Reservation Number : 23543
Property Name : Signal Ranch
Reservation Date : 04/07/2020 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 36
Lures Used : green jigs, white chatterbaits, buzz baits

My father, known as Grumps, is a life long fisherman.  At one time in this life, he fished for crappie or bass every day for weeks at a time.  He has not been able to go fishing in the last 5 years because of his health.  Forty two years as an electrician for International Paper company took a toll on his back and hips requiring both knees and hips to be replaced and a 360 degree anterior/posterior lumbar fusion.  He uses a scooter to move around but can stand for short periods of time and can walk short distances if its on a flat surface.   

I chose Signal Ranch because I thought it would be easy to get my father loaded into the boat.  Since the pontoon and the dock are almost the same height I thought we would have minimal problems.  For the most part this was true. I wish I would have brought some ratchet straps to make the boat as steady as possible and not drop down when you put weight on it.  Nonetheless, we got him him loaded.

We started the morning fishing the rocky north side with top water.  Water temp was 67 F.  Winds were calm but quickly picking up to at least 10 mph.  I hung a bass on a dark buzz bait that my daughter had painted this past week.  Quick fight ended with us figuring out that I had not taking the guard I had placed over the hook to protect her from getting poked while she painted it.  We had a hardy laugh about that.

We fished all the banks up to the bridge in the morning.  We caught 13 total before we broke for lunch.  My parents live 4 miles from the lake so we drove to their house and had a sit down meal.  After eating, my father rested while I went back and fished the smaller cove from the bank.  Caught one nice bass by the rock wall.  My mother brought my father back about 2 PM and we fished the rocky north side again and then made our way down the east side bank.  The misty morning had opened up to warm and sunny.  Water temp was 71 F.  Winds were gusting to 15 mph forcing me to have the trolling motor full time.  The extra batteries were helpful at this point.  We were impressed that the batteries had wrenches to be able to swap batteries.

We caught 36 bass total.  The average size was 3 lbs.  Largest was 4.2 lbs.  Lost a real nice one at the boat that ran under the boat and around the trolling motor that I had powered on at the time.  The larger fish were all in the south cove.  Most were caught on a green jig with a bright red trailer.  Caught one on a watermelon lizard and a couple on buzz baits.  They did not want white spinner baits or white jigs.  None were caught on frogs.  More importantly, my father and I had a chance to relive and reminisce about the Arkansas River, Slackwater Harbor, Escronges, Big H, Adkins Lake, Lake Pine Bluff, Black Dog Creek, the Saline River, Little Horseshoe and all the little dozens of flooded lakes with no names of the White River we fished growing up.  It was the best day. 

Loved the bathroom.

How do you rotate these pictures?