A quick trip to Ferguson this morning started at 8:30 and ended at 11:30 . I got a late start but I really do not think that made much difference. After catching a couple right off the bat, I started hearing voices.  Then a boat came into view from behind some ironwood bushes.  In the conversation with the occupants, they revealed they caught 80 fish last time they fished there.  That spot has turned into a community hole. I think it was about the time the water was falling just before the last rise or about the same time Harley IV and I went and did pretty well too.  It was time to leave that spot and look for greener pastures.  I fished some spots pretty quickly because it was hot and the air from the moving boat was feeling pretty good.  Every fish I caught was on a DT – 6 or 10 some in extremely deep water which surprised me. I caught five bass in all,  pretty paltry for Lake Ferguson.  EDIT : Uh -oh, I just read that Wolf Lake is open to fishing.

Lake Ferguson was at 39.9 feet this morning and falling slightly, almost where it was when Harley IV and I went and had a good day.  Of course I went to what I thought was going to be the good spot first. Indeed there were some fish present, making themselves known by promptly biting and then jumping to throw the DT – 6 back with such speed, I had to duck. I finally caught two after losing four more. In checking my hooks for sharpness, only one of six was found to be even the slightest bit questionable. After changing baits and the results were still the same.  Pretty soon there were no more bites, even with a worm. To make matters worse, the stripes were not even biting, which I took as bad sign.  I usually do not take a cooler to put fish in but this morning I did so I could bring Willie a mess of stripes.  Nothing doing, so I went to the upper lake on the hunt. The hunt did not produce anything but a small grinner and the FOD, a snagged paddlefish.

It was about 3 1/2 feet long and gave a good pull but nothing too exciting. You can see in the picture it was hooked with a DT – 10 and only with the long “sure set” hook.  You know you’ve had a pitiful day when you find as many baits as fish you caught.  Here are the ones I found.  A creature and a nice square bill crankbait that is full of rattles. The square bills are supposed to be relatively snag free in logs but that does not work with ironwood bushes.  A terrible day fishing but I saw someone that I consider to be one of the best around and he was having trouble too.  A small consolation.

What a difference a slight rise makes.  I went to Lake Ferguson this morning early and was joined by Jackson at 7:30. The lake had risen a few tenths of a foot since I went last.  Before Jackson arrived, I went to try out the spot and found a few fish there but they were not just “eating it up”.  Quickly I went to some other prospective spots but none were productive.  To make matters worse, the wind was howling.  We first went to some spots on the South end but the water was still too deep for them to be good. Then we tried “the spot” with little success. Wind still was howling so we retreated around the corner to more placid water but still no luck. We tried the steep bank, out in the willows and finally the upper lake. Nothing but small bass and stripes. In one place there were what appeared to be stripes schooling in open water but when Jackson threw into their midst out came a small black bass.  We picked up one here and there and they were all small. The count ended up at 11 black bass and a lot of stripes too. Today, just a small rise made a big negative difference when you compare it with the last trip when HM IV and I caught 48.

After a fishing hiatus since May 27th  caused by flood damages, I finally made it back to Lake Ferguson this morning with son Harley.  The spot where I chose to start was one where last year I managed to do very well at this same water stage.  He had a bass on before I even had a bait on my line.  Here is a photo in the “I caught the first one pose”.

He was using an X-Rap 6 and after I got started, I used a DT-6.  Most readers had already guessed that however. The X-Rap came from Craig Tucker with the poem saying that after the flood you’d have to go deep.  He was right on target.  We were catching striped bass and largemouths in the same spot and almost every cast to start off.  The fish were a mixture of sizes up to 3 -6 which was the FOD.  We were going for 50 largemouths but the wind was howling and the waves were getting up so we stopped at 48. It was really nice to go after a long vacation from fishing and catch that many by 11:00.  There is no telling how many stripes we caught.

Besides the baits mentioned earlier, fish were also caught on DT-10s and worms.

I have not been fishing since May 27th due to the flood getting in my cabin on the river.  Cleaning it out has been on the top of my list lately.  Sunday I ventured out on Lake Ferguson to help a friend with some flood related things and the water was Lake Monticello clear. There was a good bit of duckweed floating around and at some point there are going to be some bass under the duckweed just waiting on a Ribbit.  Jackson went to Lake Chicot last Sunday, put in at the courthouse and started fishing with a spook. He caught 8 or 9 in pretty short order until the sun started blazing. The gnats have been a problem but Fratesi’s  Store East of Leland has the answer. It’s “Buggins Natural”  insect repellent. It’s not greasy and it smells good. Just spray it on your hand and wipe it on your face or arms.  After about an hour you will need to reapply. It really works.

