This photo was in the Leland Progress. It was taken probably in the early 70’s. Shown from left to right are Sandy Ingram, Tim Fenasci, Gus Pieralisi, Bill Taggart and Harley Metcalfe III. The subject of the article was Sandy Ingram, bass fisherman par excellence.

Sunday afternoon, after putting a good simonization on the Skinny Lawyer, Mickey called to tell me where to go on Whittington to catch some fish. What a friend! He and, I believe his brother in law, caught 15 Saturday and He and Skinny Lawyer caught 9 or 10, I think, Sunday afternoon. I went this morning and caught 15 on a DT-6 and a worm. The best I had was 2 1/2 (several) but Mickey had a couple of 4’s. Also there were 7 stripes one of which was 2 1/2 on the scales and another 2, a gaspergou (on a worm), a carp hooked in the dorsal fin and a 25 pound rough fish of some sort foul hooked ( got him up to see him and the hook pulled out thank goodness). That DT-6 hooks them if they even come close. No fish worth taking pictures of but the sunrise was magnificent.

As I went for a late afternoon ride along the river at Catfish Point, I discovered this cave in.  The Old Man River was showing his strength and probably some of the results of this years flood.  Thirty minutes later the whole road was gone and more was falling in by the minute. No telling how big the cave in is by now. I’ll update next time I go.

Caught my limit of 2 today at Lake Grampus with Thomas.  They were caught on a ribbit .  A small one that bit close to the boat was hooksetted over the boat and to the end of the line before he began his descent. A good laugh. The photos are both of the same fish but the second is holding it a lot closer to the camera.

Lake Ferguson was dead this morning. Thomas Haynes Whitney and I went straight to the best place I had in mind and nothing was doing. We checked out some bar tops but all except one were too deep and there were no fish on that one. We went all over the lake and finally came back to the good spot and caught a bass and a white bass. It appeared things were picking up but so was our appetite so we headed in. Total-2 small bass, 1 white bass, and a gar. A lot of hydroblasters (big fast expensive bass boats) out today from all around the state obviously preparing for a tourny this weekend. They were doing a lot of moving indicating to me they were having the same poor luck we were.

I understand another light Simonization has taken place on Beaverdam. This one being just a touch up wax job 11 to 8.  Once again Richard was running the buffer and Hal took the shine. Simonization,  I bet you can’t find that one in the dictionary.

Tuesday I ventured to Wolf Lake although the solunar table “Best Day” rating was only a 31 and the moon, although not full, was bright. It indeed turned out to be a bluebird day with no clouds. Cool front came through Sunday. All these things were bad for fishing. A few were caught early on a Booyah and worms but the real drought came in midmorning. At high noon a DT-6 started to work on a deep dropoff that started about 6 feet deep. How can a small bass hit a bait so hard? The one in the picture hanging from the DT-6 hit as hard as one ever has. It almost made the reel handle back up and worked on my wrist pretty hard. It only weighed 1 pound 14 ounces. It got weighed because I was so impressed with the ferocity of its strike. The solunar tables were about right as I only caught 18 which is not too good on that lake this time of year. Size was running about normal with a little more than half being in that 1 1/4 to 2 1/2 pound range . The FOD (fish of the day) was 2 pounds 14 ounces pictured in the water with the bait in his mouth.  River lakes should start to get good .

I read a post on the MDWFP fishing forum saying that the MDWFP lease for the ramp ran out in February and the owner has no interest in renewing it. The ramp is not posted as of now. Someday you may drive down there to put in and find the ramp posted. Trash is the reason for the owner, who is said to be a good guy, not wanting to renew. Recently the ramp at HWY 149 to Wolf Lake was closed also. Again, trash was the culprit. I put in at the free ramp on Wolf Lake and a lot of trash was around. Garbage cans were full and plenty on the ground. A few bad apples can ruin the whole barrel.

Mickey and I went to Lake Atchafalaya Saturday morning and got there early. The first 7 were caught on topwaters, both a chrome crazy shad, clown spook and a buzz bait. Then the Rapala DT-6 took over and the wax job began. A parrot colored DT-6 (pictured) was the bait of the day. By the time the day was over we had caught 15 bass and a catfish and bought two Shimano Curado 100Ds (being discontinued) over the phone. We found them at the Co-op. The wax job, Mickey 11 and me 4, was fair and square. No seine involved. I just could not get my ducks in a row. Fish of the day was a 4 1/4 that Mickey caught (pictured). We both lost two nice fish on the jump as did another fisherman who said he lost 4 that way.

Jackson and I went to Lakes Grampus and Wallace on Thursday the 10th. On Lake Grampus we caught two on a Ribbit frog and one on a grub. There was gin clear water, moss everywhere and it looked as if the Creature From the Black Lagoon was going to appear any minute. When the topwater bite subsided we went to Lake Wallace. There we caught two on a Booyah spinnerbait and one on a worm. Both are beautiful places and I felt that the fish were present but the bite was not on. The picture is in Grampus.