After lunch today I went to Lake Ferguson to see if I could catch enough fish for supper tomorrow night.  Since it was a bluebird sky and a cold front just went through, my level of optimism was not extremely high.  When I launched, Barry Provis was also putting in. I told him I was lucky to be putting in with him because all I’d have to do to find the fish was to follow him. I started in the north end of the lake where it gets shallow because last year this time the bass were following the shad up there and we were catching up to 80 a trip. For the first few hours my lack of optimism was justified. Not even any bumps or nips.  I went through Yozuris, red eye shads, DT-6s, DT-10s, shakey heads, and finally a series 5XD caught one. I was delighted for I was starting to smell the skunk. Never did I see the shad congregating in the shallows. My 5XD had developed a leak and would sink. Unfortunately, it  got snipped by a gar and of course was never to be seen again. Luckily I had another .  A shakey head caught one more and the new XD5 caught a crappie out in 20+ feet of water. It was looking slim for supper because the first bass was 2 1/2 pounds which is over my keeping size. As I was working my way back to the wharf, Barry stopped by to compare notes and he was having trouble too. I pulled in between some grain barges where there is a spring and started with a shakey head. There were some shad along the bank just dimpling the water, nothing chasing them.  I’ve read when you see shad in the fall the bass are close by so I threw a small red eye shad around and under the shad.Voila, a small bass loaded on. Another cast and another fish, just the way I like it.  Sat there  and caught 8 before they quit or got scared. One was a 3 1/2 FOD. Ten bass in all . I was thinking in the first hours today that fishing in Ferguson this time of year, with the low water and after it has been pounded with tournaments all year, was fishing in the real world as compared to the Private Hole that has light pressure and has all of my “pet” fish in it.