Got up the lake this morning a little later than intended. The wind was out of the Northeast at a pretty good clip, pushing me toward the place I expected to catch the fish. Not to worry, the trusty spot lock was on the job. I was worried about jinxing myself by catching one on the first cast and that was after I had already made the throw. Nothing, but on the second one one hit but didn’t get hooked. I still took that as a good omen. Soon they were biting and I was catching them. When I got hung up with the Yozuri, the bait I started with, going to get it I was shaking it gently trying to let it get itself loose, when all of a sudden a fish took it off for me and I released it quickly in thanks. They were scattered and traveling back and forth was necessary to keep in the fish. I lost two baits today, the Yozuri and a 3/4 oz ( yes that’s right ) redeye shad. The Yozuri to not retying and the redeye to tying a bad knot. It lasted for four fish and snapped on the fifth. When I started to get some hits and misses I put on a small 3 inch chigger craw on a shaky head with a big hook. It worked and I caught several until the school moved and I had to go back to the search mode. Speaking of the search mode, When I go to this spot I am always looking for the grabber that I lost when the fish flopped and got away with it. There was an orange spot back it the trees just about the right size and I thought that just might be it. The water was falling fast enough that you could tell it was going down. Wading and walking in the mud did not appeal to me so when I got as close as I could, I put the spy glasses on it. It was a willow leaf that fell from a tree that the beavers had girdled and was dying. Many of the leaves had turned orange. I’m still looking. At 1:00 it was time to quit and I did. The total was 52 bass with a FOD of 3 1/4. There were some more in that weight range and a lot of 2-13’s because they fooled me all day.

Hal had an interesting trip the other day. He fished the Tallahatchie River below the Sardis dam. He said the fish were mostly related to logs that were attached to the bank. Fishing in the current is a different deal. When you caught a fish, by the time you got the hooks out you were down the river. He did not have his boat with the spot lock but he will next time. He caught the fish on a DT-4, a whopper plopper and plastic. Every fish he caught was a spotted bass. They almost look like a smallmouth somewhat.