Plenty of excitement at Dogwood Lakes this past weekend.  The property was as beautiful as ever and Rocky came down for a nice visit.  It was hot, but not too hot, with a nice breeze coming through the trees to keep us from getting cooked.  One funny story before we get to the fishing but let me tell first say that James was stung on the head by a huge red wasp when we were fishing at Melody Acres last year.  Out at Dogwood, there are wasp nests on a few of the old trees….  some really big ones but we've let Rocky know and I bet they are gone before the next trip out there.  Anyway….  I've got the boat pointed into the wind but the honey hole we had was off the aft starboard side of the boat so I'm twisting my body around to cast back off the hip of the boat but keeping that boat steady in the wind.  So my buddy James let's out a scream and a few choice words as I see him leap out of the boat and into the water.  Then I look up to see what looked like twenty plus wasps buzzing all around where he was just standing and then they made me their target.  I ducked and dodged for a minute but they weren't letting up so I paused for two seconds to empty my pockets and jumped into the water as well.  After a few minutes of dog paddling and they were barely letting up, James pulled himself up onto the boat to see what the fuss was.  Let's just say I had some apologizing to do….  I guess I drove into one of the old trees with the nest on it and it was now sitting on the front deck of the boat right behind me!  DOH!  Sorry James.  The good news is that neither of us were stung and it made for a refreshing dip in the lake. 

Doesn't he looks refreshed? 

The fishing was as hot as the weather.  We started off beating the banks with finesse baits and catching small fish but then grew weary of that and upsized our baits and moved over the channel drop offs and the deep holes on the far side of the lake.  The fish again were suspended but as soon as we started getting our baits down in front of them our luck changed.  We took a break for lunch and went into town for food but when evening came we had a 38 pound best five that would have been 42 if James' fish of the day wouldn't have spit the lure half way back to the boat.   The largest fish of the day was 9.8 pounds and fought like a freight train.  The other notable fish were an 8.3, an 8.0 and a 7.7. 

James had on another 8 pounder that did some nice dancing across the water before she spit the lure at him.   It was a great time on a great property.  We caught 30 fish with most of those being culls and a few big mommas mixed in.  Will be back in a few months for more top notch action.

Tight lines,

Jackson