Jackson had me over to fish Enterprise Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Friday afternoon there was not too much going on but we were fishing for the skillet so we tried a little harder. First we went to an area that was shallow and was solid duckweed, a perfect Ribbit spot. We had some halfhearted bites there but there were no real takers. There was another spot where you could get inside the outside cypress trees and fish in an open area next to the bank where grass and weeds were in the water. Jackson was able to coax a couple to hit a devil horse and if they got even close those hooks stuck and held. We had to leave early because we didn’t want supper to be too late. As we were leaving a tighteye finally hit my Booyah. We had four for the afternoon.

Saturday morning we ran down the lake to an undisclosed spot where the shad were spawning on the duckweed out in the middle of the lake. The bass were there too and soon started to show themselves. A pop R, a Ribbit, and a discount table popper that Mickey gave me were the best baits. Here is Jackson with the 3 – 6 FOD.

You can see the duckweed in the middle of the lake. As we were taking this photo he had his rod across the boat with his bait dangling in the water.  “One just hit at my bait right there ” he said as one made a pass at his dangling bait.

The fish bit during the major period and then slowed down considerably, but even when they bit many of them would miss the whole bait. We ended up with 9 bass. We fished out of Jackson’s new boat. It’s an 18 foot aluminum with high sides, a wide bottom and is powered by a 70 Yamaha four stroke. It has a 24 volt Minkota trolling motor. I like everything about the boat and is very comfortable to fish out of.

I caught a fish on the first cast, a stripe, and another on the third cast, a 5 – 2 FOD, all on a new rod and reel that I have caught nothing on for the last three trips. What did I catch them on ? A DT-6 of course. After that opening I thought I was going to wear them out but the bite slowed quickly. Figuring they might be a little deeper, a DT-10 was used but with no luck. A few more volunteered but only a few so I went looking. I headed to the south end fished a little but mostly ran my depthfinder. With the lake falling 8 feet in the next few days some spots down there will get good. In one place down there, the Ed King spot, the towboats have pushed all the trees down  so the place is almost unrecognizable. I found it and plan to fish it if the water does not fall out before I can go again. Enough time had passed for my first place to rejuvenate so I headed for it. Someone was already there. I should have stayed. He had caught a few but was not fishing the “mother lode”. The spot is not big enough for two so I just fished close by. Finally I left and rode to check out some more spots on the North end of the lake. It was getting late so I left to go in and as I passed the good spot it was empty. I stopped in and was able to catch some on a shaky head worm. The DT-6 had been lost to an ironwood bush that  my “gitter” couldn’t even rescue it from. I put on a 3 XD instead. They are a good substitute for the DT-6 and may run a tad deeper.  A  4 – 1 bit on the first cast. A couple more were caught on a shaky head. The total was 12 bass, two stripes and two goo that bit the shaky head. The gnats were terrible. If you go be sure to take some Buggins Natural to keep them at bay.

After reading all about the shad spawn, Jackson and I tried to catch it on Lake Monticello. It happens on the first full moon in May. I got in on the end of it once on Monticello and it was wild. The bass were hitting at everything but missing most things because I arrived late at the lake just as it was ending. It starts right at daylight and ends when the sun comes up. We saw some shad spawning at Lake Chicot on Friday so we thought is was beginning. We arrived early, primed for action. There was no shad spawn. The best laid plans of mice and men go awry.  There was a minor period just after daylight. We caught a few and had some bites, all on frogs, but we tried a lot of other baits. After an hour or so the bite tailed off to that Florida bass sulk of nothing. We saw many swarms of fry, most with a male bass protecting  them. We were able to catch only one of the protectors. It was maddening as the male protectors would be hitting the bream or anything else bothering the fry but would totally ignore our offerings. They would hit 4 or 5 times with us dropping our bait on their heads but getting ignored completely. We ended up with 4 with the FOD at 3 1/2.

Jackson and I went to Chicot after seeing all the weeds poking up after the low water last summer. We chose a perfect bulebird day to go with no clouds and a North wind. Only a few nips. We figured out what we had done and quit very early. Getting better at that.

Jackson and I went to Monticello early knowing the major feeding period would not be until around 4:00 in the afternoon. Around 8:00 we must have caught a part of a minor because we caught a few fish. Jackson had a small Lake Fork swimbait with a club tail that he made first contact with but did not catch the fish. I had something close so I put on a BPS shad-o and caught  the first fish. The shad-o was just too slow fishing for me so I was quick to go back to a Ribbit . After catching a fish on the Ribbit it was mostly Ribbits for the rest of the day. Today was one of the most pleasant days on Lake Monticello weather wise, almost no wind, almost unheard of conditions. We did better on the bites than I did last time I was over there. We caught most of them. Most of the fish we caught were between 3 and 4 pounds, the same size we have been catching in the lily pads. The FOD was right on schedule, it bit at 4:00 and weighed 7 pounds even. I will tell you a 7 pounder on a Ribbit frog will get your excitement level up a notch or two.

