I went fishing by myself for the first time since before turkey season. Lake Ferguson was the destination because it was close and had a good launching ramp. I had to be careful since all of my balance has not returned although it is improving. My trusty cane went in the boat along with my rods and tackle bag. Launching was by way of the “old fart method”. That is where you tie a rope to the boat and to the trailer and just back in until the boat floats off of the trailer and then pull the trailer up and let the rope pull the boat to the bank. Loading was the way it is always done. Fishing started at 3:30 at the “number one bitin’ spot”. I had run the depthfinder down the bank before I reached it and saw some fish down deep. When I caught nothing at no. 1, I fished down the bank to the South. On one side of a small washout a 3 1/2 hit the DT-10 and was hooked on one of the back hooks. On the other side of the washout a 3 bit again hooked on only one of the back hooks.  When I caught nothing else, I left for some of the places Mickey and I tried Sunday.The first two were a bust but one in the upper lake  produced some stripes. I really didn’t want to fool with the stripes but sometimes black bass will be mixed in with them. Sure enough the FOD showed up at 3 3/4 plus one more. Back I went to the point in front of Mark’s house where I caught 2 more in the 2-13 size. On the way in I thought I’d try the no. 1 again. Two more came from there for a total of 8 bass. Best 5 = 15 3/4 . Today I was able to catch 2 in each spot vs 1 Sunday. Each time I have been on Ferguson I have seen a lot of raccoons walking the banks of Archer Island. I also noticed in some sandy spots where turtles dug their nests to lay their eggs that the raccoons had dug the nests up and the bank was littered with egg shells. If they are getting the turtle nests no telling what they are doing to the turkey nests. A good day with a blow being struck for independence.

Sunday afternoon Mickey and I went to Ferguson for the third time lately. Our results have been good, bad, and in the middle. Sunday we started South and worked to the North. We caught 12 fish on 7 different spots, most caught with a DT-10. Something is just not quite right to catch more than 1 or 2 in a spot and I can’t tell you what needs to change to make that happen. The silver carp are terrible as we snagged one at the first spot and snagged another at the next to last spot. When you snag one you just want to get your bait back. We have found if you can get the fish to the top of the water you can use your boat hook/lure retriever to catch the hooks on your lure and pull them out of the fish thus saving your bait. The only thing those carp are good for is to make sure the drag on your reel is set correctly. The FOD was 3-6 and most of the fish were in the 1 3/4 to 2 – 13 range.

Mickey and I went to Ferguson Wednesday afternoon after 5 p.m. We went to the same places as on Sunday afternoon when we caught 18. No one home, at least, not many home. Couldn’t even get a bite in some of the places we thought were best.  DT – 10’s again but after a gar got my line in its teeth and relieved me of my DT – 10, I would not put on my last one so I put on a found Poe’s with larger hooks. It did catch a few. One in particular just stopped the bait and tried to snatch the rod out of my hands. We only caught 5 but we thought we knew where they were.

Mickey was nice enough to take me fishing on Lake Ferguson on Sunday afternoon. It is the first time for me on Lake Ferguson in a long time. The lake was at 26.4 feet on the Greenville gauge and falling slightly. The first two places we stopped were unproductive but we caught the first fish at “bitin’ spot number one” on a DT-10. It was an appropriate spot for Fathers Day because that was one of my fathers favorite places to fish.  When we moved down the bank we came to a spot where it is easy to hang up so I was fishing the       DT-10  slowly. I felt what I thought was a hang up and pulled no more but it pulled back so I set the hook and this 5 – 5 was there.

We caught a few more in that spot and when it gave out we moved further down the lake. The 70 spot was next and before long a 2 -13 volunteered. It seems to be a favorite size for that spot. We moved to the chute mouth and caught a few more but when that slowed we went to the steep bank with our DT-10’s and caught some there too. We left there and went to the upper lake where we caught a few stripes just a little larger than our DT-10’s. That was no fun so we went back to the chute mouth. Some of the fish were biting so lightly you really did not know to set the hook. Mickey thought he had one but couldn’t feel the fish so he quit reeling. About a 4 pounder made an 18″ slack line jump and threw the hook. There were a lot of hang ups today because of all the small willows that came up the last two years when the water was lower. I thought I was on one of the willows so I quit reeling and the willow pulled back but when I set the hook it pulled one more time and was gone. The fish there were scattered and might be anywhere. As the afternoon was almost over we went South again and tried a new spot where we finally figured the boat had been sitting over the fish. We moved out and caught a few more. Before we left I spied a 200 Bandit hanging on a bush. We had lost a DT-10 apiece so it was nice to get a little back. The ending tally was 18 bass.The largest 5 weighed 21 – 5. A great afternoon.

