Art Ferguson III
Lake Okeechobee-FLW January 19-22
More Tour Journals


1-17-05
Here is a photo I took of the 7lber I caught on the Senko....Gary Yamamoto just happened to be practicing close by and saw my client catch his 7-7...I trolling motored over to him, and thought it was about a million to one shot that Gary would be over in the bullrushes next to us as we caught that. I joked with Gary and told him he needs to be throwing this bait and tossed him a Senko.
 
I then was chatting with him and threw my Senko out and caught this 7lber. CRAZY STUFF....I like the look of Gary's dogs face looking at a BASS that is BIGGER than her!
 
1-18-05
 sum up my practice....
 
I spent 6 hard days practicing trying to find something out of the way and new to fish, keeping an open mind about it all. Bad thing is, the weather kept increasingly getting worse.
 
I never got on anything positive that made me feel like I could go and catch a big sack. I caught them in a few different areas, but mostly small fish.
 
I did catch a 7lber and my client caught a 7-7 on Yamamoto Senko's about 5 or 6 days ago and that built some confidence in an area of the lake called bay bottoms. This is where I will concentrate tomorrow. Many small fish in the area also, the only problem is we've had 3 hard days of north winds and it's making the clean water areas smaller and smaller.
 
I am a little disappointed in my efforts this week practicing. Felt like I made some bad choices, but learned much of what the lake is looking like. Hit some awesome looking areas and could only get a few fish to bite in the mats. This is going to be a key way to win the tournament.
 
I will concentrate on a few different ways of fishing....going to be flipping with the BIG STICK...Kistler's new 7'11" LTA heavy action rod that is excellent for ripping fish out of the "mats" here on Okeechobee. Going to be flipping a craw worm or a black and blue Mizmo tube on 1 to 1 1/2 oz. weights.
 
I will also spend some time cranking and rattletrapping around hydrilla mats trying to get a reaction bite. Mostly though, will be throwing a fluke and a Yamamoto Senko around thick edges of grass. This will most likely produce most of my fish for me until I get a decent limit. Then I'll go flipping the BIG STICK and see what I can come up with.
 
1-19-05 Day 1:
Had to make a choice of a couple different areas to fish and with a lake the size of Okeechobee, you have to make the right choice. I knew that the southern end of the lake was muddying up faster than anywhere, but I was also thinking this would concentrate the fish a bit better.
 
Scott Dobson, who is rooming with me this week, went south yesterday for practice and caught a few fish quick and said the water was still o.k. in some key areas. That changed overnight and though I know some guys caught fish in the murkier water, it distracted me and I felt uncomfortable fishing. This isn't good for the confidence though I did start the day off quickly with a keeper on a Yozuri "Drum" (ratltrap type bait). But, didn't feel good about it, ran to another area that was clear in practice to find it muddy and moved inside of the area to find a couple of acres of clear water.

 

Instantly, caught a 2lber on a Yamamoto Senko, throwing on Sunline Shooter Flourocarbon 16lb. line. Had only one other boat in area and he was flipping so I thought this is gonna be good. Had one other short fish in next 2 hours. Disappointing. Ran to another clear water area and worked it fairly good, caught another short (rare on Okeechobee). Finally, went way back in a backwater area with an hour or two to go and caught  2 other small keepers on the Senko. Lost one which would have given me a small limit.
 
Final tally: 4 bass, 5lbs. 2oz.....very humbling sport. Need to catch a 15lb. plus bag tomorrow which of course is very possible on Okeechobee.
 
(fished with Mary Parnell of Florida, a very nice well spoken woman who also can catch fish. It made the day much easier for both of us as we struggled in the fish catching area and got to share each others faith in God)
 
1-20-05 Day 2:
HEY....made a good comeback....story below:
 
2nd day of FLW Tour, Okeechobee for Art Ferguson:
 
Day 1 showed me I had made a bad choice in which area of the lake to fish. I had my doubts on which way to go and when I heard that south area was still clear in a couple areas, I was hoping it was "my" areas where I had found a few fish. That wasn't the case so I day 2, I chose to go north and fish where I spent most of my winter guiding.
 
Showed up and there was only one boat in area with me, 100's around, but none right in couple acre area where I started. About my 5th or 6th cast with a Yozuri Drum vibrating bait, I had a 5 lber. hit to my suprise. This is the biggest fish I had hit me in about 6 or 7 days. I'm throwing a heavy action 7' Kistler LTA with Sunline's PE 46lb. braid and when it hit, the fish SWALLOWED the bait. It never jumped just kept boiling around the surface and I truly thought I had about an 8lber. Very exciting moments to start the day off and I thought to myself, this is more weight than I had all yesterday in the first 5 minutes.
 
A few minutes later, flipped a 2lber out from some gator grass and worked area for another 30-45 minutes with no bites. I decided then to move about a mile to a cut that had a bit of current moving through from the wind and landed 3 bass on a Bandit 100 chartruese/black back crankbait.

Once I had my limit, I felt comfortable going flipping with the BIG STICK and got into some thick hydrilla. Tied on a Mizmo black/blue 4" tube with 1 1/2oz. weight and within 5 minutes, stuck a nice 3 1/2lber. Right after this, the clouds started rolling in again and I felt less interested in flipping (bad choice) and went to worming edges and cranking again. Caught one more bass.
 
I think I was in 129th after day 1, to end up in 37th and get into the top 50, both for a nice paycheck as well as great points to start the season off, I was very very pleased and thank God for it. I called my fiance, Lori and the kids and said "We are going to Disneyland"....ha.....they all screamed!!!!
 

37th Place / 9 fish / $10,000.00