Lake Ferguson stood at 15.97 when I went after the rain quit this morning and the water was 47 degrees. The first place I stopped was the Mickey Maranto bitespot and the shad were everywhere. They appeared to be dying from the cold water. There were fish feeding on them although I could not get any volunteers for the first fish of the year.  I tried several baits that would catch a bass or a striped bass there were no takers.  The fish gave me a couple of courtesy bites, just bumping the bait with no intention of eating it.  I finally gave up there and went to the steep bank. Mickey had given me a Hart jig with two rattles and a crawfish trailer, so I put it on. My steep bank baits were the jig, a 3/4 ounce Scrounger jig with a 5″ Kalin curly tail grub, and a DT – 10. Nothing was going on however and I started to smell a skunk. Finally I had a bite on the jig and caught a 2 pounder. When I got the fish in the boat I laid it on the front deck to get the camera, the fish flopped and the hook came out, then it was flopping amidst all the baits I had out and all my rods. I could just see one of my rods going overboard along with a couple of baits. In the end the only thing that went overboard was the fish and that was before I got a picture.  So I took a picture of all the baits that I used today just before I took my frozen fanny home.

Today when  counting up the fish for 2010, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of trips and also the number of fish. The review is meant as a learning process and not a reason to brag, for as my daddy used to say  “Mr. Brag always loses his tail”.  Fishing trips in 2010 hit a personal high of 80, just over ’08 and ’07’s  78. The number of bass was the highest for me too with 1146 fish, a 14.3 fish per trip average which is lower than 2009’s 14.4.  In 2010 42 bass over 4 pounds were put in the boat, with 25 included in the 415 bass that came from Lake Ferguson. The Garhole was second in fish production with 234 on 14 trips. Wolf Lake was best per trip with 169 fish in 5 trips. I should have gone there more often.  On the downside, Lake Monticello did the worst. I think the only 2 zeros I had came from there and some trips only with one or two fish caught. Hardheadedness came into play . After catching my largest bass there in 2006, and 4 over 7 there last year, I just could not resist the temptation to try for a big fish or two. Not being one to accept defeat, and actually losing two good ones there this fall, I kept returning for another whipping. The largest of the year a 6 – 2 came from Enid on a trip with Hal.  The lesson from this exercise for me is to go to Ferguson even more, as well as the Garhole, the Catfish Chute, and Wolf Lake. Leave Monticello alone except for a few times in the spring and when they are in the pads and will hit a Ribbit frog. The bait of the year for me is a tossup between the Ribbit and the DT – 6. The Ribbit caught fish for most of the year with the excitement a vicious topwater strike brings but the DT- 6 really caught the numbers of fish especially in the late summer and fall.  I’m looking forward to next year with great optimism and anticipation.

Taff won a fruit jar tournament on Lake Ferguson the day before Christmas, I believe, with a weight of 24.4 pounds for 5 fish.  That is almost a 5 pound average per fish. This is Taff’s time of year and I’d bet they were caught deep with plastic or a jig. If you can pick your day to fish, this is a great time of the year to fish for bass on Lake Ferguson.

Today I reached the lake at 11 which was a little earlier than yesterday. When I put in the same two guys who were there yesterday were just putting in ahead of me so I knew seconds were in order for me as far as choice of fishing spots were concerned.  Today they had some DT-6s purchased at the Indianola Wal-Mart. They settled at the chute mouth and I went straight to the Mickey Maranto spot, where there were two bass waiting for me. The first one was an especially well marked Lake Ferguson fish.The second one pretty too.

The game was the same as yesterday, rip and pause with a DT-6.  Today I had more hits and misses and more snags and get offs than yesterday.  Working the bank back and forth, I finally got a few to volunteer but nothing like yesterday. I even caught one on a suspending X-Rap jerkbait.  The willow trees were shedding their leaves which floated on top and ended up on your bait almost every cast which became very problematic.

A change was needed, so I went to the steep bank and pulled out my DT-10.  A bull hit it on the third cast and after a few seconds came off but this let me know the idea was viable.  As I proceeded down that bank the fish continued to cooperate and bite but some also continued to come unpinned because their biting was less than enthusiastic . Some followed it out and hit when the lure started to come up toward the boat. The 4-8 FOD hit in that manner but had the DT-10 sideways in it’s mouth so I had to resort to the lip gripper to land it. It’s the orange thing in the top if the picture. It was too cold to get a hook in your finger today.

The total today was 16 with a 4-8 ; a 4-0; two 3-14s ; a 3-8 and another in the 3s. The guys I saw yesterday caught only 5 today but  they eyeballed one at 7 and two at 5.  They were KEEPING them. If I had known that I would not have told them about the DT-6 yesterday or given them a bait. Keeping them is fine if they’re small.

