Week of April 19, 2015

Finally made it out for my first bass trip of 2015 and found the water levels of Lake Fork much improved. When I was last out in January, the lake was 7.5 feet low.  As of this week it was only 2 feet low.  Of course, since I was out there it rained some more and is still rising.

I made it out early Sunday afternoon and spent 4 hours on the water with Rhandy.  He has a new boat (again) and with the black and white trim he calls it his tuxedo boat.  After we both got skunked on Sunday I decided it was more of a penguin.  I think we only had one bite.

Monday went a little better, despite a brisk north wind that made me glad I had brought my coat.  We fished Carolina rigs and wacky worms and ended up with 8 fish for the day.  I think I had 3 of them.

Tuesday started off chilly again but the wind had turned around to the south.  We caught a couple of small fish early but I finally hooked a good 'un mid morning on a Carolina rig.  7 pounds and 7 ounces and a good fight to the boat.

Shortly after that I hooked another fish, around 3 pounds, that hit like a hammer and jumped and fought all the way back to the boat.  Another fun fish.  After that things got tougher.  Rain, thunder, and lightning chased us off the lake again and again.  We'd head back to Rhandy's dock, which is once again accessible, tie up and run for cover.  Things would clear up again, then we'd get chased back with more lightning.  It was frustrating, but the smart thing to do. We got in a full day of fishing but there were a lot of breaks in between short runs.  I appreciate all of Rhandy's extra effort to keep trying despite dicey weather.

Wednesday I met up with Dale at 6:30 am and we were off to the 515 east ramp to throw wacky worms and flukes all day long.  He had been having some good success back in Glade and was hoping for more of the same.  I hooked one after about an hour and as I was fighting it back to the boat he set his rod down to see if I needed a net.  I didn't, but when he picked up his rod he found a fish swimming off with his fluke.  Our first fish of the day was a double.  Unfortunately, that was about all she wrote back there and we headed off to greener pastures mid morning.  Later in the day we found a small deep pocket with lots of flooded grass and cypress.  We threw weightless flukes at them and got several to bite.  Nothing big, but it was fun wrestling them out of the grass.  I think we ended up with  8 or 9 fish for the day.

As we loaded out at the ramp, I saw a sight that made me laugh.

After trucking back from the 515 ramp Rhandy already had the penguin in the water and we headed out to fish til sunset.  We tried Carolina rigs in a couple of good spots but had no takers.  Except for some hang ups which took a hook or two.  We decided to head back north where I had caught the good fish the day before to see if something bigger had moved in. As we rolled up we found another boat near our spot so we decided to work the bank and some small pockets with weightless flukes until they moved off.  That was a good plan as we quickly found a couple of stout fish that were hungry for flukes.  Nothing huge, but FAT fish.

As we headed back in one pocket we noticed a bunch of rubber snakes all over a dock, presumably to keep the birds off.  As we came out of the pocket the owners had come down to fish and we joked they should look out for the snakes. The guy told us one of his friends had come down to fish on his dock and put two .38 holes in one of his rubber snakes before figuring out it wasn't real.

Eventually the other boat moved off our spot and we headed out to see if anyone was home.  They weren't.  We ended up the evening at one of Rhandy's Carolina rig spots that we had hit Monday and Tuesday with no success.  He hooked a giant fish which broke him off.  Rhandy saw it wallow and said it was well over 10 pounds.  I never saw the fish but I did see a big flash when it broke him off.  Much wailing and gnashing of teeth followed.  Eventually Captain Ahab gave up the quest and we headed in to drink much beer.

I had half a day planned with Dale Thursday morning but heavy rain and thunderstorms rolled in at 4 am and I suspected I would get that knock on the door.  Sure enough Dale stopped by to say the storms would not be done til noon or so.  The bad news was I didn't get to fish that half day.  The good news is I got a few extra Zs before heading back to town.

As usual we saw some bald eagles and weird clouds.