Revisited the chute Saturday and hooked a “grinner” on the first cast. Got it to the boat before my spinnerbait broke in half. After putting on another, I caught a bass and then caught, this time, another “grinner” 4 1/2 pounds. The Booyah was mangled, almost beyond repair and it took about 10 minutes of intense work with two pairs of pliers to get it to run almost right. “Grinners” and spinnerbaits are a bad combination, especially for the spinnerbait, but in my case from now on, for the “grinner” too. When I had him with the grabber, I tried to give him a needle nose pliers headache. I ended up catching 11 bass, a “grinner”and a crappie with the FOD (bass) at 3 Pounds. Five bass under 14 inches and the crappie were kept as the ones I kept the other day were delicious. Recipe in another post. The bass were caught mostly on a worm. Speaking of which, I tried the new worm and found it spirals . First one way, then the other. It did not seem to twist the line but the time I fished with it was not long. To get the bass to bite the worm you had to shake it at them. Was able to take a picture or two because of the lack of mosquitoes.

This afternoon I cranked up my casting lab to make a new type of worm. The idea came from Richard and Hal who wanted a relatively short worm with a big flapping tail to fish under the duckweed. A small tube was the head, a Zoom finesse worm was the body and a Zoom speed worm tail was the flapper. Poured a plaster of Paris mold, made a couple of prototypes and headed to the lake front for a test. No flapping motion, so back to the drawing board. Looked in the BPS online catalog at the worms with the flapping tails and theirs appeared larger than mine, so I carved on my mold to make the tail larger. Prototypes made and back to the lake. Perfect. When you just reel it in it makes your rod tip vibrate. I had enough plastic saved to make 8 and a piece. Field test begins tomorrow at the Catfish Chute.

Wednesday afternoon I sneaked off to the Catfish Chute and got started about 4 P.M.  It was still hot and when I was not in the shade the perspiration was pouring off. Caught two right off the bat in one spot and then could not buy a fish. Had some bites and hooked a few but could not catch one even with a trailer hook on my Booyah spinnerbait.  Finally, exasperated, I returned to the place I caught the first ones and again, they hit the Booyah but would not stick. They liked the Zoom U tail vibe worm that I showed them next.  The fish were biting faster than the microscopic mosquitoes, almost on every cast. Ended up with 18, the largest of which was 2 1/2. While I was fishing there I heard a trickle. There were springs coming out of the bank. No wonder the fish were there.  They quit biting a little before dark and I was almost glad because the mosquito onslaught had intensified. No pictures today. To busy slapping mosquitoes.

Mack and I are shown in another picture, vintage early to mid 1970s, from the treasure trove. This string of fish was from BarLake in Lake Whittington and was caught under one green ash tree with a Cordell Big O, chartreuse and black. From thence on that color was known as a “Bar Lake Special”. Catch and release was unknown in the 1970s.

Mickey has a treasure trove of old photos from the 1970s. One below has written on the back “5/9/73, Harley and I with 9 bass at 26# – caught by the “Cowpen” on a Red Fin ( chrome)”. The other is Mickey and Harley at a wedding in Chattanooga and according to Carol, ” Talking about the “big one” no matter where you are”. She was right.Pretty distinguished looking guys.

I broke my rule today about fishing public water on the weekend and with good results. Mickey and I caught 22, many on the same place as the other day, but a lot on bare sandy banks. The sandy banks were good especially early before the sun got too bright. The fish were not piled up, one here and one there. Mickey caught the FOD 3 1/4. Most were on a DT-6, but some on a DT-10 and a worm. Lake is going to rise for a while. The water is beautiful and clear and the fish have a wonderful color to them too. Had to take a picture of one even though small. Mickey caught 5 more when he went back. They had moved deeper and he caught them on a DT-10.

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I caught 22 bass and 2 gaspergou this morning on Ferguson.  Thank goodness I didn’t even see a flying carp. Caught most of the bass on a DT-6 and a few on a worm. All the bass were caught in the same spot, 20 at one sitting and 2 when I came back. Got a couple of bites in other places but no fish in the boat. Only one small fish. Most were in that 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pound range. When they quit they pretty much quit.  None on my spots from yesterday afternoon. Google maps has a good map of Ferguson that shows it at low water. I looked at it last night and saw the spot where I caught the fish today.

In Lake Ferguson this afternoon the silver carp were thick. There were school upon school of the blasted things. I caught 2 with a DT-6 on 8 pound test. One was foul hooked in the tail and one in the dorsal fin.  I got the one in the tail on my boathook like a gaff the other pulled out right at the boat. Had two more on and it’s no telling how many the bait ran over.  It felt just like running over a log with the crankbait.  I guess I should be thankful they didn’t just jump in the boat like they did yesterday. Caught three  bass an three stripes too.

The Ferguson bass have a pretty color.

Daughter Gayden Bishop and I went to the river today to look for fossils and rocks.  Found mostly sand as the river is still too high.  As we were pulling into the sandbar an Asian silver carp jumped in the boat, hit the floor just behind the casting deck and commenced to flop. I thought she was going to jump out.

It took the whole road but has slowed its advance. It is still subject to caving – note the crack in the road.