I have a report that Fred Abide went to his beloved Lake Lee and caught 5, one of which weighed 6 pounds. No word of the others as they were already cleaned. He is pictured here with the fish. It was caught on a HM-6 as he calls it, actually a DT-6.  How about the paint job on that boat?  Do you think we’ll ever get anywhere with Freddy on catch and release?

Another report came in from John Eddleman who caught 5 large bass Saturday morning, 3 on one log. He caught his on a Mr. Money Strike King spinnerbait in his favorite secret spot.

Hal went to Enid one day last week and caught 40 on an all day trip.  Did not catch any over 2 3/4. He caught them on a variety of baits, spinnerbaits, swim jigs, small crankbaits, even topwaters.  He is going for a return bout Monday and told me in an e-mail he has 9, yes nine, rods rigged and ready to go. I figure he had 6 rods last week, so with 9 he should catch 60 fish. He might do it.

Lake Guntersville had changed by the time I returned last Thursday.  The vegetation is breaking up on top but there is still plenty under the water. This fish hit the Ribbit frog and descended into the vegetation. Only about 1/10 of what it came out of the water with is still hanging on in the picture.

Thursday afternoon was good with 11 bass, the FOD being a 4-6. They were really blasting the Ribbit.  Friday was a different story as I only caught 7 with a 4 pounder taking the FOD honors.  A lot of hits and complete misses (airballs) as the day wore on Friday.  I left early.  You can see in the picture it is a scenic spot to fish.

Got my doe out of the way Saturday so I could go fishing today. The dragons (mosquitoes) were out in any shady place making life miserable for anything with blood. I caught 6 bass on a limetruse Booyah spinnerbait and also a 5 1/4 pound “grinner” and about a 4 pound catfish. Bass FOD was 3 pounds 7 ounces. All the bass were fat and in good shape. Some of the bass caught with Mark the other day had eggs present when they were cleaned.

When you’ve seen Mark Fratesi use a jig pole you have seen the Master at work. He may have been setting the hook when this picture was taken. We caught both bass and crappie, often Mark catching crappie on one side of the boat and me catching bass on the other.  He could bass fish too.  I managed to catch some good bass , with this 5 1/4 and another 5 3/4 later on. We caught most of the bass on a lipless crank bait, sort of like a rattle trap. His was a Yozuri and mine was one I found hung up after the water went down. The actual count on the bass was 29, 45 on the  crappie and I think 14 bream. After releasing 14 bass here is how the ice chest looked. See that one on top? I had it for supper and it was delicious.  A great day of fishing.

Was dead as a doornail.  Fished from 12:30 to 4:30 and only caught 6.  The hydroblasters I don’t think were catching anything either because I saw some just riding and looking at their depthfinders.   Some were pulled up together just talking. A lot of hydroblasters today due to an upcoming tournament this weekend.  When I got to the landing I had to put on my shades because there was so much shiny metalflake.  Large tournaments are not good for the lake when the water is this low.

Mickey and I fished the Chute Saturday because there was a big tournament on Ferguson. We caught 12 with three over three pounds. The FOD was a 4 3/4 pound gaspergou.  Most were caught on a Booyah spinnerbait but some on a worm and a swimbait.  They were in shallow water where shad were congregated. Two had a black spot in their mouth along their teeth (see first photo). They must have been kin. The second photo is of Mickey with one over three.

The first neat thing I saw this morning was a Merlin (pigeon hawk) make a pass at the pigeons sitting on the casino. He missed and was right in tune with the bass. They were missing too to start off.  I finally managed to catch 17 . Lost 2  DT-6s in the process, one to a hang up and one to a foul hooked silver carp.  Caught fish in 7 different spots. FOD pictured here was 5 1/4.

I just received an e-mail from Hal describing another case of the DT-6 catching anything close by.  He made a cast this afternoon and a great blue heron happened to be flying by. The DT-6 wrapped around his neck and the hooks stuck in the skin of the drumstick.  The GBH was brought to the boat without too much trouble on 10 pound test line.  At the boat the trouble started.  Hal said the first thing he grabbed was the neck so he would not get speared.  Before he could get the hook out there was an excrement explosion from the GBH that went all over the boat and I think some on Hal too.  When released the GBH flew to the dam cursing Hal with every wingbeat. When he got there he started fishing again, no worse for the wear.  The DT-6 strikes again.

Mickey and I had a hard days work on Lake Ferguson Saturday.  We started at one of our good spots but did not tear them up as we expected.  After moving around we finally put together a sort of pattern. We ended up catching 19 bass but I didn’t hold up my end of the deal unless I could count the stripes.  I did add the 3 1/2 pound FOD. Most of the bass were caught on a DT-6, of course, except a few Mickey enticed to hit a chrome crazy shad.  First picture is of Mickey with a bass and a pretty DT-6. The second is more proof that a DT-6 catches them if they even come close.

Mickey and I ventured out on Lake Ferguson this afternoon at 5. We managed to catch, 13 most on a DT-6, with the FOD weighing 4 1/4 pounds. The FOD had a 6 pound head and a long skinny body. That is strange to me because there are so many shad in the lake and the fish should be fat.  Contrast the body of the fish today in the first picture, with the body of one caught in Guntersville last week. Contrast it also with the one Mickey caught in the Catfish Chute last weekend.