Lake Ferguson was at 21.7 feet and falling today and the water temp was 47 degrees.  I had heard of good luck being had and I know a falling lake is good for the fishing, so I forewent an afternoon deer watch and hit the lake. When I arrived at the Mickey Maranto spot, the fish were hitting the DT-6 right off the bat. A lot of misses but I attributed that to the cold water. I caught 8 quickly and then the switch  got thrown.  Up and down that bank I went but nothing doing. The fish seemed to be in schools but they were not hitting on top, so searching was the only way. When you caught one, you usually caught more.  Two men were fishing nearby and coming down the bank toward me and were going to pass. As they passed my bait hit something under the water and I pulled it and made it rip through the water. When I picked up the slack there was a fish on. The idea came to me to reel, then to rip, and then to stop. When those guys were passing I caught 6 or more. I told them what bait I was using, but not how I was using it. Can’t tell everything. One man had a DT-6 but the other finally wanted to buy one from me.  Since I do not keep a whole box full of DT-6s and one’s lip broke off on the first fish today, I declined but gave him something similar that would catch a fish.  Those DT-6s get hard to find around here sometimes, especially when the fish are liking them. Had I known about the rip and stop at first I might have loaded the boat.  A 4 – 5 was the FOD with a 4 – 4 close behind and 4 more were over 3 from 3 -14 on down. The total was 19 for the day.  I liked it so much today, I might try it again tomorrow but earlier. There was also a beautiful sunset.

I stopped at the double hole and threw a Booyah a few times and caught one but my main destination was the drying up end of the garhole.  Would you believe there was an alligator swimming around in the double hole? It was during the lunch hour after the morning deer hunt or should I say deer watch.  I needed some tighteyes for supper and I needed to be back deer watching by 3 p.m. The fish were close by any cover and not shy once they decided to bite. One bit three times before it finally was caught.  I caught 5 in about an hour and a half, of which I kept 4. One was too large to keep. I also caught a chain pickerel, the third one to come out of the garhole in a month or so.  A pickerel is related to a muskie or Northern pike. It has a big mouth with plenty of teeth. A photo, the first one with a new phone camera. EDIT I forgot to mention there was an alligator swimming in the double hole on December 17th after all the cold weather we’ve had.

This afternoon The Bitespot received 73 spam messages from about 3 P.M. until 7.  I don’t mind having to delete a few but 73 is too many. The ability to comment will be turned off for a while as before. After the spam front passes, perhaps I’ll be able to turn it back on. Just e-mail comments to me at harleyiii@bitespot.net in the meantime .

The cold weather reminded me that it’s time to change the gear oil in the lower unit of your outboard motor. If the seal around the shaft has leaked, the water that got inside the lower unit might freeze and crack the housing.  I went several seasons before changing mine the first time and the oil that came out was black and bad looking. I’ve changed it every year since. The oil this year had about a teaspoon of black oil but the rest was almost as clear as new. There was no sign of any water.

Hot off of the press!  Jackson just called me from his boat on Lake Enterprise where he just caught 10 sitting in one spot. In the 10 were a 5 – 10, one in the 4’s and one in the high 3’s.  It was in a spot he’d fished before with crankbaits (he mentioned a DT -6 among others) and caught some but none of that quality.  He fished through the spot this morning with a crankbait and caught none. Then he turned around and went through it again with a 6 inch Missionfish swimbait. He let the bait go to the bottom, retrieved it slowly, and then let it sink back to the bottom. He said the smallest one he caught was about a pound, but had the large bait completely in his mouth.  It’s 10:45 now and he started at 8:00. Pretty good trip for just a couple of hours. Lake Enterprise is low and pretty clear. Since it is clear the swimbait is working well. Of course it’s a lake not affected by the rising Mississippi River.

This afternoon was too pretty to go deer hunting so I went to get my fishing fix at a small blew hole that is close to where I have been deer hunting.  My main fishing equipment is at home but I keep a rod and reel in the closet at the club. The reel is one that Hal found under a trestle on the upper end of Arkabutla when the water went down . He took it apart, cleaned it up and gave it to me, quite nice of him. It even came with some line on it.  I put it on a rod that my children had used with push button reels. The rod is rather whippy but for that reason, it casts well. The hole was  small, about four casts wide, so bank fishing was the way to go. I started on the balmy North bank just knowing the fish would be in the warmer water. No bites.  When I reached a shady corner where the wind had drifted up some leaves the action picked up. Those little fish hit the 1/4 ounce chartreuse Booyah spinnerbait pretty hard.  I had brought an old fish stringer with me  I used to use back in the early 1970’s that had a rope that would hold a bull.  The ones that were invited to dinner were put on it and it was tied to a loop on my pants. The stringer was overkill but was all that I had. The small 10 to 12 inch bass are the ones that I like to keep to eat but there were some too small as well as the  3 pound (estimated) FOD and a couple more that were too large. In two hours 14 were caught. A most pleasant afternoon.

This afternoon on Lake Ferguson, the second time I hit the trolling motor, it would not turn on. The foot switch felt lifeless. I turned it to the lowest speed and turned it to the constant on position. The motor ran constantly except when you reached down and turned the toggle switch off.   Not a good way to fish. The shad were everywhere in the lake and the white pelicans were more numerous than the last time. The bass that have been in the shallow end were not there, or at least not showing themselves. There was a small amount of visible action on top.  I’ve been thinking since being scolded by the Yozuri and figured a Little George might work on the schooling bass. On the second cast I had a hookup. I gloated a little but it didn’t feel right. Up came a catfish. To try to save the day I broke out the DT – 10 on the steep bank and caught 2 relatively quickly before dark.  At home I took the switch out of the foot pedal of my trolling motor and found the rubber button of the switch was broken. The switch is still good and if I can’t find another button, I’ll rig something to work.