Lake Ferguson stood at 15.97 when I went after the rain quit this morning and the water was 47 degrees. The first place I stopped was the Mickey Maranto bitespot and the shad were everywhere. They appeared to be dying from the cold water. There were fish feeding on them although I could not get any volunteers for the first fish of the year.  I tried several baits that would catch a bass or a striped bass there were no takers.  The fish gave me a couple of courtesy bites, just bumping the bait with no intention of eating it.  I finally gave up there and went to the steep bank. Mickey had given me a Hart jig with two rattles and a crawfish trailer, so I put it on. My steep bank baits were the jig, a 3/4 ounce Scrounger jig with a 5″ Kalin curly tail grub, and a DT – 10. Nothing was going on however and I started to smell a skunk. Finally I had a bite on the jig and caught a 2 pounder. When I got the fish in the boat I laid it on the front deck to get the camera, the fish flopped and the hook came out, then it was flopping amidst all the baits I had out and all my rods. I could just see one of my rods going overboard along with a couple of baits. In the end the only thing that went overboard was the fish and that was before I got a picture.  So I took a picture of all the baits that I used today just before I took my frozen fanny home.