One of my rules is to never go fishing on the weekend in a popular public lake. I broke that rule Saturday by going to Lake Monticello. It was forecast to rain and also the opening day of Arkansas turkey season so I surmised the crowd might be lighter than normal. Indeed it was. Starting out early I went to one of my favorite places to fish a Ribbit and only had two “rushes”. A “rush” is where the fish does not strike but follows the bait making a surface wake behind the bait. Usually, about 8 of every 10 times, if you stop the retrieve and just let the bait slowly sink watching your line, you will see your line twitch and start to move off when the fish picks up the Ribbit . Neither time did the fish pick up the bait, which I took for a bad sign. Indeed it was, for by 9 o’clock still not one bite. In the meantime I watched a boat catch two fish and have another get off right at the boat. I also saw another boat catch two at the same time. I was beginning to feel left out. Both of those boats were fishing with jigs, which is not my forte, but I put one on anyway. After a spell with no luck, it was back to the Ribbit and the fish began to hit at it. “AT” because they were grabbing the legs and not getting the hook. Finally I shook the rust off of my Ribbit hook set and put a couple in the boat. After moving the biting picked up but there was some rust still there. One fish made a fast wake for the bait and when it hit there was no hesitation, I just could not stand it, and of course there was no hookup. I ended up getting 14 bites and catching only four, all in the 3 pound range. When the rain got heavy the fish quit and I left.