Monday afternoon I went to the house on the river to take my hunting “stuff'” and prepare for fishing Tuesday. After taking a Bud ride to look at my boat, I returned to the house. My wife likes the old oriole nests that usually fall out of the trees this time of year during spells of freezing rain. There have been none of those this year. The orioles like to build their nests in the trees along the river so I set out to collect some. I took a .22 bolt action with open sights to do the job. The first one was in front of the house. I pulled up in the jeep and took aim to shoot the small limb, about the size of a pencil. On the first shot the  limb parted and the nest came down. I couldn’t believe it. There was another close by so I tried it. Again to my surprise it hit the ground on the third shot this time. Getting a little cocky, I pulled up to another and shot 15 times and it did not budge. By then it was getting really dark and I couldn’t see my sights, at least that’s my excuse. The birds use strands of towboat rope and other things to weave their nests which are a work of art.

The next morning the water temp was 48 degrees at 8:00 when I started. A shaky head got the call and finally caught one weighing 4-0 that was 13 feet deep.

During the day the bite was light. Not the electrifying tap we like to get. The bait would just stop. As the day went on the water heated up to 55 degrees and the bite heated up a little too. In one spot I lost a jig and then was fishing with a DT-10. There came a terrible backlash and the wind started blowing. As I was trying to get the tangle out the DT-10 somehow went deep and hung on a log. I wound up backlash and all but still could not save my DT-10. After it broke off, I had to cut out the backlash. I pulled out some new line and re-spooled which meant splicing the backing and the new lines together with a blood knot, all the while being blown into a treetop. Not a happy 30 minutes but I kept my cool and started anew. Shortly there after A 4-14 turned up on a parrot colored DT-10. The water had warmed and the fish had moved up to feed. I ended up with 8 with 2@ 3-2 , a 4-0, a 4-14 and of course a 2-14 for a top five weighing 18 pounds. Not too shoddy. I quit at 2:30.

My father is the first person that gave me that advice and it was apropos on Friday. When I reached the city front, there was only one other person fishing, they had just launched and were preparing to leave to fish. Wednesday I caught most of my fish in one small spot and  was planning on returning to it. When I arrived, the boat that launched before me was sitting dead on the spot.  I continued down the bank for a quarter mile in hopes of picking up a fish or two until he left. As I passed by he caught one and said it was his first. After I had passed he caught another. He was fishing with a worm or jig of some sort. I didn’t see him catch any more but he was stuck on that spot. And stuck he was, staying there from 9:00 to 3:30. I’m sure he caught more but did not load the boat.He had caught some there before. I was fishing with a DT-10 and an XD5 and had no takers. I also tried a shaky head but the wind was about 15 and hitting me directly making worm fishing difficult. I left and went for some wind protected areas but the fish were not wanting to chase a crankbait, even if it was moving slow. The gars would however. I hooked a gar that looked half as long as my boat. When it come up I could see the line in its teeth and about that time the line parted and it swam off with my bait. I held the boat in that spot until another bait could be put on hoping the XD5 would surface, but no luck. I returned to fishing down the bank, forgetting about finding the bait. In about 5 minutes I looked down and there it was. Best thing that happened all day. I had put all my eggs in one basket but I let someone beat me to it.

