Mickey and I went back to Lee this morning.  We fished down a bank that we knew had some fish on it, it being our job to figure out how to catch them.  I caught one quickly on a Red Eye Shad but Mickey answered with two good ones on a DT-16. That being the case, I got out the DT-16 and followed suit.  Mickey gave me an early Christmas present in the form of an 18 foot long lure retriever, which we needed fairly soon.  The hang up felt like a net so I turned the retriever like a screw figuring I’d just pull it up. Wrong again!  The end just pulled out and we lost both bait and the end section of the retriever. We continued to catch good fish but also continued to lose a bait now and then.  After I lost a DT-16, I went into the “found” bait box and came out with a large Fat Free Shad that I found hanging high in a tree in Lake Monticello. To get it, I had had to stand on the front deck on tiptoes and hold my lure retriever on the very end and put the hook on the rear treble of the FFS to pull it down.  After catching a few on the FFS, it too was donated to the deep. Back to the “found” bait box I came out with a DB-3 that made it through the rest of the day. Here is a picture of Mickey with the FOD, a 4-11.

A few were caught schooling near the bank on a Yozuri or Red Eye Shad but most of the good fish were caught in deeper water on the deep cranks.  We caught 6 over 4 pounds, with the largest 5 weighing in at 22 pounds. Twenty three bass was the final count.

This morning when going to the private hole, I discovered that a friend was hunting nearby. Even though the road was open, I knew the oak tree he was hunting was right on the road, I decided to wait until he left his stand. In the interim, I was able to fix a few things that were waiting on repair.  The hunter came in at 8:15 which was great for me and I was fishing by 8:45. The water level in the private hole has dropped a foot since I was there last on October 2nd.  I had buzz bait in mind when I started, and was casting parallel to the bank since I was fishing alone. After a few casts one hit it hard right at the boat. Scared the dickens out of me. When that happened, I thought I was right about the buzz bait, but after five more halfhearted bites, I gave up on it. Switching to a Yozuri, I caught a few in one of my good places and had one get off by wrapping a stick. The Yozuri gave out, so I put on a worm and caught a couple more but there was noncooperation.  As I have said before about this hole, the wind has a lot to do with where the fish are. The wind has been blowing from the North for a few days so the fish were stacked like chord wood in one place.  The crawfish colored DT-6 was brought out because these fish were a little deeper. For a good while it was catch one every cast. The fish were of good size too, with most being between 2 and 3 pounds. I caught 22 there on the first seating, after catching 7 in the first spot. Looking for another good place I moved and caught a few more but I had to come back to the good place. Sure enough they were back and the catching continued. In my looking I did catch the 4-0 FOD on a Yozuri on a flat with only 2 feet of water. A gar snipped my crawfish DT-6 so I had to change to a parrot pattern but it caught them too. The trip ended at 2:45 with 49 bass with 5 over 3 pounds and most under 3 were between 2 and 3.

Mickey and I went to Lake Lee this afternoon for a change of pace. It didn’t hurt that we had heard some good  reports about the fishing there and there had been a big two day tournament on Ferguson this weekend. Since neither of us had any knowledge of the lake we just had to guess where to stop. We knew there was a flat next to the bank and out a good way there was a good drop off from 5 feet to 20 . Our first idea was to use deep crankbaits over the drop. I started with a dc-13 Timber Tiger but had to change to a DT-16 because the 16 was heavier and more aerodynamic . The wind was swirling and causing some backlashes. We caught a few pretty quickly. It appeared the fish were more scattered than in Ferguson and the ones we caught were a bit larger. Most were just under 3 pounds. Here is a photo of Mickey with the FOD of 4 1/4.

Most of the fish we caught were up on the flat. We used a Yozuri, a Rattletrap, and a Carolina rig for the shallow fish.  Mickey hung a leviathan gar on a Yozuri that ended up breaking the line after a long fight. It’s hard to tell by the photo how large the gar is because there is nothing in it to compare size to.

Closer to dark the bass really came up on the flat and the bite seemed to turn on but still they were never concentrated except in one spot.  We caught 20 in all which we did not feel was too bad for our first time on that lake in a long time. Message to Fred: The fish are biting in your lake.

