In the middle of having the worst fishing year in some time, I decided to try something new to maybe shake me out of the slump. This new bait arrangement might help perhaps.

I saw these in the store and they caught my eye so why not catch the fish’s eye also. The Eagle Claw’s weedless hook was an important addition as it turned out. The Garhole was low and had not been visited recently as seen by the lack of tracks on the landing. There was a reason for that as I would find out later. The water was beautiful with about 2 foot visibility and 83 degree temperature. On the third cast at the first treetop there was a bite but it was a gar and on the next one a gar follow up. Finally a bass grabbed it and was caught, small however. The weedless hook allowed a throw into the middle of a top without getting hung. It worked a lot better than I thought it would. The bait worked well when fish were present but the only ones I could find were deep in the tops and were small. I fished deep too with it and extensively around the 5 pound log where the depth is around 16 feet. Deepest water I could find was 23.5 feet. I even fished in the middle with a jerk bait but no bass only a magnum gar about 5 feet long. When it got close enough to the boat it got the paddle treatment and gave my bait back. Only 3 fish for the day not including a 3 pound catfish with the bubblegum worm. The Garhole seems to have gone bad just like Lake Ferguson but no tournaments on the Garhole.