I was looking at the radar today while in physical therapy and saw what looked like a break in the rain that might last until dark. I also saw on the river forecast that it had changed to a stand today and Thursday and up a foot Friday. Friday was going to be my fishing day but it looked like I needed to go today. After lunch I hit the water and around 12:45 my DT-10 hit the water on the first cast. It didn’t take too many casts before the first fish came to the boat, and two more in quick succession. My thinking was oh boy I’m getting ready to tear them up here but that didn’t materialize. Then it started to rain and the rainsuit came out. So much for my forecast. No more fish in that spot so I started down the bank. There was a good spot Mickey and I found that was marked by a snag on the bank. It was a large treetop that was in pretty deep water when we found it but was really deep now. The DT-10 would just touch it locating it for me. I threw a worm up and down it with no results. The DT-10 got a second chance and a large crappie bit right under the boat. It was invited home for dinner and was poached with Hollandaise and capers. YUM. Continuing down the bank there were no takers but the rain continued on and off. Finally the worm enticed a deep fish to bite but it was the only one in that spot.  It was also the first fish caught on some new line on my spinning reel. It is made by Ardent and is called Gliss. It is as limp as the 17# Nanofil, is a very small diameter that casts a mile, and is not a braid. It has no stretch and is 40# test just right for my frog rod. Mickey and I had found a spot where we caught a couple on the first trip but caught a lot on the second one. In that one spot I caught two dozen and probably could have caught more but it was beginning to get dark. I quit with 28, three of which were over 3 and the largest was 3 1/2 . Then I made my break for the ramp. The river was at 26 feet and the water temperature was 55 degrees. With the water up 7 feet since Mickey and I went last and two months had gone by, I had to use the GPS on the depthfinder to find some of the spots. They were not marked with a waypoint but I could see where the boat had gone in November. The good spots were where the line was all “squiggley”. We had circled and circled those spots and you could see them well.

This morning in the fog Tom, his brother, Rusty, his son in law Joseph and I went to Monticello. The lake was as calm as it could get, and the water was clear and 49 degrees. I fished with Tom and we fished hard but to almost no avail. Each boat caught one fish, the largest one about 3 pounds. By the end of the day the water was 56 degrees. No way to sugarcoat it we got spanked.

The private hole is a couple of feet lower than the last time I fished there as evidenced by the boat sitting far up on the bank, high and dry.

After launching the boat, I fished right around the launch. The ramp down to the launch has washed over the years and has a small shallow flat before it drops to deeper water. I started there, first with a DT-6 and then with a shaky head with a trick worm attached. The shaky head did the trick and rather quickly the first bass of 2017 came into the boat, a fat 3 pounder. I was quite happy that things had happened so soon but you couldn’t tell it by the expression on my face. I look like an old sourpuss.

I continued fishing that spot but only one other small fish came into the boat. Next I went to my favorite spot in the private hole. The wind was howling all afternoon and had I been anyplace else except the private hole there would have been no way I could have fished. Leaves were picked up off of the floor of the woods and blown into the water making it hard to fish. The anchor was an indispensable item today. The wind blew so hard that a couple of times it blew the boat backwards even with the 30 pound thrust trolling motor on high. At the favorite spot I dropped the anchor and was using a 3/8 oz shaky head. The moving boat often gave the appearance that a fish had the bait and was moving off. Finally it appeared that the line was coming toward the boat, and I knew that was wrong, so I set the hook and came up with the 3 1/4 FOD. Once again only one more could be coaxed out of that spot. I had been fishing on the side that the wind was coming from and I was watching  the depth finder on the way across the hole. When I reached the side that the wind was blowing to, the screen lit up with fish and the water temperature had warmed from 47 to 51 degrees.

To take this photo I stopped the screen and by the time I finally got the snap the boat had been blown up on the bank. Five fish came from this spot with two more putting the scold on me by feeling me first before the hook could get set. The bites were very light and the wind made it even more difficult. I ended up with 9 with 4 three pounds or better. Even the water is down, the depth in the middle is still 27 feet deep. The little alligator was out and on post today too.

