Sunday afternoon Mickey and I went to Ferguson for the third time lately. Our results have been good, bad, and in the middle. Sunday we started South and worked to the North. We caught 12 fish on 7 different spots, most caught with a DT-10. Something is just not quite right to catch more than 1 or 2 in a spot and I can’t tell you what needs to change to make that happen. The silver carp are terrible as we snagged one at the first spot and snagged another at the next to last spot. When you snag one you just want to get your bait back. We have found if you can get the fish to the top of the water you can use your boat hook/lure retriever to catch the hooks on your lure and pull them out of the fish thus saving your bait. The only thing those carp are good for is to make sure the drag on your reel is set correctly. The FOD was 3-6 and most of the fish were in the 1 3/4 to 2 – 13 range.

Mickey and I went to Ferguson Wednesday afternoon after 5 p.m. We went to the same places as on Sunday afternoon when we caught 18. No one home, at least, not many home. Couldn’t even get a bite in some of the places we thought were best.  DT – 10’s again but after a gar got my line in its teeth and relieved me of my DT – 10, I would not put on my last one so I put on a found Poe’s with larger hooks. It did catch a few. One in particular just stopped the bait and tried to snatch the rod out of my hands. We only caught 5 but we thought we knew where they were.

Mickey was nice enough to take me fishing on Lake Ferguson on Sunday afternoon. It is the first time for me on Lake Ferguson in a long time. The lake was at 26.4 feet on the Greenville gauge and falling slightly. The first two places we stopped were unproductive but we caught the first fish at “bitin’ spot number one” on a DT-10. It was an appropriate spot for Fathers Day because that was one of my fathers favorite places to fish.  When we moved down the bank we came to a spot where it is easy to hang up so I was fishing the       DT-10  slowly. I felt what I thought was a hang up and pulled no more but it pulled back so I set the hook and this 5 – 5 was there.

We caught a few more in that spot and when it gave out we moved further down the lake. The 70 spot was next and before long a 2 -13 volunteered. It seems to be a favorite size for that spot. We moved to the chute mouth and caught a few more but when that slowed we went to the steep bank with our DT-10’s and caught some there too. We left there and went to the upper lake where we caught a few stripes just a little larger than our DT-10’s. That was no fun so we went back to the chute mouth. Some of the fish were biting so lightly you really did not know to set the hook. Mickey thought he had one but couldn’t feel the fish so he quit reeling. About a 4 pounder made an 18″ slack line jump and threw the hook. There were a lot of hang ups today because of all the small willows that came up the last two years when the water was lower. I thought I was on one of the willows so I quit reeling and the willow pulled back but when I set the hook it pulled one more time and was gone. The fish there were scattered and might be anywhere. As the afternoon was almost over we went South again and tried a new spot where we finally figured the boat had been sitting over the fish. We moved out and caught a few more. Before we left I spied a 200 Bandit hanging on a bush. We had lost a DT-10 apiece so it was nice to get a little back. The ending tally was 18 bass.The largest 5 weighed 21 – 5. A great afternoon.

Hal and I went fishing at the private hole Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. It is the first time I have fished there since the River came in in January. The high water changed some things. In one cove where there used to be an old log, there are three new trees standing up in 20 feet of water. A sycamore, a pecan and an elm. They are standing up now but I expect them to fall over once the water falls.I just saw one piece of the old log that was old when I fished up there during high school. Here is a photo of the new trees.

You might notice on the end of the rod in the photo a Whopper Plopper topwater bait. More on that later. I am recovering from a back operation and this was a big treat for me. Since I’m not supposed to lift over 10 pounds, Hal had to do all the carrying. We started out not knowing what the game was so I put on an old standby a DT-6. Hal had on a swim fluke jr. The private hole is loaded with small bass that loved the fluke. They would hit the DT-6 but I didn’t catch a one on it because they were too small to get it in their mouths. As we came to the south end of the hole we saw some nervous shad out in the middle. I threw the DT-6 and Hal threw a Whopper Plopper into them. One came up and blasted the WP but nothing hit the DT-6. Here is the one that hit the WP.

We could get no other volunteers. We were close to a shallow flat and since the recent luck with the WP I pulled mine out. We caught a few there but most were small. Hal had a small bass on next to the boat and a three pounder came up and tried to eat it. I put my bait in the water but the bass would not hit it. We went to another shallow area and the WP was the bait to use. The strikes from the larger bass were violent, real KAWhooshes, as Jackson would say. Sunday afternoon we caught 58 with a 3 1/2 and a 3 1/4 a few other decent fish and a bunch of little ones. On Monday morning we started off with the WP since all of the big ones had been caught on it the day before. Again it caught the bigger fish although it would also catch a fish 1 1/2 times its length. We caught 45 Monday with two fish at 3 pounds even. A great two fishing trips, a lot of little ones, and never a dull moment