We will rejoice and be glad in it are the words from from a hymn that were most appropriate for Saturday at the private hole. Mickey and I started fishing around 7.  It was cool for this time of year and the humidity was much lower than normal. A wonderful day to be fishing even though you could hear the shotguns popping at the doves on the first day of the season. Three species of doves have been coming to our bird feeder, Eurasian Collared Doves, Whitewing Doves and our regular Mourning Doves. After feeding them and enjoying having them around, I’m not so mad at them anymore.

We started with topwater baits. When casting to a downed tree, Mickey went an inch or two too far and the rear hook of his crazy shad became stuck on a small limb. He tried to shake it off even as we trolled over to  free it. At the last minute the bait became free and popped two feet into the air and immediately as it hit the water a two pounder blasted it right next to the boat. It was better than coffee for waking you up. It was quickly evident that the topwaters were not going to get the job done so we had to change. First to a DT-6 and then to a worm. In one spot we caught a few small bass on a worm and then a 3 to 4 foot alligator appeared from out of the middle of a large ironwood bush. He was interested in the splashing that the fish made when they fought. After a while, Mickey caught a Goo on a worm and had it hooked deep. It did not survive the ordeal and floated. When we saw that, Mickey picked it up and threw it over to the gator. The fish still had a bit of life in it and the first time it twitched, the gator scarfed it up and headed back under the bush to dine. As the morning progressed the bite picked up and things became a bit more heated. By now the bait was a DT-6 or 10 or even a 5XD. The wind had positioned the fish in one spot, where although scattered in all depths, they were relatively concentrated. They were cooperative and willing to bite pretty much all day. The fish that would have been the FOD (between 4 and 5) made a big clean acrobatic jump and threw the worm, so we had to settle for a 3-5 for the FOD. We caught 68 and ended up with 34 fish each. Truly a wonderful day fishing.

Tuesday morning Richard and I started fishing at Beaver Dam at 7 o’clock. We started off with booyah spinnerbaits going down the bank. After a short while we switched to a white and chartreuse swim jig. We caught a few here and there butt they were not concentrated in any one spot. One interesting thing we saw was an osprey circling and complaining about something that we could not see. After moving down the bank a little more we saw what the complaint was about. A full grown white head white tail eagle was sitting in the top of one of the large cypress trees. The osprey buzzed the eagle a few times and each time the eagle would bow up on the limb and fend the Osprey off. Finally the Osprey gave up on chasing the eagle away and left. As we continued down the bank the eagle was comfortable and did not move from his perch but peered over the limb and looked straight down at us in the boat. When we were directly under him he did not fly. Had he pooped it would have struck us amidships. When you get that close you can really tell what a massive bird a grown Eagle is. I truly need experience . After a short break for lunch we crossed to the west side of the lake and Richard switched to a baby Paca craw with a light weight. We reached a small Grove of trees where it was shady and relatively cool. Throwing through each opening there were numerous bass in that spot and Richard was catching most of them on the Paca craw. I was getting bites and catching a few on the swim jig, enough to keep me from changing baits. I really enjoyed fishing with the swim jig but hard headedness is not a good trait to have fishing. We reached another small hammock of trees and the fish were the same as the first, wanted the same bait as the first, and the results were the same as the first. We ended up with 30 fish. The FOD was 4 1/2 pounds and we had two more in the three and one half pound range. We also caught 2 grinners ,1 5 pounds and 1 4 1/2. I dictated this on my phone for the first time. We will see how it turns out.

Even with the water rising, the stench of dead carp all over the lake and not having been on the lake for quite some time, I insisted that Mickey and I go there instead of a nice landlocked chute close by. I was convinced that Lake Whittington was on the comeback just like Ferguson. The lake looked good where we started but everywhere you threw there was a gar. The high point of the day was when we found a small rivulet running over a dam. There was a small alligator on post waiting for a meal. We caught one fish on the other side on a worm but the splashing just aroused the gators interest. When Mickey’s spinner bait came by he struck at it just as a bass would. The second time it came by the gator struck at it and had it in its mouth. It was one of those “Uh Oh, now what do we do ” moments. Luckily the bait came loose and all was well. The gator learned its lesson and never hit at the bait again. We only caught two bass. I felt pretty bad about wasting a good day by being hard headed, that could have been good fishing. At least we didn’t get rained on.