I have been in the woods seeing some deer but also thinking about fishing. I have not been able to do anything for the last few days but saw the opportunity to get to Lake Ferguson this afternoon. Started fishing a little after 2. The lake is about 6 feet lower than the last time I was on it. First I went to the extreme North end where the lake gets shallow. Sometimes at this time of year the shad congregate in the extreme end and the bass will be there too. No shad and no bass this time. Then I tried a 5XD on the steep bank in some known good spots with no results. Next I broke out a worm and started to catch some fish. The bite was very soft and it was deep. All of that made fishing slow and I did not have an excess of time. It’s funny that when I was hunting I was thinking about fishing but this afternoon I heard a squirrel barking and wished I was waiting on the deer that it was barking at. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I was still catching one every now and then but I had some other places to try so I left for once again greener pastures. Stopped at a couple of unproductive spots but finally came to the “number one bitin’ spot”where my daddy and I used to fish. It’s just a smooth sandy bank with a pretty good drop. There the 5XD came up with the 3 1/4 FOD and fish number 8. It’s still a good spot and it did me good to catch one there.It was kind of like catching that fish was in memory of my dear old daddy. It felt good.

I couldn’t decide how to title this post so I just used both ideas that I had. Both were appropriate.Mickey and I went after Church today and arrived at the fishing spot at 1:45. The water was at 18.2 feet on the Greenville gauge. We caught two pretty quickly at the first spot, one on a DT-10 and one on a worm. Then a gar snipped Mickey’s DT-10 and luckily it floated up but was right in the good part of the spot so we said we would wait until it floated away until we would go get it. We fished and got distracted and then could not find the bait. We fished on down the bank  having given up on finding the floating bait. Then there it was and it was recovered. It’s amazing how far it went in just a moderate wind. I think the super moon must have put some kind of tide in the lake. The fish were definitely not feeding very aggressively. One at the first spot followed the DT-10 almost to the boat before deciding to eat it. Mickey threw his worm over an underwater tree top and he could feel it over a limb. He pulled the bait up and bumped it on the limb 3 or 4 times before a bass finally bit. It was a beautiful day and as usual we had a lot of laughs and solved a lot of problems. We did not catch many fish so today we were fishing as opposed to Friday when we were catching. We caught 7 with a FOD of 3-10 and one other at 3 1/4 that was worth mentioning. The last super moon, when the moon was this close to earth, was in 1948 when I was 2 years old. The next one will be in 2038 and while it’s possible I will be around to see it, I’m not betting on it. Here are some photos of this one.

Mickey and I started fishing at 7:45 this morning and by  8:26 we had 27 fish. The bite was hot and heavy right off the bat with us catching one almost every cast. A gar snipped off my DT-10 after I had caught a couple of fish. The bait floated up but it was right in the bitespot and I couldn’t go and get it without messing things up so I pulled out the rod with a DT-6 on it. The DT-6 caught a few but I was falling behind holding up my end of the string. Finally I got the 10 back and started catching again. Some fish were caught on a worm but that was later in the day. Some of our spots from Sunday afternoon were empty but we found some new ones that were hot. For instance we caught 17 in one spot that we only caught a couple in Sunday. The size was good today but only one 5-0. Others were 3-0, 3-2, 3-8(2), 3-12(4), 3-14(2), and 4-0(2). We only had 7 small ones that would have averaged 3/4 pound each. The 66 others would have averaged 2 1/2 pounds each.  We caught 85 bass in all that would have weighed 213 pounds. Best 5 would have weighed 20 3/4. No pictures today because the action was too fast. It was Mickey’s turn today to break a rod. It broke after he lifted a fish into the boat just as I did Sunday. I had a new one that replaced the one I broke last Sunday afternoon. It did fine and was better than the one it replaced. Today was a good day to break it in.  Another new item made its debut today. It was a pair of  6 1/2 inch aluminum pliers in a scabbard that Hal sent me. It was a good day to have them and needless to say they got used a lot. We fished until late but most of the catching was before noon. Another great day of fishing but I will have to say I’m pretty worn out and ready to put my head on a pillow.

