This post covers two fishing trips, one Thursday afternoon and one Friday morning.  The one Thursday afternoon was at the “L” Hole and started around 3:30. I used my small sneak boat and sat on a cushion on the ice chest. I used a paddle for propulsion but found out a few casts with a deep crankbait would pull you where you wanted to go. After a time around I only had a couple of fish. The bites I did get were after setting the hook on a stick and then reeling to get the slack out of your line. When you would catch up, the fish would be on. I saw a bass in the 4 pound range make a break after a large bream. When the bream got away the bass just herded it down the bank keeping it in shallow water. Never ate it.  I figured that was a lay up but I could not get the bass to hit anything I threw at it. I was asked to bring some fish home and got worried there might no be enough.  Toward dark things picked up a little on both the cranks and a worm but still didn’t get wide open. I ended up with 11 and a FOD of 3.

The next morning the Private Hole got the call at 6;15. I figured the fish would be right on the bank so early so the start was with a spinnerbait.  After a few casts one struck, I set the hook, it struck twice more and we both missed, and I reeled in quickly only for the fish to miss again as the spinnerbait skipped across the top.  I needed a bait with more hooks. Alternating baits, I started around the hole and once again was treated to a slow start.  I had on a Strike King 5XD and began to catch one every now and then. Between that and a worm, I began to put a few in the boat. Around 10:30, bass started to chase shad in the shallows next to the bank. A “found” Struke King KVD 2.5 got the call and was working well until a grinner bit and after I saw the fish the line got cut with those sharp teeth. A Strike King KVD 1.5 was next and was catching fish. A short time later another grinner, made in the same mold as the lure thief, bit and as I had it coming  to the boat I was looking for my lure. No such luck. I was continually looking for the bait to float up as the day went on.Again no luck. Later on even another grinner grabbed the bait, and as it was coming to the boat, another one tried to take the bait out of its mouth. Too many grinners! I rotated between three main spots for most of the day and, as is normal in the Private Hole, one of the best was a bank that the wind was blowing toward. The FOD was 4 1/2 but I think I lost unseen two others. Both pulled drag and were not easy to turn. One was under the boat and about to make an appearance when it just came unpinned. The other was coming out to deep water from the bank pulled some drag and then just came loose. I ended up with 28 by 2 p.m. A little before I left, I saw a fish that appeared to be one hooked too deep that was not going to make it. I went over with net in hand to keep it from going to waste. It was not one that I had hooked as it had a 5 pound head, was skinny. and had no tail. The tail had been bitten off. Even its eyes were sunk back into its head. When I got in it weighed 3 1/2 pounds and had almost white gills. The flesh from the side I filleted was white as opposed to the translucent flesh of the other fish. I was scared to keep it. Some photos of the fish.

    The whole fish

   The missing tail

The sunken eyes

I have found a new Ceviche recipe in the Sriracha Cookbook.  As with all the rest I have tried, this is the best one so far. The citrus juice “cooks” the fish, and you’ll know when as the fish loses its opacity and turns a pale white. The recipe right out of the book makes way too much and is way too hot (as you would guess from a hot sauce cookbook) so I have cut it in half and adjusted to heat down to medium low. If it’s not hot enough you can always add some. Ceviche is good as a salsa type dip on crackers or in a chilled bowl or martini glass. EDIT: Slightly changed 8/24/12 after the second batch

 

12  ounces of FRESH bass fillets  cut into cubes roughly ½”  X  ½” X 1”

¼ cup of freshly squeezed lime juice  — There needs to be enough citrus juice to cover the fish–if you do not have enough just add more in the ratio 2 lime juice to 1 orange juice

3 ounces of freshly squeezed orange juice

1 medium tomato diced

½ red onion diced

1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced

½ ear of fresh sweet corn, kernels only

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ jalapeno, seeded and minced

¼ cup fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons  Sriracha , if not hot enough can add more after tasting

½ cup V-8 juice

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 avocado, sliced, for garnish

1. In a large glass bowl, combine the fish with the lime and orange juices. Make sure the fish is covered with juice. If not squeeze some more of both until it is covered. Cover and let sit in the refrigerator, stirring (important step ) occasionally, until the flesh becomes firm and pale white, 6 hours will do but I like overnight.
2. Add the tomatoes, onion, cucumbers, corn, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, oil, Sriracha and V-8, stirring to combine. Cover and refrigerate for another hour or two to allow the flavors to marry. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve on chips or crackers or in chilled bowls or martini glasses, garnished with sliced avocado and cilantro.

