Lake Ferguson was at 39.9 feet this morning and falling slightly, almost where it was when Harley IV and I went and had a good day.  Of course I went to what I thought was going to be the good spot first. Indeed there were some fish present, making themselves known by promptly biting and then jumping to throw the DT – 6 back with such speed, I had to duck. I finally caught two after losing four more. In checking my hooks for sharpness, only one of six was found to be even the slightest bit questionable. After changing baits and the results were still the same.  Pretty soon there were no more bites, even with a worm. To make matters worse, the stripes were not even biting, which I took as bad sign.  I usually do not take a cooler to put fish in but this morning I did so I could bring Willie a mess of stripes.  Nothing doing, so I went to the upper lake on the hunt. The hunt did not produce anything but a small grinner and the FOD, a snagged paddlefish.

It was about 3 1/2 feet long and gave a good pull but nothing too exciting. You can see in the picture it was hooked with a DT – 10 and only with the long “sure set” hook.  You know you’ve had a pitiful day when you find as many baits as fish you caught.  Here are the ones I found.  A creature and a nice square bill crankbait that is full of rattles. The square bills are supposed to be relatively snag free in logs but that does not work with ironwood bushes.  A terrible day fishing but I saw someone that I consider to be one of the best around and he was having trouble too.  A small consolation.