I caught one right off the bat on a swimbait at Monticello, but then the  bite settled into the doldrums as the wind shifted to the North and was cold.  One hit a Ribbit in shallow water twice getting hooked the second time. It hung me up on one of the millions of stumps and escaped. The thunder bumped in the distance about 10:30 so I got out of the deep stumps in preparation for a dash to the landing. The sprinkle had just started when one hit the swimbait.  I got a good hookset but the fish jumped and threw the hook just like last week. The fish was a little smaller but not too much. Mad as a wet hen and getting wetter myself by the minute,  I broke for the landing. Discretion is the better part of valor. Upon reaching the landing there was a crowd of official looking vehicles and some onlookers too.  I asked what was  happening and was told someone had reported a car under the water.  I offered to find it for the divers with my side scan depthfinder but they already had it located. When I loaded the boat the depthfinder got a picture of the truck that was submerged.  You could tell what it was for sure. The divers found it, hooked up the cable, and the wrecker pulled it out. The truck had been under for a long time as algae was growing all over it. Here are the pictures.

In the third picture the bed of the truck was still almost full of water.  I’m glad there was excitement at the landing because there was not too much on the lake.

We might have to change the name of the Garhole to the grinner hole. Mickey and I went there this morning and the water was down a good bit.  We backed down in some deep ruts but the bottom of them was hard.  We caught 8 grinners today and had a large one that would have been the grinner of the day get off near the boat.  They were mostly caught on worms that had the scent stick applied to them.

A note on grinners.  Willie says after you cook them you have to eat them while they’re hot because they are not good after they get cold. You couldn’t prove that by me. Next is a picture of Mickey preparing to give one a sedative.

We also caught some bass, mostly on a worm but some on spinnerbaits and  swimjigs.  Of course we used the scent stick on them too. We caught 73 bass with the FOD at 4 -5.  We need to keep some of the smaller fish out of this hole because it is becoming overpopulated.

Lake Monticello was  about 2 1/2 feet low when I arrived Monday morning. This is the sight that greeted me.

Stumps everywhere and still more just under the water. It’s a wonder you can ever land a bass there without it wrapping your line on a stump and breaking off. That’s just what one did right off the bat. Then to add insult to injury, another one grabbed the swimbait as I was moving when the bait was actually behind me.  I tried my best to set the hook but it was not good. The fish stayed on long enough to jump and spit it out. It was a big fish, under 8 pounds but over 6.  I found a pocket that had the wind blowing into it that had some fish. This one bit a Ribbit in the pads.

I caught a few more using the swimbait much like a spinnerbait in the stumps in 5 to 8 feet of water. The main bite seemed to be around noon.  I ended up with 7 but no biggies, FOD = 3 1/2 but also no dinks. I’m going back when the water cools a little more.

Mickey and I left for our third annual foray to Lake Guntersville on Thursday confident that we were going to catch a lot of fish.  The first cold front had hit, which is supposed to put the fish into the grass where they should fall prey to our Ribbit frogs. We arrived to a North wind and bluebird skies. The first afternoon we fished a new area, to us, with limited success.   Mickey caught this one on a buzzbait.

another one

The second day started at the Goose Pond exactly at the spot where I caught an 8 1/4 two years ago. None of those this year, but we did manage to catch a couple there. The bass were not in the grass but on the edges near deep water. The morning bite quickly turned into a long lull, so at around noon we left for Brown’s Creek, where in the past we have done well. We came around the corner of a pocket and saw bass schooling and busting shad. They were hard to catch but finally we caught a few on a swimbait that we had rubbed with the scent I’ve been writing about.  We would have caught a few more but I broke three off setting the hook.  Finally I thought to check my drag and it was locked up. I freed it up but those three were gone.  We found another pocket out of the wind where the fish were schooled and caught a few including this 7 pound catfish Mickey caught on the flavored swimbait.

Saturday morning we just cut to the chase and went straight to Brown’s Creek knowing we were going to burn up the schooling fish but the shad were not in the pockets and the fish were not concentrated there.  So we searched for new places. This one  came from one of the new spots.

We pretty much got whipped Saturday. We were not the only ones. A man told us, that in a big tournament, 6 pounds got a check and there were a lot of zeros.  Sunday it was Brown’s Creek again mainly because it was on the way out of town. We started about 7 and fished until 10 in the new spots and caught 7, all on a Ribbit.  For the whole trip we caught 30 fish, not too good in a place you are supposed to catch that many in one day.

This is a photo of a rod holder I rigged up to keep the rods neat on the trip. It needs some tweaking but worked well to keep the rods straight.  One thing is certain, when Mickey brings the food, you’re going to eat very well. With spaghetti and crayfish fettuccine we ate like kings .

