Went this morning and there were a line of hydroblasters at the wharf getting ready for practice for a Fishers of Men tournament this weekend. A tournament with 36 boats on Ferguson with the lake at such a low level is a terrible idea for the fishing. I called the head of the organization to protest. The tournament had to be moved from the Atchafalaya because of the hurricane. He said “but we release them all”. I argued nicely that that moved the fish from wherever they were caught to one spot where they released them. When I didn’t relent in my argument, he hung up on me, and it’s supposedly a religious organization. I started a little before 8 and quit when I heard the first thunder around 10:30. The magic lucky school was not present today in numbers. I caught 2. There was a boat sitting dead on the spot where I caught two 4’s yesterday. I drove up and fished on either side of them and didn’t say a word to them, close enough that it would have made me mad. I was hoping something would be said. Then it thundered and I left.

Was born today and weighed 7-12. When she had arrived safely and I was sure everyone was healthy I headed over the levee to the lake at 10:00.

It was at a low 15.9 feet. I found my lucky school from the last trip and proceeded to catch a few small ones with a rattletrap until about a 5 foot gar had the line in its teeth and relieved me of it. It was a found bait but had caught a lot of fish. The chrome was worn off but was still catching. I had another found one and it had good hooks too. When that gave out I went looking but only ran into a couple of small fish. Back I went to the lucky school and caught a few more. I hooked one that was a good one, I believe the largest of the day but the hooks pulled out. From there I went to the #2 spot and caught two with the river2seaDD but then I became hung up. I tried and tried to get it loose with the gitter but never could actually hit the bait. Chains never hung anything. Lost ! I headed in but stopped at one place close to the ramp and to my surprise caught 3 on a DT-10. They were up on a flat feeding. Of the 3, 2 were 4+. The total for the day was 25 with 3 over 4 and a couple of 3+’s. 19 1/2 pounds for the best 5.

Today I was on Lake Ferguson (20.8 feet) early because I had a hard cut off time. Either I quit on time or I might have to clean up some unpleasantness in the dog crates when I came home. The lake was good but there was a Northeast wind that I didn’t like. Some good spots were on my list to try but only one bite up until 9:30 and that may have been a gar. Was doing a good job of fishing from shallow to 17 feet but was convinced I probably was not fishing deep enough. In passing by a relatively shallow spot I saw a shad jump all the way out of the water in terror but nothing was behind it that I could see. When a little closer to investigate, I caught a fish rather quickly and then another. The wind was blowing directly upon this shallow spot and sometimes that can be a good situation. Poking around, I found out where the fish were but became hung up right in the spot and had to drift by to get the rattletrap back. That messed the spot up so I went farther down the bank but with no luck. Came back to the spot and things were going on.

The fish were hitting the bait immediately when it hit the water. That kind of eased but there were fish to be caught around the periphery. The wind was hawking the whole time. No way I could have done it without the spot lock. Caught every one on a rattletrap. Finally they quit, so I did too. I caught 15 even with a 5 3/4 FOD. Felt lucky to have such a good day.