In the past Wolf Lake has been great so even though I had a poor day there last year I had to go back and see if there was any improvement. There was more of the same, lots of gar. Also there were lots of minnows that looked like what my daddy called “potgut minnows”. I don’t see why a bass there would hit a artificial bait there were so many minnows. I was expecting a bad trip based on last year and when I reached the landing there were other bad signs. There was a lot of grass in the parking lot indicating not much traffic and there were no plastic bait remnants in the gravel indicating not many bass fishermen. I caught only one fish from 7 until 10 and had several other halfhearted bites. Most of the bites were when the bait landed right on the fish. I guess that’s called a reaction bite but the reactions were small. Not going back anytime soon. High points of the day were a three foot alligator that just came cruising by the boat and an osprey.

The private hole is full of bass and even though they are for the most part small, I thought it would be a great place to go Sunday afternoon.  I have not fished there in some time and the water had dropped so the back end of the boat had three feet before it hit the water. I found some old boards to keep it from digging into the mud and launching was accomplished rather easily.  My fishing idea for the afternoon was to start off with a DT-6 and if that did not work go deeper with a 5-XD. For the first few minutes I had trouble getting a bite. There is an underwater point that is usually productive but nothing today. As I trolled across the hole I looked under the front deck and pulled this out. It’s not exactly what you want to find in your fishing boat when you are out in the middle of the hole.

It’s a snake shed. There was no snake seen or heard so things were fine unless something changed. When I arrived at the spot a 3-14 loaded on the very first cast with the DT-6. At first I couldn’t figure out whether the fish were coming out of the large tree top or they were ranging out in the open water. Casting close to the top I got hung with the DT-6. I was just “jiggling” the bait trying to get it free when trolling over to it. Then the line just started to move out to the side. A nice tight eye saw the bait wiggling and unsnagged it for me. When this spot slowed I cruised over to another where a 4-7 ate the DT-6. The last time in the private hole a Whopper Plopper was the ticket so about 5:30 I put one on. The first volunteer was a 2-13 that hit about 10 feet from the boat, scared the daylights out of me, and had the whole bait in its mouth. The bite heated up toward dark, not only the fish but the mosquitoes. I figured if I quit around 7:00 I would be able to get everything loaded before the mosquitoes carried me away. I quit a little after 7:00 with a total of 33 fish, a lot were small but there were enough decent ones to make it all worthwhile, especially since a good many were caught on top water.

Jackson and I went to Lake Chicot at 6:30 this morning with the idea of catching some fish on top water baits. He had a spook and I had a Whopper Plopper. On about the 5th cast just as the WP hit the water a fish hit it. It must have been the fight or flight reaction. It instilled a bit of optimism, but I should know better by now. For the next 150 yards down the shoreline there was no hint of a fish. We decided to cross the lake and on the way Jackson spied some schooling fish. I don’t know how he saw those fish that far off. When we arrived at the spot, sure enough, we started catching fish. A Red Eye shad was our bait of choice. We caught some but the school soon cooled off. The spot we stopped was a new one but was close to a known community hole. We tried the community hole after we finished with the new spot but nothing doing. The same was true at another favorite spot . We vacated that spot for the squirrel log where again nothing was going on except the heat. The bridge on the dam was a big zero too. We then established a cut off time of 10:30 unless there was a big change in the fish’s attitude. To spend the time until the cut off, we went to the first place  we visited and caught a couple more fish. I hung my Red Eye on something solid that was on the bottom. Although it could be reached with the rod, it refused to come off. Jackson’s “gitter stick” was not having any luck retrieving it either. Aggressively pushing on the bait with the stick broke the line. When the stick came out to the water the Red Eye was on it hanging by one hook. I gingerly eased the bait into the boat and saved it. That was the second saving for that bait as I pulled up a piece of line on Enid and it was attached. I was glad to get it back. We ended up with 13 fish at 10:30, none large.

