Bad day from the start. Launched the boat, parked the truck and when I to down to the boat, it had drifted off the bank. Some joker had left the ramp wide open and made waves that washed the boat off the bank.  It was getting farther away,  so instead of just getting one foot wet,  I made a jump. My foot got there but slipped and I ended up on my behind in the water. Bad start, or rather, stupid start.

This was my first time on Ferguson in a while but I had my spots all planned out.  Trouble was, not many fish in my spots. I caught 8 and lost 8 on the jump. Looked at the hooks on the DT-6. They were sharp but the front one had been changed out and had really small barbs. Maybe they had been mashed down somehow. I changed the treble but lost another fish soon after.  Maybe the fish were just slapping the bait and not really trying to eat it.  I kept 6 of the 8.  Some will go to seviche and the others will go to the broiler. If this batch of seviche turns out as good as the last, I’ll post the recipe here.

Went to Wolf again today and again had a great day. I was afraid all my spots were worn out so I went on Google maps and looked at the whole lake to try to find some places where ditches drain into the lake to make points either visible above the surface or invisible under the surface.  A few spots showed some promise. Out of 7 or 8 new spots, 2 were great and one was good. The one pictured here was one of the great ones. It is simply a ditch coming out of the bank and has a delta that is underwater and sticks out into the lake. You have to look hard to see it when you’re just riding down the lake. Probably 35 came from this spot. I sat out in the lake a good distance and threw in with long casts. A DT-10 caught most from this spot.

One of the most dependable spots had nothing this morning but 6 or 7 good bass this afternoon.  A spot Hal and I caught a pile of fish on last week yielded only one fish today.  It’s difficult to determine exactly what is going on.

I did manage to catch 90  fish today.  Of those, a lot more were dinks than usual but probably a little over half were respectable. Five fish were over 3, with the FOD at 3-13.

The day started out slowly for Hal and me at Wolf Lake today. We went to the place where I caught 34 on Monday and just caught a couple.  We worked down the lake, hitting good spot after good spot but the fish were not cooperating.  We had visited most of the good spots from the last week or so  and only had caught 21, some of those small. I had looked at a spot Monday on the depthfinder and decided to try it.  It was a fish every cast on a DT-6. We caught all we could on the DT-6s until we just started getting bumps. Then we pulled out the worms and it was every cast again. We caught over 40 in that spot. Then I thought of a similar place where I’ve caught a few but never many. We pulled up there and it was every cast again with a DT-6 . Then we worked them over with a worm. When that gave out, we thought the bite was on so we went to some of the places we had tried during the morning. Not much going on there, although we caught a few.  So back we went to the first good spot where we caught some more, but not as many as the first time. All we were catching were not giants but most were decent fish. Hal caught the 3 3/4 FOD.  We had 5 over 3 and I managed to lose on the jump what would have been the FOD over 4.  When we got back to the landing and counted up we had caught 135 bass. We also caught  white bass, crappie, catfish , gar, and a goo. A heck of a day. We were so busy catching fish, we did not take too many pictures.

That is what my scales seemed to be stuck on today at Wolf Lake. It seemed each time I had one close to 3 and I weighed to make sure 2 – 13 came up on the scales. I finally borke through, and like when a dam breaks, the 3s and a few 4s came gushing.  81 bass total. What a day !! There were 15  3 or better and three  of those were over 4 with a FOD of 4 -6 pictured here I would say at least 50 or 60 of the fish today were between 1 1/2 and 4 pounds.  Most were good fish. There were not many dinks. The top 5 weighed 20-3. They were caught with a Zoom u-tail vibe speed worm in watermelon red, my favorite worm shown hereSome were caught with a DT-6 and a DT-10.  I caught 32 sitting in one place, probably 15 in another place and 15 in another. The rest were scattered.  I saw no fish chasing shad or any other signs that they were there. Here is another where I tried to take a picture of me and the fish and it just didn’t work.  The lake has gone down a foot and a quarter in the last week.  It will be good as long as it’s falling.  I’ve got to go back soon.

Hal and I went to Wolf Lake today.  Things started off slow in the morning but we were catching a few as we went along, mostly on a worm. The water temperature ranged from 86 t0 94 degrees.  The air was hot and the sun was unmerciful.  At about 3:00 it started to get cloudy and looked as if it could rain. That’s when the fish turned on.  The lake has gone down 18 inches since I was there last Thursday and the fish were on any small point. We would fish them first with a DT-6 or 10 and then follow up with a worm.  We ended up with 64 with a FOD of 4 – 0.  A good day after such a slow start. I was so busy trying to keep up with Hal, I forgot to take pictures. We also saw a pair of black bellied whistling ducks.