After a  fossil finding trip that fell through, I decided to go to the private hole and give fishing a try.  Since it was last minute, I went by myself. Fishing started at 2:00.  There were a few in the same spot as last week but they were not very active biters. The shakey head in deep water got a couple to the boat but you had to shake it to make them bite.  A 1/2 ounce Red Eye Shad started to catch some in another spot. The fish were bunched up in a spot that the North wind was blowing to and creating a slight current.  In this particular hole, the fish’s location is greatly influenced by the wind. Mostly the fish will be on the side the wind is blowing to. When those fish ran out I continued into that  end and noticed a good many groups of shad “flicking” out in the middle.  A DT-6 was next , but instead of casting it to the bank I just cast it out into the middle where  the shad were, hoping the bass were following the shad. On one of the casts I felt something and set the hook and at once something took off pulling drag .  Thinking I had snagged an Asian carp, I was hoping to be lucky enough to get my DT-6 back. Then the fish came up and rolled. Asian Carp, no, big bass, yes. I jumped down from the casting deck , retrieved the net from under it, and used it on the fish.  I was a 6 – 6 FOD.

You can see the crawfish pattern DT-6 still hooked in the top of its mouth. I caught a few more in the open before they shut down. Figuring they may have moved deeper I pulled out the Timber Tiger DC-13. Pretty quickly a 4-7 volunteered, the second one of those for the day. I thought I had it figured out but caught only one or two more. The day ended with a total of 23.

I went to Monticello early so I might have a chance at the topwater bite.  The water temperature was 73 degrees.  The fish did not cooperate until Jackson came at 9:00.  He stepped into the boat and caught three in short order, mostly in very shallow water.  He was using a Rage Tail Shad, a plastic bait that skips over the top of the water and makes a commotion.  Finally, before our day ended prematurely at 11:45 I managed to catch up using the “found” square billed crankbait and a Ribbit frog. There were some airballs that would not come back for a second chance but nothing else to indicate disinterest by the fish. We ended up with 6, none big. My having to leave may have saved us from some misery since it was beginning to get hot and was the bluebird day after the weather passed through.  On the other hand, I talked to Hal last night who went to Enid.  He caught 24 with three over 4 pounds and 3 or 4 over 3.  Most were caught on spinnerbaits in shallow water.  He had to resort to a worm in some of the brushtops because of the fish blue bird day inactivity.  Berkley Nanofil line is a new line that Hal has been testing.  It is sort of a cross between braid and flurocarbon I gather, with a small diameter so it is only suitable for spinning reels.  The 12 pound has a smaller diameter than the 8 pound Gamma I presently use on my spinning reel. It does not have much stretch and comes in nothing over 12 pound test.  It is supposed to keep the line from looping on the spool and causing those “wind knots” that plague you with braid.  I may have to try a spool now that it has passed the test.

I left the ramp this afternoon about 3:00 and saw some schooling activity before I got the boat planed off good.  The activity looked like stripes but had to be checked out. Indeed, a stripe bit on the second cast which made up my mind to leave. While I was putting my gear away there was some more activity but of a different nature. When I made a cast into it, out of the water came a bass with my Yozuri in its mouth. The fish were on a slick, flat muddy bank and had some shad hemmed up and were having a late lunch.  I caught 5 in short order and then the school moved on, not to be located again.  Upon moving, I hit two places that were duds and then went to the Maranto 70 spot where there is always some action. This time there was not much.  Finally I got a fish or two to nibble on a shakey head with a finesse worm on it. So the game was a shakey head for an hour or two. Later in the afternoon there was enough activity to get me to break out my DT-6 and the Yozuri again. You could feel them hit at the DT-6 and miss so I put the old “pull and then pause” Indian trick on them. It worked like a charm with the DT-6 and the Yozuri. There was one spot where they were sort of stacked up and I was able to catch on every cast for a while. I don’t know what it is about a 2 – 13 but I fool myself every time and get the scales thinking the fish is over 3. Had to laugh at myself today, did it twice in quick succession.  Ended up with a smooth 30 and a FOD of 3 -0.

