Richard and Hal are back from a fishing trip to the marsh where the fish of the trip ( FOT) was the a 40 pound black drum shown here with Richard straining to hold him up. They also caught a box full of redfish and some trout, saved for the fillet knife. They had a good trip. Hope the oil doesn’t mess up the fishing there.

The turkey season is over and so is the whipping they were giving me. It’s almost a relief. A terrible season with not a turkey to my credit. Last year was stellar and this year was one of my worst in recent times. I guess that’s what makes averages. Now I’m ready to get on with fishing. The river lakes are out for a while because of the rise that’s coming but I’m sure I can find somewhere to fish.  The river is going to be in the Catfish chute in a day or two so it’s out but there’s always the Garhole and some others. I’m going to start in the morning somewhere.

Jackson and I went to the Ribbit lake today with North winds, a cold breeze, clear skies and almost a full moon. Not a great formula for catching a lot of Florida bass. To start the wind almost blew us off of the lake.  They were indeed biting as I had around 25 bites today, but they were not hitting like they really wanted to eat the Ribbit. Some just grabbed one of the frog’s legs and pulled it under, not coming anywhere  close to the hook. Most of the bites were soft but the FOD pictured here hit it with business on its mind.  We ended up with 8 and a FOD at 5 3/4. Some were caught on a swimbait, one of which hit it as hard as some of the Lake Ferguson bass hit a crankbait. It just tried to take my rod away from me. I’ve got to get more efficient on my bites.  Missed 3 on a swimbait and no telling how many on the Ribbit.

John Eddleman called while we were on the lake to tell that he had caught 17 this morning over a road in a river chute. He caught them on a parrot colored DT-6.

Mickey and I went to Catfish this morning to fish the Catfish Chute with weather forecasts of a 100% chance of rain.  Dumb. When we arrived, we signed in and went to the house to look at the Weather Channel to see what the radar looked like.  We did not even have to do that because the lightning was sparkling and the rain was pouring down. We fixed some coffee and sat on the porch and watched the rain and the lightning show. We decided to can the fishing trip and head home. Smart. When we got to Greenville, we went to the waterfront because we wanted to see if the tournament scheduled to be held there was canceled.  Greenville had received less rain than most places and the wharf was full of boat trailers and the tournament was going on. According to the weather radar, Catfish received around 4 inches of rain while Greenville received only an inch. Lucky.

I knew Wolf Lake was not going to be crystal clear but I was not prepared for what I saw. It was worse than the Muddy Mississippi. Nevertheless, I caught 3 bass in the first 15 minutes. The first one Note the bloody tail indicating a spawning fish. One of the first tied my big fish record for Wolf  of 4 – 15 Pictured here. I noticed many of the fish today had lesions on their sides. I have no idea what they are caused by. I used a Colorado bladed Booyah to start and after losing it to a tighteye, lost two more to small fish too. To catch the fish today you had to knock the bark off of the back side of the cypress trees. After dueling with the limbs and abrading my line it was easy for the small bass to break the line. I finally found a “found” spinnerbait with teardrop blades that made a good thump.  It made the rest of the day. I ended up with 19 bass and 2 crappie. The FOD was a new, for me, Wolf Lake record of 5 – 5. Wolf is lower than last year, a lot muddier and has no current to stack the fish in one place. It’s going to be a different lake to deal with. I will not be back for a while. It needs time to clear up.

Bass in the 6 pound range seem to be coming out of the woodwork these days for those that are fishing.  Not me. I’ve been chasing the turkeys to no avail but am planning to change that slightly. I think I’m going to Wolf Lake Friday to try my hand at something a little different from the woods. Hal and Richard have caught 3 over 6 pounds in the last few days. Richard has two, a 6 1/4 in Beaverdam and a 6 1/2 in Enid. Hal caught one today in Enid, a 6 3/4 pounder. All have had the bloody tail indicating the spawn is on. All were caught on a spinnerbait. Here are the pictures The last photo is of the mouth of the one Hal caught in Enid today. He said if she had eaten another shad that size she would have weighed 7. By looking at the picture of the whole fish you would think if she ate another shad she would have exploded.

