Thursday morning I launched on Lake Ferguson at about 7:00 and went straight to the shallow bank in the upper lake with intentions of perhaps catching a fish or two on a top water. It didn’t take long to see that plan was not going to work so I put on a redeye shad and continued along that bank. The redeye I chose was one that Hal and I found on Pickwick hanging in a tree 10 feet above the water, too high for anyone to reach. I had my “gitter pole ” that is about 13 feet long with a hook on the end so pulling it down was easy. With new hooks it is ready to go. The redeye caught the skunk chaser pretty quick which caused me to hang around in that area for a few more casts. Just when I was planning to leave a 4 – 9 latched on with a forceful bite. When I put my hand in its mouth, it shook and its teeth decimated the tender area between my thumb and forefinger. Bleeding, but trying to catch another I continued, but none showed up. I resigned myself to leave and another small bass fell to the redeye.  Relocation was in order and on the other side of the lake was a good spot. Some treetops were a place for a Booyah and it worked on one but missed two more. There was nothing in a couple of deep water spots so I figured shallow was the game and sure enough, in the chute another small one was caught on the spinner bait. That was enough for me to continue longer than I should have with no bites. By now , it was around 10:00, and as the day got a little hotter I felt a little deeper would work. At the 70 spot there was activity and one grabbed the DT-6 and as it came to the boat another was trying to take the bait out of its mouth. Just what I like to see. The school must have been moving  because I only caught three before things got quieter. I moved along the bank with the DT-6 until I came to a tree top in shallow water and caught one but no more. Just or fun, I threw a Booyah to the top and a 4 – 4 scarfed it.  A couple more came from there and some misses. After a couple more shallow fish, the total was up to 14. While fishing down the bank concentrating on shallow tops that stuck out I had a small backlash that I just wound up on the reel because the bait was up in the top and would get hung in a spot I might not be able to reach. To straighten the backlash out I just made a light cast out into the open water. As the backlash was being pulled out and the bait laying on the bottom the line became wrapped around the depthfinder  and about that time the wind started to blow. A real screw up in the making. The backlash was out but I could not reel. With the boat moving and dragging the bait I was afraid of the bait becoming hung. The line tightened up so I pulled it to keep from becoming hung up but it pulled back and the fish jumped. I forgot about the fish and concentrated on getting the mess straightened out. Finally I reeled in the fish. If one was out in the open, there may be more, so I investigated with a DT-6. Twelve fish later I finally decided to leave for the ramp after trying a lot more places that look just like that one. Nothing in those other places. It was lucky that that backlash happened or I would have just passed that school of fish by without even knowing they were there. Total of 27 bass with a FOD of 4 – 9. Best 5 fish, 18 1/2 pounds.