Since the wind was gusting to 26 MPH when I left home to go fishing, I decided to go to the private hole where the wind would not affect the fishing as much as on Lake Ferguson.  The fishing started at 3:30. To start, a DT-6, a shakey head worm, a DC-13 Timber Tiger and a Yozuri were tied on.  Quickly the DT-6 struck and caught 5 in a place where the wind was causing some water movement through a channel connecting two larger parts of the  hole. The fish there were waiting on the shad to come through, although there was no activity on top. Trying to get a little deeper I put the DC-13 to work and managed to catch one with it.  After that things slowed down.  On a deep point were several tree tops that I tried with a Cripple Killer topwater. It’s a prop bait, closely resembling an old Cordell Crazy Shad.  On the first cast one hit and immediately the line broke due to  not retying. One of these days I’ll learn. As I was lamenting the loss of the new topwater, it came floating up. After it was tied back on, it went to work. The bass would just come up and suck it down.  I ended up catching 20 in all with a FOD of 3 3/4, caught on the killer, and had a large tail sticking out of its gullet . A dozen were caught on the topwater.  The lessons from Mickey have paid off.

I got off to a late start this morning, arriving at the ramp at about 8:00.  The lake is falling and is somewhere around 20 feet with a water temp of 73 degrees when I started.  Here is a photo of the baits I used today.

From top to botton there is a DT-10, DT-6, shakey head, Yozuri, and a Basspro tailspinner. All caught fish today with the most being caught by the DT-6. Close behind was the tailspinner. It was more the size of the shad the fish were feeding on.  I stopped on the way up the lake at a spot that my daddy called the number 1 bite spot. I caught a few small ones close by. Next was Mickey’s 70 spot. I caught none there but moving down the bank searching I bumped into some and started catching in earnest.  There were lots of “nips”where you could feel the fish just nip at the bait and miss it .  I used an “old Indian trick” to get them to take the bait and get hooked.  When the bait got to the spot where the “nips” were happening,  I would quickly sweep the rod from the 10:00 position to the 2:00 position and then stop the bait. When I would catch up with the slack, there would be a fish on.  The fish were running larger today than they have been, lots of 2 – 13s and very few dinks. The FOD was 4 – 2. The tailspinner was deadly on schooling bass in the shallow water. You could throw it a mile and most of the time they’d hit it as soon as it landed.

I had one of these today that was worse than this one.  A neat way to get a backlash to come out is to press your thumb down on the spool and reel for a couple of handle turns. Then you pull out what you can and repeat the same thing. You will be amazed how it helps.  I saw it on a fishing show and did not believe it would work but later had such a bad backlash I would have tried anything to get it out.  Surprisingly the thumb trick got it right out.  I ended up the day with 83 total and was catching them almost every cast when my time ran out. I had to go home to meet an electrician. Little did I know Willie had told him not to come because there was going to be no one home.

Hal went to Beartail Creek again but the creek was low so he did not catch as many at the mouth where it ran into the Coldwater River ( I think) above Arkabutla Reservoir. Since the creek was low he got out to wade and started catching bass in the deeper pools that I take it were not that deep. The alligators must not go up that far North. He had to work through the tiny bass to catch a few decent ones in each pool. In his email he said he had to catch 6.3 small fish for each one a pound or better, of which he caught 31. That means he caught 196 bass total with the FOD at 3 pounds.  At Beaverdam, his and Richard’s numbers went down on the last trip to 17, but 7 were 4 pounds or better with the FOD at 5. I believe he said all were caught on swim jigs with a trailer. Two real good trips one for numbers and one for quality.

At 2:30 this afternoon I met Mickey on the city front . We immediately went to the Maranto 70 spot, named for the time Mickey sat there in one place and caught 70. The fish were chasing shad when we arrived. Mickey used a “found” topwater bait, one that he had found on the discount table at the Basspro Shop for $1.99.  It was a chrome elongated popper type bait with rattles that he had added a feathered back hook. The bass seemed to like it better than my Phillips Cripple Killer but both caught fish.  The Yozuri was effective too and probably caught most of the fish we caught. The fish were feeding on minnows that were maybe 1 1/2 inches long and they were so plentiful we both were impaling them on the Yozuri hooks all afternoon. It seemed the larger bass were caught on the topwaters however. The FOD was 3.08 pounds on Mickeys scale.  The high point of the afternoon was when Taff pulled up with his young son in the boat.  He had a child’s rod on which his son caught some fish and seemed to get excited about it. It was a great day to have him out fishing because fish were chasing shad everywhere and there was no way a youngster would get bored with all the action going on. It was a treat for Mickey and me to see a youngster enjoying it.  We fished until dark, which was about 7:30, and ended up with 86 bass, all released of course.  It was fun getting all the topwater action. We could have probably caught more with sticking to our Yozuris but they are not as much fun the topwaters. By doing that I also had the pleasure of watching the topwater maestro ply his trade.  There are no pictures because the action was too fast to stop.