Mickey and I went to the Catfish Chute today to find the water running in from the rising river.  We started out at the dam but the bank walkers had already covered it, catching a few small bass on spinnerbaits. Mickey worked his magic with a crazy shad and got things started off. From there we fished with a worm around some springs that were bubbling up on the bank. He proceeded to give me a lesson  on worm fishing 12 to 5. He also added 2 grinners and I added 2 goo and a crappie, caught on a worm. I did have the FOD at 4 1/4 and 2 others over 3. I caught the FOD on a swimbait. All in all a good day except hot. He was doing this all day 

Wolf Lake ramps opened yesterday and I was there today. Water temp ranged between 83 and  89. Water level was 92.3 feet.  I had caught 30 even by 1:00, all but a few were between 2 and 4 pounds. The FOD was 4 – 1. As I was going to the ramp, I saw some schooling bass hitting shad on top. The DT-6 started working on them but they were mostly small fish. Caught 22 more in the last hour bringing the total to 52. A friend used to say, if a fish  had two eyeballs and an anus, you could count it. He used a little more desctiptive term however for anus. I’m trying to keep it clean. So today according to his scoring system, I caught 52. The good fish were mostly caught  on a worm with a couple on a Booyah, a swimbait and a DT-6. No pictures today, too busy taking them of the hook.

Bites, bites and more bites on the ribbit and Spro Bronze Eye frog is what Jackson and I got Saturday. We had a hard time converting those bites to fish in hand however. We caught 7 with the FOD at 4 -11. Most of the others were around the 2 pound mark. Caught one on a spinnerbait, one on a swimbait, but all others were on some type of frog. Sam Shackelford fished with us for a while in the afternoon. We all got bites but all missed them.  I believe Cane Creek will be a great place in the spring when the fish are really killing the frogs. Today they were hitting them just out of courtsey. It was Saturday,  and there were only one or two other boats of bass fishermen as opposed to Monticello or Ferguson that were crowded.  I do not know whether it is undiscovered or whether it’s the stumps.  I would hate to try to fish that place in a tournament style bass boat.  It’s hard enough in my shallow draft aluminum boat.

I had heard Wolf Lake was falling, so this morning I went there to fish.  When I got there, the launch ramps were closed. Now what?  The Old River Cutoff at Belzoni was not too far, so I went there. It was higher than normal and visibility was a foot or less.  I had left my ribbit rod at home and the first thing I saw was duckweed and a lot of aquatic vegetation flooded around the banks.  Perfect ribbit territory. Started out with a Booyah spinnerbait with Colorado blades. It took a long time to catch the first fish. They were extremely close to the cover.  The bite seemed to pick up around noon. Later on I got out my Rex spoon and fished it in the duckweed making it come across the top.  Was going to quit and caught one at the boat ramp so I fished a little farther down the bank and caught one more.  Six FODs in all, because they were all made in the same mold, 1 1/2 to 2 pounds. Jackson went to Cane Creek and caught 3 on frogs and Hal and Richard went to Beaverdam and caught 5 or so with a FOD of 4 1/2.  A picture of the Rex spoon.

Lake Ferguson is full of white bass, or stripes as I’ve always known them. Taff told me some places to locate them but I got into them before I reached his spots.  His spots were good too and every now and then a largemouth would be in the mix. Not expecting a largemouth my hooksets were wimpy and I was not ready for the jump. Excuses aside, I lost 5 small ones (thank goodness) on the jump today.  They all threw a DT-6.  I put 46 stripes in the box and was throwing the rest back. The only reason I would keep one later in the day was if it finned me, or if it pooped on me (they’re bad to do that you know). I would leave the stripes in search of largemouth and about noon found some, and the first one threw the hook on the jump (hooks replaced now). Caught 2 more on the DT-6 but could not get another bite. I thought I might try my Bass Magic swimbait to coax another to bite.  Working it slow and close to the bottom, letting it fall completely to the bottom occasionally got the FOD to bite. It was a strong 4 3/4 that pulled drag.  Ended up catching 7 largemouth.

When the lake is falling fast as it is now, don’t ever pass up a bare sandy or gravel bank or a concrete ramp. For some reason the bass will congregate on those type spots.  Usually it will be more than one too. Had a couple of these today.