Today Mickey and I went to early church and then headed for Lake Ferguson around 11:00. The water level was 18.4 on the Greenville gauge. We immediately went to the scene of our last trip that was so successful. Since I was out of DT-10’s, I put on a Poe’s crankbait that I found some years back. It was in pretty good shape when I found it but it had small hooks so I replaced them with large ones. We started off where the fish have been the last two times and again they were there. Most of the first ones were caught on a worm and weighed 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 pounds. After we caught around a dozen there, we headed off down the bank with the crankbaits and that’s when the ones over 5 pounds started showing up. Mickey was using a DT-10 and I had on the found Poe’s. Both were working.  I noticed a small, almost unnoticeable point and mentioned that we ought to try it. The FOD came from it at 6-0, along with several others.  By now the size had picked up some. As we went down the bank we would hang up every now and then on some underwater treetops. As I “jiggled” my bait trying to get it free all of a sudden it pulled back. I set the hook and a nice bass had unhooked it for me. I was nice too. I unhooked it and threw it back. That happened twice to me today. Early the bass were relatively close to the bank, but as the afternoon went on we caught more from the underwater tops. We caught 6 or more off of one particular top. Needless to say I marked it on my GPS. We took a few photos but it would take too much time to take photos of all the good ones. Here are a few:

The largest fish weights were 6-0, 5-12, 5-10, 5-10, 5-0, 4-4, 3-12, 3-8, 3-6, 4@3-0 . We had 20 others that would have conservatively weighed 2 1/2 each. We weighed some when we first started trying to get over 3 but most were 2-13.  We had 3 small bass that together would have weighed 1 1/2. The heaviest 5 fish weighed 28 pounds. There were 36 bass in all. If you add all the weights up it came to 106 pounds of bass. I have had days catching over 100 fish but the quality was not there as it was today. Hal and I back in antiquity caught 27 that weighed 87 pounds that was about the best up until now. Today was not without mishap. In bringing aboard a fish and trying not to let it hit the bottom of the boat too hard, I broke a rod. First one I can remember breaking but there are others at the Basspro just waiting for me to come and get.  Mickey fished with the same DT-10 almost all day,  hung it up and got it back several times. He said “I hate to say, but I’ve been fishing with this bait all day and have been getting it back”. Was not too long before it was gone.   I’m 70 years old and to think I can still have my best fishing trip ever gives me optimism that there may be more good ones to come. All that laughing we did today had to be good for our souls. I’m just glad I was not chasing a white ball on some golf course. WHAT A DAY ! !

Mickey and I went to Ferguson (19.9 feet) this afternoon with a wind that was forecast at 11 MPH out of the NNE. When we launched it was more than that I think. We went straight to the 70 spot, where after a trip up and down it, we caught 8, mostly on a DT-10. That spot was out of the worst of the wind. The next place we went was not but had fish to be caught. Here are two examples:

 

One was 4.91 pounds and the other was 5.22. A DT-10 was the bait of choice. Most of the fish were of good size including several between 2 3/4 and 3 1/2 .  We left the windy spot and went back to the 70 spot where I hooked what I thought was a monster. When I came into sight I saw it was a silver carp hooked in the mouth. I wanted my bait back but I also wanted to weigh it because we were guessing that it weighed 25 pounds. It wouldn’t behave when it came close to the boat so Mickey administered a little sedative. They can’t stand too much of that cut off hoe handle. The fish weighed 13.7. We didn’t believe it and got out the other scale but 13.7 it was. When we looked at the fish it was naturally thin and skinny looking. After the 70 spot we went back to the windy spot where I lost my third DT-10 of the day. I hooked a bass that jumped and on the way to the boat got tangled with or hooked up with a silver carp that panicked and broke off my DT-10 right at the boat. The second one was lost to a gar that was hooked and had the line wrapped around its snout. When I administered the sedative the line broke and the fish swam off, with a headache I hope. The other DT-10 was lost on a hang up. When I let the lure retriever down the chains hooked on something that I thought were the lures hooks but when I put a strong pull the line broke and that was that. We caught 20 bass, the largest five were 20 pounds. A splendid day, even with the DT’s lost.