Hal and I went fishing at the private hole Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. It is the first time I have fished there since the River came in in January. The high water changed some things. In one cove where there used to be an old log, there are three new trees standing up in 20 feet of water. A sycamore, a pecan and an elm. They are standing up now but I expect them to fall over once the water falls.I just saw one piece of the old log that was old when I fished up there during high school. Here is a photo of the new trees.

You might notice on the end of the rod in the photo a Whopper Plopper topwater bait. More on that later. I am recovering from a back operation and this was a big treat for me. Since I’m not supposed to lift over 10 pounds, Hal had to do all the carrying. We started out not knowing what the game was so I put on an old standby a DT-6. Hal had on a swim fluke jr. The private hole is loaded with small bass that loved the fluke. They would hit the DT-6 but I didn’t catch a one on it because they were too small to get it in their mouths. As we came to the south end of the hole we saw some nervous shad out in the middle. I threw the DT-6 and Hal threw a Whopper Plopper into them. One came up and blasted the WP but nothing hit the DT-6. Here is the one that hit the WP.

We could get no other volunteers. We were close to a shallow flat and since the recent luck with the WP I pulled mine out. We caught a few there but most were small. Hal had a small bass on next to the boat and a three pounder came up and tried to eat it. I put my bait in the water but the bass would not hit it. We went to another shallow area and the WP was the bait to use. The strikes from the larger bass were violent, real KAWhooshes, as Jackson would say. Sunday afternoon we caught 58 with a 3 1/2 and a 3 1/4 a few other decent fish and a bunch of little ones. On Monday morning we started off with the WP since all of the big ones had been caught on it the day before. Again it caught the bigger fish although it would also catch a fish 1 1/2 times its length. We caught 45 Monday with two fish at 3 pounds even. A great two fishing trips, a lot of little ones, and never a dull moment

Jackson’s niece’s son Jack with his first bass. He seems quite pleased, as he should be. The fish was caught in Lake Enterprise in a lot of boat traffic. When he comes back down I think I know what he will want to do.

Daylight Thursday , once again, saw  Jackson and me at the landing at Lake Monticello.  When we started, there were fish schooling and chasing shad. After a few casts one gobbled my topwater bait, deep into its mouth, as if it really wanted it. Optimism reigned at that point. A short time later Jackson hooked a good fish on a square billed crankbait, a Strike King KVD 2.5 I believe. The fish eventually jumped and unfortunately threw the hook. It was in the 4 to 5 pound range and would have been the FOD. When we arrived at a shallow pond levee we had a little more action with a Booyah but, by now it was obvious the bite was diminishing. We tried other places where fish have been caught in the past but for a long time had no luck. When the wind stopped and the water became glassy smooth, we saw some activity out in the middle of one of the coves in water 20+ feet deep. The fish were small but one a little larger finally hit the topwater and on the second try the back hook connected. Then we tried some other coves where the water would be slick. Sure enough, we came upon one where the fish came up and were a little larger. Some came up within casting range and we had a double on about 3 pounds each but only one made it to the boat. Again optimism reigned but most of the other ones were too small to get the bait. I had on a Strike King King Shad which is a large bait with good hooks and looks just like a large shad. I believe the fish were coming to the top and then going right back down to the bottom after hitting the shad. My bait would run about 6 feet deep but I never was able to catch anything blind casting. A rain sneaked up on us, no lightning, and started to come down pretty hard so we made a dash for the landing. On the way we ran out of the rain but as we put the boat on the trailer it caught us again. We waited it out in the truck and launched again as the rain quit. We went to a new cove with another pond and they were there too. A few volunteered on top but most were small. It was getting late and had been a long day so we quit after catching 11 with a FOD ~= 3 pounds. Again we let too many that were hooked throw the bait and escape.