We ended up with 14 and had what amounted to a fun day.

This is an email I received from Hal today after a trip to the new lake he just became a member of. How about the water clarity? Makes Monticello look like a mudhole.

Fished from 9 to 5:30 today had 30 total.  Had a 7.75#, 6.5#, 5.5#, 5.25#, 4.25#, 4#, 3# & 4 from 2 to 2.75, plus 19 small.  All big fish were on 4.5″  swimbait with 1/8 weighted hook.  Lost 3 good fish to snags.  Most fish were in stick ups from 4 to 12 feet.  Water clarity was at least 8 feet.  One  other boat showed up about 1.  Road was ok for two wheel drive. A good day

One of my rules is to never go fishing on the weekend in a popular public lake. I broke that rule Saturday by going to Lake Monticello. It was forecast to rain and also the opening day of Arkansas turkey season so I surmised the crowd might be lighter than normal. Indeed it was. Starting out early I went to one of my favorite places to fish a Ribbit and only had two “rushes”. A “rush” is where the fish does not strike but follows the bait making a surface wake behind the bait. Usually, about 8 of every 10 times, if you stop the retrieve and just let the bait slowly sink watching your line, you will see your line twitch and start to move off when the fish picks up the Ribbit . Neither time did the fish pick up the bait, which I took for a bad sign. Indeed it was, for by 9 o’clock still not one bite. In the meantime I watched a boat catch two fish and have another get off right at the boat. I also saw another boat catch two at the same time. I was beginning to feel left out. Both of those boats were fishing with jigs, which is not my forte, but I put one on anyway. After a spell with no luck, it was back to the Ribbit and the fish began to hit at it. “AT” because they were grabbing the legs and not getting the hook. Finally I shook the rust off of my Ribbit hook set and put a couple in the boat. After moving the biting picked up but there was some rust still there. One fish made a fast wake for the bait and when it hit there was no hesitation, I just could not stand it, and of course there was no hookup. I ended up getting 14 bites and catching only four, all in the 3 pound range. When the rain got heavy the fish quit and I left.

I thought I had a pretty good found bait collection until Hal sent me a photo of his. His was composed of mostly crankbaits and they were mostly in good shape. Even the hooks on his look good although he may have changed them.

As you may have guessed, I have been on the turkey scene more lately than on the fishing scene. That will change but I’m afraid not too soon. Please bear with me and stay tuned.

Today the bad Juju on Monticello came in the form of, once again, a North wind. The cloudy cold was secondary. I knew the wind was going to be out of the North but today was the only day I was going to be able to go before turkey season. When I started the water temperature was 49 to 50 degrees and when I quit it had decreased to 45 to 47. The good thing that happened was my new rod and reel combination worked very well. I put an old reel on Ebay a few weeks ago and it brought more than  I paid for it in 2005. That was so good I bought one of the new Chronarchs and  new Shimano rod in a medium action with a fast tip. The Chronarch is so small and the rod is so light that they are a pleasure to fish with. I spooled it up with 12 pound test P Line  Premium. It is a casting machine. The only problem was — no fish. Another good thing was today I tried a Chatterbait for the first time seriously. In some areas the water was stained due to the runoff from the rains recently. I figured it would have more vibration than the Booyah. It did and was surprisingly weedless coming through the lily pads.There were a lot of immature eagles flying around relatively close by. Saw five at one time. When the turkeys whip me down, like the fish have me now, perhaps I’ll sneak out of the turkey woods and come back under better conditions.

Jackson and I went to Lake Monticello Monday morning. I waited until today to write about it to ease the pain. We zeroed. It was not without a lot of effort however. We tried all the places where we caught fish in the past under the same conditions and with the same water temperatures (48 t0 55 degrees). Not only did we zero on fish but zeroed on bites too. Not a single bite all day. We tried the spinnerbaits we caught them on over there before. Also tried were swimbaits, swim jigs, shallow crankbaits, and even a buzz bait, all to no avail. In the post mortem we decided the North Wind and the rising barometric pressure was our downfall, especially this time of year. The water is very clear with probably 6 foot visibility, so clear that we could see a bass swimming off occasionally. We figured the fish were present but just not interested in biting. I have some small repairs to be performed on my boat so I put it in the shop yesterday to keep me from being tempted to go fishing for a few days