This afternoon Mickey and I hit Ferguson with the gauge reading 8 feet. We were marveling at all the things that we can see now that the water is down. Good thing we had that to amuse us because we sure weren’t catching many fish. I started with a Bomber Fat Free Shad, the largest one they make and it was trying to pull the plug out of the lake bottom. When I tired of that a brand new Strike King XD5 was next. A gar promptly snipped it off after a few casts and it took about 5 anxious minutes to float to the top.  After that I went back to the FFS and finally caught a fish. It seemed like I had a strike and I set the hook, but nothing, so I stopped the bait to take up the slack line and when I caught up the fish was on. Mickey was fishing with a DT-16 and he caught a couple pretty much the same way. We moved and I came up with this.

Certainly not the FOD but an unlucky cooter hooked by the back foot. That FFS has some good hooks. By the end of the day I almost had a blister on my hand from that hard pulling FFS. We found a few fish but they were scattered and were not enthusiastic about biting. The fish are not fat but long and lean. The FOD we caught was 3-1 but earlier  this year would have been 3 1/2.  It seems almost like the warm water has diminished their appetite. I do not know the answer but we got our fanny spanked this afternoon. We only caught 7,  5 of which I invited home to dinner. I have a new ceviche  recipe that I want to try. If I like it I’ll put it on here.

I went to see Hal Friday in the Memphis hospital. He had a 4X bypasses and had returned to a room. I thought he looked surprisingly good.  Richard called today to bring me up to date on a few complications that have set in since I left. I think what started it all was the doctor told him it was going to be a pretty good while before he was going to be able to go fishing. Lets all say prayer for him to get well soon.

Last  year on August 10th Jackson and I went to Lake Chicot and caught 103 bass so I thought it would be appropriate to go again this year. Of course, we were hoping for the same results knowing it was not likely to happen. Early we could tell the bite was just not going on, even right at first light. After fishing down the bank where we usually do well we only had two fish. After trading sides of the lake, we finally saw a little activity and caught a couple more on a cripple killer and a rage tail shad. We missed a few more because they still didn’t exactly want the bait. Yozuri time was next and the fish seemed to like it. There was a little schooling going on but the schools were small and moved around quickly as opposed to last year when they were large and stayed in one spot until you caught 20. The lake was almost slick due to no wind. I’ve come to believe the wind, in moderate amounts, is your friend because it positions the bass where the prey is directed. Wind blows plankton, shad come to eat the plankton and the bass come to eat the shad. There was a commotion that drew our attention because we thought it was some bass feeding. On approaching it we saw it was a silver carp circling on and near the surface.  On one of its circles we saw a growth on the top of its head that was obviously about to kill it. I hope it is contagious to the rest of those things. We quit about noon with two dozen  bass and a FOD of 2 -13.

