I went Friday morning at daylight, really a little before, but someone had beat me to the lake and I was nervous they were headed to my spot. They were not however and the fish were not there either but I knew they were somewhere close.  Early you could tell it was just not going on. Slowly the bite started, little ones first and then the larger fish.  I found a spot, on the same bank that I’ve been fishing all along, that was full of fish but I could also see fish schooling chasing shad about 100 yards away. It was hard to stay put with the ones I had because they never came up. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.  I began to notice the schoolers were very small and was glad I stayed put. I caught fish on all these baits this morning.

From the top DT – 6, DT – 4, Rapala Thug, DT – 10.  The only other bait I caught some on today was a worm.  The DT – 6 and the DT – 10 caught most of the fish today, even this Goo which is the smaller of the two I caught.

The Goo was after catching around 20 bass and I hoped the bass bite was not over.  I don’t know how many times I have been in a spot catching bass and then catch a Goo and not another bass. Today the bite continued and 53 bass was the total for the day.  I quit at 11:30. The FOD was 4 – 13 with 4 others over 3. The largest 5 weighed 18 – 6.  A day like today makes up for all those days Lake Ferguson sent me home with my tail between my legs.

Mickey and I put in Lake Ferguson at 3:00, or a little after, this afternoon with the lake at 22.4 feet and falling.  We went straight to the good spot and started catching.  DT – 6s were the bait of the day. Some of the fish had the whole bait sideways in their mouth. This is a photo of the one I used.

It is Darrell’s bait that I found earlier in the year.  When things cooled in the good spot we moved down the bank and found another hot spot, this one a little deeper. Since it was deeper we pulled out DT – 10s and continued the catching spree. The photo is of Mickey with the 4 – 5  FOD.

All the bass today were between 2 and 3 except a few small ones and 4 over 3 pounds, FOD included.  We arrived back at the landing at 6:30 and had a final total of 55 bass after fishing roughly three hours. A very outstanding afternoon.

After starting in another hole and catching only two in about 30 minutes, I was going to the “L” hole again.  The double hole was on the way and I had some intelligence that the bass had been hitting against the bank late in the afternoon. No one had been fishing there for bass because there was too much moss. Sounded like Ribbit country to me. When I got there it looked like Beaverdam jr., except there were no cypress trees. It had lots of duckweed that was flowing with the wind.  Checking it out, I made a few casts from the bank. Three bites and caught one, all small. Just like the experience at the “L” hole, that sucked me in.

If there were as many small bass in the hole as I thought, some were coming home for supper.  The flowing moss determined where the fish were. They mostly were on the moss edges or close to them.  The fish were not shy about biting but they were so small they had trouble getting the Ribbit hook in their mouth.  A few larger bass were present. A couple of two pounders hit just about the time I had convinced myself that none were present. Then a 3 1/4 blasted the Ribbit.

Later the 3 – 9 FOD blasted it right in the middle of a treetop. After I set the hook, the fish was immediately around a limb and sawing my 12 # Vicious flurocarbon. I paddled over and got right on top of the fish and it came off the limb and made for open water. The line held, but after I got the fish in the boat I had to cut off 8 feet of line that was scarred.  That Vicious is good stuff. I ended up with 28, 13 of which made it home with me and with Willie for supper.

While checking on a bow hunting place I found this Luna Moth dead, just lying on the floor of the woods. There are many neat and beautiful things in Nature if we’ll just look.

Hal has just returned from a trip to the boundary waters of Canada. He fished and camped on this lake for 10 days.  The picture is of a 3 1/2 pound smallmouth he caught.  All hooks have to be barbless.

I stopped by a green willow top this morning on the way to the primary bitespot.  Only one small bass came out and hit the clown colored spook I offered.  Four or five gar volunteered so I moved on.  The bass were in same the general area as yesterday but had moved a few yards.  I found them after a few minutes and the game was on again. Today they were biting earlier than yesterday and didn’t seem to be as intent on getting the bait in their mouth. I had more today to come unbuttoned quickly and also lost more on the jump. Here is a photo of what was happening.

You can see the fish is not hooked in the mouth. They were just hitting at the bait and those good Rapala hooks were snagging the fish. When I first got there, I had two on one cast and got them to the boat before one escaped. In another instance, I had a 2 1/2 pounder coming to the boat and a 5 pounder was trying to take the bait out of his mouth. I was pulling for the 5 pounder to take it too.  Today was a tough one on my DT – 6s as I had a fish hooked and on the way to the boat when the line went slack. The diving bill had broken off on the DT – 6.

