Mickey and I took off for Pickwick “fo day” Monday morning. We finally got there after getting lost a couple of times irregardless of the GPS which is old and probably should have been deposited in the lake. We checked in at Coleman State Park and hit the lake shortly after 1 p.m. . Appreciation goes out to Terry for letting us use his Corps of Engineers river maps of the area with notations of good places to fish. We headed to State Line Island because there was a lot of grass there and Ribbit fishing should be good .  There was grass but the Ribbit bites were halfhearted, and although we caught a couple, nothing was really going on. There was a duck blind close by  that was marked on the maps so we went over to try that. It was on a hump with a good drop off.  One fish there and as we were trying to decide our next move we saw some fish busting shad across the way. Over there we went and started throwing everything in the box at them trying to figure out what the wanted. The best thing we came up with was a small topwater Mickey found at the BPS on a bargain table.  Here is a photo at the end of the first afternoon.

You can see the topwater maestro in action.  We caught 18 the first afternoon.

Day Two:  The second day the wind was blowing straight down the river making a ride down to State Line hazardous so we trailered the boat down to Yellow Creek to launch. It also was close to State Line, and after going the wrong way to start, we ventured across the river to the island.  It was way to rough to even think about fishing so we came back across to yellow creek.  It was relatively calm there. The banks were straight down rock, 30 feet deep a boat length off of the bank. We started down the bank with different baits until a smallmouth came up and smashed Mickey’s buzz bait. We caught a few more mostly smallmouths but they were few and far between. The fish the day before had been in shallow water with grass so we went looking for some. We found some and were fishing down the bank when again we spotted bass chasing shad in the shallow end of the pocket. It was game on with the topwaters. We chased those fish around the very shallow water until late. We were trying for 50 but we ended with 48. Some of the fish were smallies which were evident by a vicious strike and acrobatics when hooked.

Day Three:

It was raining lightly when the alarm clock rang. At the Yellow Creek landing we put on out rain gear and cast off knowing we were going to get wet. First we rode to State line Island and fished the grass without much luck. The waves were too much for the fish where we caught them Monday so we made a break back to our good cove. We stopped in a vacant boat house for a dry lunch and saw no fish chasing the shad. As we pulled out of the boat house the fish were chasing shad between the boathouse and the bank. The topwaters came out but the fish ignored them or just made a halfhearted pass at the bait.  Mickey pulled out a worm and they started to cooperate. The fish were in schools but scattered up and down the bank so we went up and down the bank catching a few from each. It was getting late in the afternoon and it had been raining the whole time at varying intensities. The automatic bilge pump had come on 6 times.  I was wet from head to toe. Mickey was only wet around his ankles. We never were cold but wet is not good. We quit at 3 p.m. with a total of 41 fish.  We caught the FOTrip Monday that weighed about 3 pounds. The rest were smaller than that but every one of them put a good pull on our lines. After the fishing around here this summer it was a great trip even considering the bad weather. I’m in the process of ordering a new wet suit just like Mickeys.