Jackson and I were at the Monticello landing again Friday at daylight. As we were putting the boat in we talked to a guy who said he had seen some fish schooling the day before. That ratcheted up our expectations. As we eased out through the snag infested waters we soon saw schooling activity.  Expectations rose yet higher. It took a few casts to catch one but they were striped bass. We were going to a spot in the same general area anyway so we trolled over. There we caught a largemouth pretty quickly. Then I hung another that came up and gave a spectacular jump 18 inches high and shook its head so violently that it snapped my line. The fish was 2 1/2 pounds in my estimation. As I was rigging up another Booyah, I heard a fish jump and also the tinkle of my spinner blades. Before I completed rigging up the fish jumped again still trying to lose the bait impaled in its jaw. A good lesson in the need to retie your line before you start another day of fishing. Jackson then got into the act and had one to snap his line too. I think we caught one more in that spot but all were small. This was out in the open water around a submerged pond. We tried the pads with a Ribbit but could not get even a small bass to bite. I tried a swimbait in a little deeper water but only lost the two that bit. Finally in the edge of the pads Jackson got the FOD to bite his spinnerbait. It weighed 3 – 15. We tried and tried but just could not get it figured out. We ended up with 5 bass that came in the boat and even more that we lost. In years past, this time of year the bass have been in the pads but not now. I noticed none of the small insects that get on the pads so maybe there are no bream in the pads, thus no bass. Maybe that’s the reason for the bass not being there. A theory in progress.

At daybreak Monday morning Jackson and I were at the Lake Monticello landing. Needless to say we were the only people there because of a 100% rain forecast. We hoped to get in a few hours before the heavens opened and gave us the eventual rain that we knew was coming. It was already raining lightly but the radar on our phones showed that it would soon be past and there would be a break before the next line of rain came along. There was no lightning so we donned our rain gear, launched, and started fishing. It quickly became obvious that the fish were not really hot for our Ribbit frogs. A few half hearted strikes quickly showed that. Jackson put on a club tailed swimbait with a light weight that really looked like a fish swimming through the lily pads. Quickly a bass thought it was indeed a fish and bit with gusto. We then came upon one of Jackson’s favorite spots, a beaver house. We fished around it with the frog and swimbait but when Jackson threw a spinnerbait and pulled it over a stick this came out and inhaled it.

     

No, that is not the same fish but the one on the right was the exact same size 5 – 5, but was caught later. Never count out a beaver house. There is something about them that draw bass like a magnet.  We continued to fish the pads with Ribbits , swimbaits and spinnerbaits. You almost had to fish a Ribbit like a worm when you got a bite to make sure the fish had swallowed it enough to hook it.  As we were trolling from one pad spot to another, Jackson caught the fish on the right on the swimbait.  We had made it until lunch with no appreciable amount of rain but the skies were getting heavier. I fished while I ate. I would take a bite of my sandwich and chew while I was reeling. I caught 4 on my one sandwich. The bite always picks up just before the storm and that was what was happening. Before the rain arrived, we made a break for the landing thinking we had made a good decision, but just as we arrived all hell broke loose. A pelting rain and a howling wind caught us as we tied up the boat and made a break for the truck. We ended up with 13 and two co-FODs of 5 – 5.

With all the rain some friends are really finding arrowheads. With the land having been rowed up in the fall, the rain washes the dirt off of the arrowheads and leaves them on top of the ground. As you can see by the picture they are finding all sizes. These are some of the better ones, but they had a plastic box full from just three days of looking, or should I say finding.

This is what I’ve been up to.

So far I’ve only missed three days of the season and have been having regular conversations with them.

An interesting thing happened at the hunting club. A member was dealing with a gobbler that was out to his left and he had his head turned in that direction. He had a turkey fan lying on his right side, maybe because he did not have an opportunity to stick it out due to the close proximity to the turkey. He caught a close movement to his right  and saw a coyote coming over the fan with it’s mouth open heading right for his neck. He was able to throw up his arm to protect himself. The arm went into the coyotes mouth and ended up with some bite marks that drew blood. The surprised coyote broke off the attack and got away without getting shot. The member went to the hospital to see if he needed a rabies shot and I do not know the outcome of that.