On a February day back in the early 70’s, Hal and I went to Lake Ferguson to a certain treeline and caught 27 bass that weighed 87 pounds, thus the treeline’s name. We caught them on hot spots. So when Mickey asked me where I wanted to start this afternoon, the 87 pound treeline was the answer.  When we arrived there were a few boats scattered on it, most were in the two tournaments that were on the lake today.  Mickey started with a Yozuri and I started with a Booyah spinnerbait.  We had a bad start with backlashes, hangups, and etc but after Mickey caught the first 4 pounder, it was game on.

The second picture is a scan of the picture in the 70’s that was in the paper. We kept them all in those days and the people on the farm were glad to see me coming after a trip like that. After Mickey struck first, I quickly put on my Yozuri, the Mark Fratesi signature edition.  We both started working on the fish and they seemed to be following the bait out before they hit. Just to check, I cast parallel to the treeline and sure enough the fish were out in the open too. As we went down the treeline, the mallard ducks were back in the bushes close by and were feeling talkative which really added pleasure to the afternoon. The water temperature was 55 degrees so the fish were pretty active. They were hitting the bait with authority, especially if you stopped it. Several fish had the bait all the way in their mouth.  We made one pass on the bank and then came back again and caught some more. The FOD was 4-8, but we had four others over 4, for a best five weight of 20-14. The total was 38 bass, a snagged carp and either a fresh water mullet or a skipjack, I’m not sure which. I’ll have to look it up and edit. I looked it up and I believe it was a freshwater mullet.  They have two dorsal fins and while I don’t remember about the fins, the cigar shape was more like the mullet than the flat shad shape of the skipjack.  A great trip for fishing from noon to 5:30 in February.