After a drubbing on Monticello, I went to Lake Ferguson this morning early.  Before leaving home the radar showed some showers directly across the river, then a large gap, and then some more showers.  When I reached to lake there was a tournament of about 20 boats going on.  I reached the intended spot where Rufus and Willie had fished yesterday afternoon and had seen bass schooling.  Willie hooked one on a spinnerbait that weighed ” 6 or 7 or 8 pounds”. It broke his line taking his spinnerbait. Not only were the bass schooling when I got there, but the white pelicans were there too.  The trusty Booyah would not get a bite even when thrown into the middle of a group of schooling fish.  Jackson was talking yesterday about the frustration of fishing for schooling fish and opined that a rattletrap was the best bait to use in that situation. Out one came. It was a medium sized one. Quickly I had a 3 – 14 in the boat.  Here is a picture of the bait and a shad that it snagged.

The bait was a pretty good match for the shad that the fish were feeding on and as you could see the hooks were sharp.  I snagged a total of 6 shad before the day was over.  By 9:00 went it started to rain, I had 11. When the rain started, the bite started to slow noticeably.  Even with the rain there were a good many people fishing.  One group of three was coming down the same bank I was covering. They asked if I was in a tournament and when I replied “no” they commenced to come right for my spot as if they were going to fish it too. Only after being asked, “You’re not going to come in here and fish my spot are you?” did they turn around and go back from whence they came. Some people. I ended up with 14 fish, the largest 5 weighing 18 pounds even, 2 over 4 , the 3 – 14 and a 3 – 4 being the largest.  I felt sorry for one of the tournament fishermen who was a back seater. He had on his knee length shorts and a visor in the pouring rain. A drowned rat was drier then that guy. A good day even considering the rain but I don’t feel like I’m completely even with them yet.