I was not surprised that it was hot this afternoon at 4:30 when Mickey and I started fishing.  We thought a quick afternoon trip even in the heat might not be so bad. The surprise came when we fished a spot I saw yesterday on my river tour with a young cousin. We were fishing a deep drop when up in the shallows the bass started chasing the shad. Immediately we went for the spot and caught some on a Yozuri. The first one caught was the FOD  at 3+ pounds. We caught a few and then things slowed. Occasionally the fish would show chasing shad in the shallows and we would go for them, now fishing with a shakey head and a worm. Finally we figured out the fish were staying in the shallows and not running up out of the deep to hem up the shad in the shallows.  We sat right there in the shallow water and had a good time. The fish were small but for a quick trip in the afternoon it was not bad. When things slowed to almost nothing we moved to another place. I fished there with a Johnson’s Sprite, a silver spoon with a treble hook on the back. It’s a lure that the old timers often used back when I was in high school. It’s a great bait for sandy bottoms but not good if there is anything to hang up on.  I didn’t realize there were limbs where we were fishing and I immediately got hung up. Sometimes you can use the weight of the spoon to pull the hook loose if you lightly jiggle it. I was doing so when trolling over to the spot where I was hung when a fish snatched it off the hangup for me. I was so surprised I did not set the hook in time to catch the fish but my bait was loose. We ended with 21 for the afternoon.

This morning I drove up and picked up Robert, who had spent the night, for an early morning of fishing, hopefully topwater. We started out on top but after halfway around and no bites except a couple of gar the topwaters had to come off and were replaced with a worm and a crankbait.  I immediately got snagged, that’s yankee for hung up, on the same thing I lost a bait on the last time I was there. After working with it for some time I finally pulled up some old braid with my bait in tow. We finally managed to catch a few but they were not cooperating too much.  Around about 8:45, we quit at 9:15 or about, it seemed the bite was picking up and the FOD , 4 – 2, was caught on a pearl colored crankbait.

We went on to catch a couple more one being a 3 3/4 on the same pearl bait. A high point in the day was when I found one of my lost “found” crankbaits that had floated up from its hang up a couple of weeks ago and was up on the bank, left there by the falling water. It’s always nice to add to my “found” bait box. I looked back in my photos because the last time Robert and I fished I took a good picture of him. Here is the photo.

The photo was taken in 2008. Far too long between fishing trips together. I’ll have to do better. We ended up with seven bass. After fishing we had a cool, windshield down, early morning jeep ride. When you’re on one of those, life is good.

Before I went to Lake Ferguson this morning I was thinking about my daddy going fishing when I was too small to actually fish. Sometimes I’d just tag along to watch. He would go down to the Yacht Club while it was still dark and walk down the old wooden barges with an old steel rod, a direct drive reel with some of that old black line and a Creek Chub jointed minnow tied on. The Creek Chub had a metal diving lip and a little tin tail. I guess it was the early version of a swimbait. Daddy would swing the bait down next to the barge where there were no ropes and bob the bait up and down in the water.  A lot of the strikes came from where the barges were joined together. He lost a lot because when he hooked a bass he had to pull it all the way up on top of the barge. Remembering this, catching bass on top in 30 feet of water, I went to the Yacht Club in my boat first off and started casting the Cripple Killer around the docks. The bass cooperated and would hit the topwater hard but I was having trouble hooking them.  They were small and probably not getting enough of the hooks. When that played out, after 8 in the boat, I went to the North end and had a drought for a while. I found a sandy bank with a few fish on it and broke out another bait from the past, a Johnson Sprite.  A Sprite is a silver spoon with a treble hook on the back. It worked,  and along with a Carolina rig, got me up to 13 fish, none big. I was preparing to come home and was scanning a spot with the depth finder when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. I yelled and dodged by leaning up in the seat. A silver carp whizzed by my head and hit the cowling of the motor, landed in the well behind the back seat, and made a tremendous mess with blood and green poop everywhere. Needless to say, after that I came home. Here he is.

I set out this morning to go fishing but to be off of the lake before it got too hot. The high was forecast to be 97 degrees. Early, the wind was already blowing pretty hard, not white capping but so hard I had to put the trolling motor speed on 3 and sometimes 4. I started at a spot Mickey told me about but nothing was going on right off the bat. I saw some activity around a root and cast to it with a Booyah, getting two or three bites and missing them all.  By 7:30 I had caught 13, all around that same root.  When I could catch no more there, I left and went down the steep bank with a “found” DB-3. My “found” bait box is getting thinned out due to not finding any and normal attrition. I almost had some more casualtys today. I made a cast and on the retrieve hit something and set the hook. The line snapped at the rod tip, I’m sure due to getting pinched between the spool and the frame by my old 5500C.  I used the same line on a new reel. I put on another bait and since I thought it may have been a fish, I cast to the same spot and got hung up. The “gitter” was called and it came up with a hoop net, and sitting there were both baits that were dutifully rescued. The rescued bait and the 3 1/4 FOD.