Mickey and I were going to the Garhole but the weather was dicey and the landing there was even more dicey so we went to the chute.  After we caught the first fish it started raining, not  hard but wet.  We fished through the rain and were catching a few all along, mostly on a worm. I caught the first one on a swimbait and missed a few more. Mickey did his usual trick by calling one up with a crazy shad.  Called it out of an ironwood bush and it had the lure sideways in his mouth.  Then Mickey picked up a worm and started catching them on a regular basis. I’m hardheaded, but not that hardheaded, so I picked up a worm and tried to catch up.  Occasionally Mickey would pick up his crazy shad and throw a few times. One of those times he got hung up and pulled it. The lure came loose and was coming straight at his head. He put up his arm to stop the bait and it hit his forearm and went through the rainsuit and up to the barb of the hook.  Dr. Metcalfe, having recent experience in this sort of thing, sprang into action. We unsnapped the bait from the line, took off the rainsuit except the part that was pinned to his arm. I worked the needlenose pliers down the hook until I was close to the barb and pulled gently to see if it would come out. No deal. We decided to count to 3 and snatch. It came out with no blood. We continued fishing until our cutoff time. After putting up 2 rods, I picked up the one with the swimbait and made one last cast and got a bump.  Not wanting to let the fish get off that easy, I made a couple more casts and caught the FOD, a 5 – 8 on the last cast. We caught 18 total and had a wonderful time despite the rain. A photo of the 5 – 8.

Got another email today from John Eddleman today. He’s been tearing them up in his secret spot for the past three weeks.

I met Mark on the bank in front of his house at 6:30 this morning.  Curb service. It was , I believe, my second time to use the running lights on the boat. Lake Ferguson was falling slightly and was at about 20.4 feet.  We went right to the good spot but we went down the whole bank almost before we caught one. Slowly the fish started to cooperate and bit a worm better than anything else to start.  Mark put on a Yozuri lipless crankbait and started to work on them to the extent I rattled around in my tacklebag and came up with one too.  The fish were here and there but seemed to regroup in one place. We would fish there until no more bites and then go down the bank and come back. When we came back some others had moved in and would bite. As those schooling fish will do, they nipped at the bait, with many missing it or coming unpinned on the way to the boat. For some reason this morning I did not pull my book and mark each fish down. Maybe it was because of the slow start. About 9:00 I asked Mark how many he thought we had caught. 25 or 30 was the answer and that was about what I thought a conservative figure would be. We managed to catch about 5 more apiece before Mark had to go. The FOD so far was 2 – 14 . We both had invited a few home for supper.

After Mark left I went back for a few more casts. Nothing was happening when I returned and I had almost come to the conclusion Mark had left at the right time. There was some activity down the bank in what was supposed to be the best place but we had not had a bite there so far.  It was a bite every cast with the Yozuri to start off.  The willow leaves had accumulated so badly they fouled the bait on almost every cast so I used a worm. They didn’t miss it. I caught 20 more at least with  one being a 3 – 7 FOD. If you add 25+10+20 you get 55, not a bad fishing trip.

The lake was rising this morning and was at 21.8 feet. The rising water seemed to spread the fish out as opposed to the falling water concentrating them.  A 4 1/4 pounder was pretty in the early morning sunshine.

Notice it was caught on a worm, as the fish would only bump the DT – 6.  I saw a few chasing shad spread out all along the bank.  I’m beginning to really believe in the scent that I’ve been using. Since the fish were biting lightly, and some hit it and spit it out, I put the scent on everything I used today. On the worms too. I caught a catfish, a grinner, and a warmouth bass otherwise known as a goggle eye.

I only ended up with 17. Only 5 of those qualified (less than 13 inches)  to be invited home for supper.

The 4 1/4 retained the title of FOD.  I have edited the cypress tree post with a better photo of the tree.

It’s a whopper alright but it’s not a fish. It’s a prize winning cypress tree, I think the largest in the world. The tree is located in the Sky Lake WMA in Humphreys County. It is said to be 2000 years old . I don’t know who figured that out but it’s massive. It’s not the only one either there are many large trees in that stand. The picture does not do it justice because there is nothing in it so you can judge the size of the tree. The swamp that it’s in is dry because of the drought and the MS Dept. of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks is building a walkway out to the tree so it will be accessible when the swamp fills again with water. It’s worth the ride over to see it.

Previously, In an effort to combat the volume of spam, I cut off the ability of readers to comment. It did not help.  I’m turning the comments back on and will continue to delete the spam.  Thanks for visiting The Bitespot.

Saturday, Taff and his tournament partner Gene won the event on Lake Ferguson. Their catch was 20.25 pounds which included two twins about 4 3/4 pounds each. Of course, the spots they caught them is classified information but they did not catch them where I’ve been burning them up.  Taff called to thank me for wearing that spot out because 4 boats went straight to it the first thing.  A 4 pound average was great. Congratulations !