Hal and Richard caught some bass the other day at Beaverdam. The first photo is of Richard with the 6 1/4 FOD. They caught 16 I think and the big ones had a bloody tail or bottom fins because they were spawning. You can see the bloody fin on the one Hal caught. The last photo is of a 2 3/4 pound crappie they caught last month.It’s nice to know someone has been fishing when I’m whiling my time away chasing turkey gobblers.

Jackson and I went to Lake Monticello today with an optimistic attitude, the full moon not withstanding. Water temp started at 56 and went to 62. Visibility was 6 feet in most places. We fished high and low but caught only one 3 -3 and we each had one to break off. The break offs were not large. I believe we had almost worn the line in two pulling the swimbaits over all the wood in that lake.  Most action was had on a 4 inch Net Bait green swimbait. We saw a few small bass in the shallows but nothing to get excited about.  A lot of other people were optimistic too as 40 boats were on the lake.  We saw or talked to no one, except for Hal catching any fish. We called him on the way home. He was on Enid and had caught 38, with one @ 4.  He caught 44 the other day and felt that number was within reach again. So much for the moon being full as our excuse for the bad showing.

I went to the Garhole Tuesdayafternoon after taking my daily whipping from the turkeys. I’d write about the turkeys but I would have to use too many expletives.  Want to keep it clean here. The water was super clear which always spells trouble. A chartreuse spinnerbait was still very visible on a 6 1/2 foot rod immersed almost to the reel. The water is also high and spread out to some other large areas with depths up to 8 feet. The backwater areas were not as clear as the Garhole proper. It took me a long time to get a bite, the first one and a fish coming on a Rapala Skitterwalk topwater. After a few more halfhearted strikes I changed to a Strike King Rage Eliminator, a tadpole looking plastic with a greasy action in the water. It can run shallow or deep depending on the retrieve speed.  I had a lot of strikes on it and missed a lot due to the small size of the fish. A big fish was not seen the whole day. The side scan depthfinder showed fish deeper than normal, with what I think were crappie at the 10 to 12 foot level. Normally they would be shallower thinking about spawning. This time of year I have had good catches of crappie in the Garhole on a chartreuse spinnerbait running it just out of sight.  I could not identify any bass on the sidescan but I’d bet the larger ones are deeper and may spawn there due to the clarity of the water. There was a good spawn last year, evidenced by the large numbers of small bass. Another factor adding to the difficulties was there was stringy algae on everything under the water. If a bait ran over a log, it came back with a wad of slime on it. I hope there will be an algae bloom to decrease the clarity somewhat so things will get better.  If the water lever falls this summer and all those fish get concentrated fishing in the Garhole will get hot.

The Catfish Chute got another visit Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. .  I thought it was going to be my last fishing trip for a good many days. The fish started out nailing the Booyah spinnerbait, shallow, just like the last trip. Between 4 and dark (6:30), I caught 13 with a FOD of 4 – 5. There were three more over 3 pounds.  The turkeys did not cooperate all day Saturday or Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon it was windy and cloudy, not a very good turkey day, so after a short nap it was back to the Chute. Between 1:30 and dark (7:30 due to time change) I caught 20 bass and 2 crappie. The bass were caught again on the Booyah but when I would get a bite and miss, a swim jig would be my followup bait. It worked well. The FOD was again 4 – 5 and I had another 4 and two more over 3. The river is forecast to come up 17 feet which will put it in the Chute again. It has been flushed out several times already this year and it seems to have helped the fishing.

Jackson and I went to Lake Monticello this morning with great optimism and drove home this evening in disgust.  We started off by the beaver house and I immediately hooked one about 4 pounds on a swimbait.  It ended up jumping and getting off right at the boat.  Could have called “long handled net” but did not. Later Jackson hooked something that pulled drag like a redfish then pulled the hooks loose.  Later in the evening I had three airballs on a Rage Eliminator, two from the same small fish. We fished with many different baits but none worked. I’m glad turkey season is starting Saturday.