The wind was blowing so hard it had muddied the water on a particular stretch of bank. On the way in I spied a slight point and stopped to try it out. I’ve always heard the bass will get on the edge of the mud line.  Sure enough I caught a couple there. I ended with 17 and was off of the lake at 10:30.

This morning there was no wind on the lake when I arrived so when I got the boat in, a Cripple Killer was the first bait out of the box. I missed 4 and caught 4 with it. It was obvious they really didn’t want to hit on top because after throwing the Cripple Killer on a good looking stretch of seawall and not getting a bite, I followed up with a Booyah and caught 1 and missed 1. The Booyah got a lot of “bump” type bites. Those infuriate me because they will only bite once, never getting any of the hook, but I guess they feel they’ve made their statement and that’s it.  I tired quickly of the “bumps” and devised a plan to get some results.  I took a swimbait on a jighead and stuck the tail in some garlic Spike It thinking with some flavor the fish might hold on a little longer. They will hold on to a swimbait longer anyway because it has the feel of a baitfish. I had my mind made up that I was going to let them run with it before I set the hook.  I was out for revenge. Here’s what happened.

You can see the Spike It on the tail. It worked like a charm except for the fact the jigs I use tear up the swimbaits quickly where fish are involved. I used up all my Netbait swimbaits in short order and had to try some others that did the loop the loop and would not run straight. The bite was slowing at a pretty rapid rate so something new was in order. I crossed the lake and got out a Redeye Shad that you can hear rattling through the bottom of the boat. It was having stability issues too. Even after bending the eye it would not run exactly straight.  I believe I caught 1 on it before switching to a Yozuri. At one of the places Jackson and I caught them last year it got to be almost every cast for a short time. It was make a cast, catch a fish, and take a towel and wipe the perspiration. With no wind it was truly hot. The fish were in an area filled with gar, those big ones with leopard looking spots, and my bait never was assaulted by one. Remarkable truce. The day ended with 35 bass and a FOD , or two, pushing 3 pounds.

When I went to ready my boat in the private hole the day before I planned on fishing there there were 5 boats on the bank.  This made me a little nervous because the last time I went there I noticed my favorite and most productive spot was not as good as usual. I figured I had been getting some “help”. Saturday morning I arrived very early and a friend was already there. Fishing started off slow for me, but my friend was catching a few with a worm. The Cripple Killer topwater got the call for me. Not much happening there so I switched to a worm and still nothing. As the light got a little brighter some bass started knocking bream up on the bank. The topwater worked well on them. The fish were running in packs and if you caught one you might catch three in the same place. It was useless to fish on top unless you saw some action going on. While waiting I put on a deep diving “found” crankbait, a “found” one because they go deeper than my retriever pole will reach. The crank bait worked well until a large catfish  bit and when it got to the boat had rolled in the water like they love to do and had snagged the line on one of the hooks. Of course this cut the line and the fish just sat there tired from the fight with my bait in its mouth. When I tried to catch one of the hooks with a line guide to fish revived and swam off with my bait. Around 9:00 the bite picked up and the crankbait was doing well. I hooked one in the 6 pound range that came up and shook giving me the bait back. I ended up with 22 and a FOD of 4 -2.

This has nothing to do with fishing but I try to put interesting things on here that people might be interested in.  Rob and his sons went out on a sandbar and one of the boys found an ancient buffalo skull complete with the horns. It was only the top part of the skull but it is quite impressive. Here it is.

They also found a jawbone with places where the teeth were and also a hole where the tusk was.. In the photo his hand is where the teeth were and you can see the tusk hole. Craig, Sam and I went today, found 500 acres of rocks but nothing of any significance.