After a few days on the water I'm happy to say the bite is on!! I
was excited when Iarrived on the water Tuesday afternoon. I was hoping to experience several different patterns during my stay.

It all started with a night of fishing under the stars with my
great friend and Dale Hollows best night fisherman/guide Greg Brisendine. We hit the water around 10pm and fished until maybe 3:30am. In that time we threw light weight buck tail jigs into shallow water and it payed off. We boated around 12-14, with a few random species added on. On top of the smallys we hooked into a Gar and a Flathead Cat. Like always we lost several fish and had several short strikes. Greg is such a seasoned fisherman that he can tell when his chunk trailer has been robbed by
Mr.Smallmouth. It's almost like Babe Ruth calling which wall he is gonna smash the baseball over. Greg can get a hit set the hook and know that his chunk is gone or damaged. He can also tell the difference between a Goggle Eye strike and a Smallmouth strike, that is nearly impossible for me.

Well after a great night of catching I get dropped off at the back
of the Houseboat andfall fast asleep. After a few days of working on the boat I hit the
water again in search of a top water bite. After some dock talk I hear they are hitting the Zara Spook. Well after some deep digging I find one on my boat. Which is a surprise because I would have put money that all 3 that I own were at home in Louisville. Well I find one and it's game on. After a dozen explosions at my bait and a couple change of underpants later I have boated maybe 5 smallys. When fishing top water they don't always hit the bait with their mouth. On my third cast Saturday morning my Spook got smacked 3 feet in the air.

After a few more twitches, another big Boom and it's fish on. After a
few hours, a badspot in my line cause my line to break on the cast. This caused my
only Zara Spook to land 40 feet up in a Evergreen. The only other top water I had on me was a Pop R. But that would only bring the fish up to it but not make 'em hit it.
After watching several and several lookers but no buyers, I switched to a weightless fluke. The Fluke is slow enough for the fish to bite or just what they wanted at that time. Within the next two hours I had 3 break off and boated 6-8 more. I blame the break of 12lb P-line on me, I didn't use a swivel and with the twist that a fluke put in your line. When setting the hook with that kinda twist, it's bound to snap. I won't make that mistakeagain.

The last fish of the morning and the biggest of my trip is a fish
I will never forget. It only measured 19 3/4" but when he hit the fluke my whole rod
tingled/vibrated and I set the hook. After only two crank of the reel it locks up, it won't go forward or backward. No drag, no back reel, nothing!! So I slowly walk to the back of the Ranger to keep tension on the fish. Well, I eventually ran out of boat and no option but to act like Long John Silver and pull this fish in by hand. After some burn on my hands from my braided line and fighting this mad smally like a caveman, I get her in the boat. After such a crazy morning I retire to the boat to nap for a bit.

Well, wow that bite was so much fun I have to run into Celina and
hit the Dale Hollow One Stop. I need more Zara Spooks!!!! I'm walking to the parking lot from the dock, and as I pass the office of Horsecreek and the manager Thomas Weaver ask how the fishing has been? Well I share my story and tell him where I'm going and he says here use these, don't drive all the way to town. Thanks man, I say and he reminds me, these aren't a gift I want them back soon. That's how much fun these baits are. He also added that the short one has helped on his hook up ratio. So I start Sunday off at 5:15am on a long main lake point and it was on from the get go. After boating 5 within the first hour I knew it was gonna be a great morning. Well other than the rain it was. Using the shorter Spook increased my hook up ratio from 5:1 to 3:1. Around 8 am therain got so bad I just couldn't take it anymore so I went back to the dock to help myneighbor with his boat.

I must say that the top water bite is the most fun bite that Dale
Hollow hands out. There is alot of fun fishing to be had but World Class Smallmouth on top water, ispriceless. Just as always if you have any questions please feel free
to e-mail me.

Thanks for reading and always be safe on the water.