The weather was hot but the fish were not to start on Ferguson this afternoon. The water temperature was 96 degrees  when Mickey and I started at 5:30. We tried some places on the South end that usually give up a fish or two but nothing this afternoon. Nothing doing South so we headed North. We stopped at the “number one bitin’ spot” and caught the first bass of the day and a goo. We continued North, stopped at several places but no bites. At about 7:00 we stopped in front of Mark’s house and caught one that was close to the bank. The bait was a deep diving crank bait. Continuing down that bank it became obvious that as the light level was dropping, the fish moved up closer to the bank. Between 7:00 and 8:30 we caught 8 bass for a total of 9, the largest being around 2 – 13. I caught one about a pound and a half that was as fat as any fish that size I have ever seen. I believe the fish was getting ready to spawn. I guess a few are spawning all the time.

Mickey and I went to Atchafalaya Bayou near Silver City this morning after early church. We started fishing around 11:00 and it was hot. We tried some baits from top to medium depth but quickly we ended up on the bottom, Mickey with a brush hog and me with a Hart jig. Bites were scarce but when we did get one it was pick it up and immediately put it down. Both of us had a bite around a stump but neither was able to hook the fish. Then I noticed a hand size shad jumping to get out of a fish’s way. We backed up some so we could reach the spot. This place has more wood under the water than any place I fish except Lake Monticello. Mickey was working his brush hog through an underwater top, shaking it off of one limb at a time. Then one of the limbs started to move sideways. He set the hook and immediately called for the net. He was right because this is what came out:

When the scales finally calmed down they said 7 lb – 3 oz. We fished down that bank a little more until when Mickey was reeling in his bait to make another cast a fish hit it on the way to the boat. He set the hook and caught our last fish of the day, a 2 pounder. It was so hot we had to pull over into a shady spot a couple of times to hydrate and cool off. Later on around 5:00 we heard thunder that was getting closer so we beat it to the landing and got loaded just before the rain. One of the neat things we saw today was the cliff swallow nests under the HWY 49 bridge. They make nests out of mud under the edge of the bridge that are shaped like a jug. Completely enclosed except for one round hole for a doorway. They appear to have had a good nesting season because there was a swarm of them.

Fishing today started at 7:00 and it started using a Booyah. Then the “nips” started. The bass would hit the Booyah and somehow would not get hooked. Of the first 6 “nips” only 2 fish came in the boat. What I need is more hooks I thought so since the water was shallow I put on a “found” 200 Bandit. On about the third cast one hit and I was feeling smart until a catfish emerged. Never could get another bite on the Bandit. The wind was out of the Southeast and was making the bank I was fishing pretty rough. I had hoped it would be calm early so I could use a Whopper Plopper topwater but nothing doing there. I went across the lake and it was rough there too. Another “found” bait came into play. It was a 1/4 oz. Red Eye Shad that I found on Enid Monday. It had some new sharp red Gamakatsu hooks. Every time I put my hand on the lure the hooks would get stuck in the fingerless gloves I wear for sun protection. The Red Eye did its job as it started catching fish right off the bat. No “nips” with it. The fish were in small schools and moving around a good bit. When they seemed to leave I threw a worm under the nearest dock and caught a couple more. The fish were just ranging so it was no telling where to throw except “everywhere”. At 11:30 it was hot and some showers were coming close so it was time to leave.  The total was 17 bass with two FOD’s of 3 pounds each. One that same size escaped on the jump. When I left the lake the wind had shifted and the spot where I started was smooth as glass. I’ll catch it right one morning.

This morning Hal and I went to Enid, starting at 6:30. Either Enid or Moon Lake was a good place to meet and we chose Enid. There were not many people on the lake and soon we saw why. The bass were hard to find. We tried deep and shallow but not much was going on. I lost four, three on the jump and one big fish hit the Booyah on a shallow top and immediately headed into the top. Soon  the bait came flying out with no fish. Hal was a crappie master by catching 6 on a DT-6, of which 5 were caught in one place. The best things that happened today were; 1. When I made a cast with a DT-10 and the line broke, we found the bait. 2. Hal found a square bill crankbait and I found a 1/4 ounce red eye shad both with good hooks . 3. When speeding on the way to the lake this morning a patrolman just flashed his blue lights at me as a warning. We ended up with 12 fish; 4 bass, 7 crappie and a catfish. On Enid the crappie have to be 12 inches long to keep. We could have kept one of the 7.