last photo note the elm tree trunk that appears just over the man on the right’s head. It was so heavy it had the crane bouncing. It was on its way to be placed in the truck they are standing by. This photo is of the pile of debris on the street that came from my yard, and this is after some had been hauled off.

  Our lights came on last night which is amazing considering the damage to the lines. Our freezers had just about reached their limit before things completely defrosted. I have fishing on my mind but have no idea when I’ll get to go.