Later on the way back I hooked a silver carp and it made a searing run and the line popped even though the drag was set rather light. Lost DT – 6 #2 . After the bill breaking episode I put on a “found” DT – 6 in a crayfish color. Darrell emailed me after it was pictured on the Bitespot and said he lost it and just wanted me to catch some fish on it. He can rest easy because I did today.  I barely caught a fish after 8:30 this morning although I fished the same place three times. The second and third time they just were not hungry, hence the title to this post. Caught 31 total today with a FOD of 4 – 12 and two others over 3 pounds.

Due to an appointment with the dermatologist this morning, I didn’t get to the lake until 8:30.  I caught 3 with a DT – 6 at the first place I stopped but they were small and not concentrated.  The next place where I thought I would really hit pay dirt was a zero so I started moving down the bank prospecting.  After about 200 yards I caught one, then another, and the game was on.  For a while it was a bite every cast. In getting out the net with a fish on, I absentmindedly kept my thumb on the spool. The 3 pounder made a power dive and the line snapped. Bye bye DT – 6.  They were biting so well I kept the landing net out, something I rarely ever do.  Getting stuck with crankbait hooks twice lately probably had something to do with that decision.  After I put on the new bait, three in a row threw the hook. One even made the bait skip across the water like a flat rock. The hooks were sharp but I changed baits again anyway. I also changed rods to use one with flurocarbon line. The casts were long and the P Line Premium has a good bit of stretch that may have been affecting the hookups.The fish continued to bite and seemed to be moving around. Most of the smaller ones were 2 to 2 1/2 pounds.  All of a sudden the bite just stopped.  A worm couldn’t get a bite.  I left and went to another spot where  I caught 3 one of which was 5 – 3.  Coming back by the hotspot I caught 2 more.  33 bass was the final number with 8 over 3, two of those were over 5 with 5 – 8 taking the FOD honors. I was back at the ramp at 12:30.  I was so busy no photos were taken. A great day.

Richard hosted me at Beaverdam again today and this is a photo from the back of the boat.

We fished with Ribbits, Paca Craws, and  Shad-Os on top of and through the duckweed.   The best spot where we circled and caught 11, had the duckweed flowing through and with it came the shad.  Here is a photo of the master with a fish that had some salad hanging off.

The last time I fished in BD we saw an otter in the same area where we caught the 11 fish.  I caught two there that had a spot where they had been bitten by something, I think the otter.  One just had the scales scraped off but the other had a serious wound.

Richard was a great chauffeur and guide. We caught 23 bass with the FOD at 4 – 4.

The “L” hole gets its name because it’s shaped like an L.  The other name, the 4 1/2 Pound Bass Hole, came from Hal catching a bass that size in it when we were in high school. I thought I could launch my boat but the launching spot was too shallow and I was scared to back out any further even though there was a convenient tree to hook the winch cable to. The situation had the feeling of me getting wet and muddy. When I pulled out the Jeep spun and almost didn’t pull out.

I started sizing up my options, either the chute or the Garhole.  Before I left I thought I would make a few casts from the bank with the Ribbit. After a couple of casts I caught one a little over 2 pounds. A few casts later a 5 – 7 crushed it. That sealed the deal. No picture because my phone/camera was back in my truck. I went back to the house, put the sneak boat in the back of the truck and returned. The first pass around yielded 12 bass most on the Ribbit. The size was  a better average than the Garhole, most being over 2 pounds. Here’s the view from the cockpit of the sneak boat.

The bass shown was one of the smaller ones. They slacked off of the Ribbit so I made a circle of the hole using a worm and added a few more to the total.  All around the hole there were crayfish castles so I thought the bass might hit something that looked and acted like a crayfish. I pulled out one of my “found” baits and made another circle, catching some more, one of which was over 3 pounds and most being in the 2 1/2 range. Here’s a picture of the bait I used and the castles.

The total for the day was 28 bass, 1 grinner, 1 bream, and 1 crappie.  The FOD was the second fish I caught at 5 – 7.

I went to the Garhole the  Friday before dove season started . A cold front had moved through and the wind was out of the North, not very good for fishing.  The fish were picky until it got late in the evening when the bite picked up a little. They would pick up a worm and just spit it out.  I managed to catch some on a fluke and a few on worms but not much to talk about. I ended up with 13 and the FOD was just over 2. The gators were out in force. There has been only one but now there are three, a big one, a medium and the same small one that has been hanging around for some while. As a matter of fact, I managed to hit the little one on the head with my boat hook pole. I’m trying to teach it to be scared of humans but it may be just too stupid to learn.

My  DT -10 I found yesterday has been rehooked and is back in the main box waiting for duty. It was lost on June 14 according to the Bitespot post that day. I was surprised that the eye on the back hook was almost rusted through after only 2 1/2 months of being submerged.  I don’t believe it will float either unless the water it soaked up dries out in the tackle box.