And when you're not, you're like I was yesterday. I called Mr. Yates as I l was leaving home, and he told me that they had received 7.5" of rain overnight, and that the water was over the dock. By the time I got there, the water had fallen to where there was only about 2" of water over the dock. The sky had looked threatening my entire drive from Coppell, but it never rained. When I got to Yates Place, a fine, foggy mist had started, but the sky would clear overnight.The concrete ramp was completely underwater, of course. I launched my pond boat and grounded it to the dock by simply hanging my anchor over the dock to the opposite side. When I went to the dock to board yesterday morning, the dock was still wet, but had no standing water over it. I knew that with the falling water, my results were somewhat "iffy." It didn't start out that way, though. Working my way to the west from the ramp, I made my first cast at 7:00, and boated my first bass at 7:05 - a dink that picked up a black/blue flake, wacky-rigged Senko. At 7:35, I caught a 4-11 on a white, double-bladed buzz bait. The bass struck hard the instant the lure hit the water. It had a very big head and not much else (See photo below - perhaps I'm now able to successfully entice only those bass that are truly desperate!) At any rate, I didn't catch another fish until 10:30, which was a second dink to go onto my harvest stringer. I ended up with 2 more small fish and released the one. I lost another one that got tangled in the stringer that would have weighed about 3 pounds. I missed a few as well. All in all, it was a disappointing, day, but not surprising due to the water conditions. The water was WAY back in the weeds and trees, and I suppose that a lot of the fish were there, too. The water temp was between 64 and 65 all day, with water clarity varying from 1 to 2 feet. As usual, DeWayne and I talked for a while, and he introduced me to their new dog, another Australian Sheep Dog named Kari. She's a 3-year old adoptee - a truly beautiful dog. She's no Sassy, but sure seems to be another sweet girl.

Those big bass are still swimming around at Yates Place. Lord willing, l'll go back for another try at them.

What worked:  White, double-bladed buzz bait; black/blue flake and green pumpkin/chartreuse tail, unweighted, wacky-rigged, 5" Senko

What didn't: Any other color worm of any kind, either T-, C-, or wacky-rigged; chrome/black back Zara Spook; shad-pattern Wounded Spook; white single-spin; chartreuse or shad-patterned squarebill and deep crankbaits, shad swim bait, black jig & pork eel, blue/orange or black/blue flake, T-rigged Pit Boss, Rattletraps of any color, Hollow body frog, popping frog, Sprinkler frog, bluegill-colored chatterbait.

Here's the skinny 4-11. With a body proportional to that head, it should have weighed at least six.