Jackson and I went to Cane Creek this morning.  We found more people than we usually find there, maybe due to the fact a 12 pound 1 ounce fish was caught there last week.   A little more wind than we expected was blowing but not too much to fish in.  A Ribbit frog was the first thing we fished with but none of the usual spots were very productive.  I also had on a popping frog until one hit and the line snapped due to my not retying my line. Pure laziness on my part. We finally fished a line of pads close to deep water and the bass there seemed to be cooperative. We caught a few there, including the FOD of 3 – 15. Cane Creek is a pretty lake, full of stumps, with acres and acres of lily pads. This picture was taken in 2009 and it looks the same today.

As always when you fish with Ribbits, we missed some fish by getting them hung up in the pads. I had a particularly rough stretch of luck that extended over to  the spinnerbaits we fished with out in the stumps after the Ribbit bite dried up. Most of the fish we caught were around 3 pounds, one side or the other, except for one fish that was smaller.  We ended up with 10 in all and had action for most of the day. Unfortunately we couldn’t take advantage of the ” action” and put a lot more fish in the boat.

Yesterday I received a card with several crankbaits  attached with ribbons.  On the card Craig Tucker had composed and penned a neat poem. It’s worthy of passing on.

Someday the flood will pass

And waters will go down

You’ll want to fish for bass

And get the hell out of town

But then the weather’ll be hot

And these baits you’ll need to keep

Coz fish will not be on top

And you’ll need ’em to get deep

At about 8:30 this morning, I looked out and the trees were still and it didn’t look like rain, so I left for Lake Chicot. Since the fish really didn’t bite well yesterday until about 10:00, I figured I would be right on time. Started fishing at 10:15. Since I knew where to go, after the first hour I had 10.  Again you had to hit the tree with your bait and let it fall to get the fish to bite. They continued to bite well until I ran out of the spot I was fishing.  Fishing the docks was next in line.  The first few I fished were maddening because the bass would just bump the limetruse Booyah and not hang on.  I missed a lot because either the dock bass are different in their approach to feeding because of all the people fishing off the docks or my catlike, lightning 65 year old reflexes were too much for them.  I finally managed to catch some by almost letting them run with the Booyah before setting the hook. Did I mention the wind ? It blew hard enough to actually blow my hat off. Only the catlike reflexes saved the hat from the drink.  Today I fished with the wind as opposed to against it yesterday so it was manageable.  I ended up with 29. I caught all but 28 of those on a baby Paca Craw. ( swiped that line from Jackson). The FOD was a 3 – 2 .  I caught one about 2 pounds that had a puncture wound high right behind the gills.  It appeared he came a little too close to a great blue heron.  The great blue must have really been hungry. The gnats are getting bad so if you go fishing you need to take something to repel them.

Jackson and I went to Lake Chicot early this morning to take advantage of the topwater bite.  A friend of Jackson’s had told him about some other fishermen that caught “a lot” of bass on spooks and buzzbaits, even told the exact location.  We had previously talked about going to Cane Creek Lake but armed with this fresh intelligence, Lake Chicot was our spot. The wind was blowing when we arrived at our spot but none bit the spooks or Ribbits right off the bat. Since the wind had a chop on the water we resorted to spinnerbaits. Mine was a 1/4 ounce “limetruse” Booyah.  Things started to pick up around 9:00. The bass started to try to eat the bait rather than just bump it . Our spot started to play out so we went to another we had been told about called the “gravel pit” which is accessible through a small ditch through the trees. There the water was deeper and there was some moss. If you found a log or small treetop with some moss around there would usually be a bass there to sample your Ribbit. While in the pit we saw this limb festooned with corks. Click on the picture to blow it up so you can see them all. It must be a popular bank fishing spot. We counted 7 and a jig on this one and several on another.

After we finished with the pit we motored to fish some docks. The wind was blowing even harder now so fishing docks was difficult to say the least. When we finished the trolling motor was on speed 4 out of 5. We were still getting bites but only catching one now and then when we quit. We ended up with 43 and a FOD of 3 pounds.

Tommy and I went to Lake Jackson this morning, leaving at about 6:00 a.m. and getting to the lake about a half hour later.  We started off with spinnerbaits and caught a few on the side that the road goes by.  The fish that bit were right on the bank and you had to hit right on the bank to get them to bite. Almost to the dam Tommy caught this 3 1/2 pounder.

We continued to the dam and came back down the other side.  When we hit the treeline where the trees were thick we caught a few quickly and I thought we had found the mother lode. That played out so we motored to the other side of the landing and to the roadside. Not much was going on there so we went to the West end of the lake. By this time we had switched to plastics, mine being a Baby Paca Craw. We caught a few by casting up to hit the tree and letting the bait drop down to the bottom.  I caught the FOD a nice 4 – 7  doing that.

We caught 12 in all and quit around 1:00 p.m.. Afterward we had a great cheeseburger at Roy’s Store and came home.  I also got word yesterday that Hal caught 36 at Enid, the FOD being a 4+ caught from my favorite spot.