Whoopee!!! The Hales Ford public boat ramp is actually open! Besides paving more parking area, they extended the ramp and added some rip rap along the sides and at the end of the ramp. With the low water, real care must be taken launching/recovering so as not to hit those rocks. My boat makes it OK, even driving back onto the trailer. Must be close.

I was out Monday and today and both days were the same. I started at HFB and worked my way up lake. Today I got as far as Moorman's Landing. I had reports of fish around Indian and Grimes creeks so I checked them both days. Zippo. As I was going up today I stopped and checked all the usual places and saw very, very little or nothing. When I finally got to Moormans there were boats working the area and only a few fish being boated. There were lots of fish there but nothing was biting what I was offering. All the fish were on the bottom or close to it. I know I was deep enough because I hung up my A-rigs 3 times and lost one to the lake. Tried six variations of the rigs with no takers.

On the way back I saw fish around R35/R36 near Indian. They were 50-70ft deep so I stopped and vertically jigged with 3 different baits. No takers. Wow tough business. This makes 3 trips with no fish. Ah ha!!!!! But now I have a bait tank thanks to Pres. Bob R. I'm getting it set up right and should be ready for the bait on Friday. Look out fish. Short report. Nothing happening for me anyway.

Later Joel

So after the lllooonnnggg road trip to the Hardy ramp by way of the Hales Ford ramp, I launched at almost sunrise. Even with the motor tilted almost all the way up, I still churned up mud easing out of that ramp area. Its now about 5ft from the dock deck to the boat deck. Keeps this old guy limber climbing up and down. I need to bring my own ladder. Hmmm.

So I idled past Bay Roc and could have sworn I was marking some fish. Not a lot, but enough to notice. Kept idling over the flats. Nada. No breaking fish. Dragged rigs all the way to the trestle and beyond, all the way across Moorman's. I was marking some fish there but they were all 30ft and below. Nothing looked to be chasing and nothing came up for my baits. I did see another boat easing around pulling bait and he boated a few/ couple fish. Can't wait to get my very own bait tank on board. Yup, just can't hardly wait.

After a couple passes through Moorman's I started running and searching down the lake. Saw some fish like before, 30ft and below, but no schools or even big groups. Got all the way down to Beaverdam and even went looking up into BD part way. Zip. So I started working back up the lake. Same ol', same ol'. The trestle looked promising so I passed through with cranks and then back around with the rigs. I even saw 3!, count them, 3! fish torpedo on top chasing some bait. And boy there was bait! Big schools of bait. Could be why they didn't bother with mine. So the weather was nice and I enjoyed the new boat. I keep making small refinements with each trip. I'll get it right real soon. So far I have only 9 rod holders mounted. Still working on the plan. Later Joel

WOW, only 6 degrees difference top to bottom (Editors note: See the Water Temperature logs here) . Double wow. An interesting note: I launched up at Hardy and the big Hbird told me the water was 61 on top! It got progressively warmer as I moved down lake. Hmmmm. Not much rain to cause the cooling either.

So it was chilly this morning but no heavy fog. Visibility good. I idled past Bay Roc and over the flats. Was about to run to the trestle when the surface started churning all over. Right there at R85. I cast around a white bucktail but got no takers. Quickly changed to a Storm 4" Wild Eye Swim Shad in char/pearl. That did the trick and I boated a nice 26". Just like that the fish were gone. It all took about 7 minutes. So I moved down to the trestle and started seeing fish, not many, no schools, just small bunches. HOWEVER, they all seemed to be hunkered down on the bottom or very close to it. Nothing up, nothing chasing. To make everything short, that was the story for the whole rest of the day. All the spots that should have fish, had fish, but they were all down on or very near the bottom. Didn't matter if I was in 35ft or 75ft of water. They were down. I saw very few fish up near 25ft and none of them cooperated. They weren't even near any bait. Tried crankbaits in 3 sizes and A-rigs in 6 variations. I think I have the one-fish-itis desease. Guess I'll try again in a few days. Glory be, my ramp will be finished on Sunday. Whoopee. Later Joel

On the water today again and it was same ol', same ol'. Started at the Hales Ford Bridge and worked up river. Stopped and checked all the regular spots and found nothing. But the fish were again up at Moorman's. Saw one boat sitting in one spot and they caught a few. The ones I saw boated looked on the small side. Got the bait tank up and running so I trolled way up to the flats and threw my cast net. It was ugly but I actually got some bait! Whoopee!

Bad news was the bait didn't help at Moorman's. So I started back down lake. Saw some good buddies at the tennis courts and stopped to take a look. Sure enough there were the fish. They weren't there in the morning. So I dropped some still very lively shad (tank works great) and it took a while after everyone left that I got a small 17" striper just as I was about to leave. So of course I was going to stay.

Re-baited the hooks and 5 minutes later got another bite. A much softer bite than the 17". But wow! did it pull when I picked up the rod! It was a tussle but I boated a beauty. 34" and 16lb 10oz. . Tried for another 30 minutes and couldn't get another bite.

Weather looks nasty next week so I don't know when I'll be out again.

Later, Joel

A nice smooth decrease in temperature. Could be why I saw so many fish lumped on the bottom.

What a foggy start! I didn't dare try to run so I started dragging A-rigs at 2.5mph. A couple of other boats at about the same time. Idled all the way to the high trestle when right there a cast length in front of me, the fish were bustin'. I quickly brought in the rigs and started casting a 1/2oz white bucktail. One other boat hooked up and landed a decent fish (he was using a jig/fluke). Then they went, but in two minutes were back. I finally hooked up and boated a nice 28". Only about 7:15 so it looked to be a good day.

HA! When that school went down it was the last top action I saw all day. Did the same run & gun routine going down the lake. Dragging A-rigs, Trolling cranks. All the way to Harbor Ridge and back. I saw the fish but they were down, on the bottom, or just loafing. Nice day on the water, Try, try again. Then at the ramp, I had the boat loaded and out when a guy wanted to talk about my boat. He was planning on buying one. During the conversation, I dropped a lure and as I picked it up, the tail hook snagged the carpet and the forward hook snagged my finger. The barb just barely buried. I didn't want to do the string thing so I had the guy cut the hook and I wiggled and twisted it until it slid out. Ouch. Luckily I just had a tetnus shot. Dumb, rookie mistake. Ta da.

Later Joel