Day 1 practice, FLW Tour-Ouachita River

 

Warm, 70's....beautiful out. Decided since I only have 3 days of practice coming right off of a BASS event in Georgia and driving 600 miles to get here with NO rest in between tournaments that I would just try to pick one area and learn it.

 

Went decent today, though the area I'm in is a bit crowded, I managed to get 8 bites today. Had a 4 1/2 and a 3+ and didn't set the hook on a few and also had a couple smaller ones.

 

Fishing a spinnerbait and jig mainly. Did get one bite on a Mizmo black/blue tube.

 

Water has fallen quite a bit I gues in past several weeks. When I was here in December for the BASS Open championship, the water was up like 6' higher, so it's kind of a different body of water.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Art Ferguson

www.artoffishing.com

 

WET, we got poured on a couple times, but weather still warm in hi 60's - low 70's. Water temp is up to around 58-60 and falling.

 

Had 7 bites today, but very spread out. Only 2 in one area. Goal tomorrow is to find a smaller area with some fish. (isn't that always the goal? ha)

 

Physically, TIRED, will get a day or so rest after this one before heading to Lake Norman for another BASS event.....Mentally, TIRED.....gotta quit trying so hard and rest in the fact that God is in control....Spiritually, ALIVE!!!!!  :)

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Art Ferguson

www.artoffishing.com

 

 

(photos are of lake, check out the type of structure we are fishing, lots of Cypress trees, buck brush and some grass, as well as some furry friends on water)

Day 3, practice FLW Tour-Ouachita River, LA

 

Day 3, cooler, bluebird skies and water still falling. This is getting interesting and I heard rumors they are going to stop pulling water tomorrow. I don't know what this will do for fishing. Chance of rain tomorrow and hi's only in 50's, lows 30s.

 

Fished same area as last 2 days, making a long run and driving my Triton 21TRX boat to the ramp each day to save running some 120 miles round trip.

 

I believe we got 7 bites today. Troy Cox of Mizmo went with me again in practice and between us, we hit 7 fish. Only stuck 2 I believe. Found one small area that seemed to be concentrated with bass. They are chunky when you catch them. Had most of the bites today on a Mizmo black/blue tube.

 

Looking forward to tomorrow, it's going to be a COLD run....I'm dressing like it's going to be 20 below cuz going 65-70mph into winds while it's 30 out is like TWENTY BELOW!!!!! ha

 

Thanks for your prayers and reading,

 

Art Ferguson

www.artoffishing.com

Day 1, FLW Tour: Ouachita River, LA

 

HAIL!!!!! RAIN!!!! COLD!!!! WINDY!!!!! and fish were BITING!

 

We had the privaledge to run through about 5-10 minutes of hail today.....do they play baseball, golf, tennis or drive stock cars in rain or hail??? I don't think so. We are NUTS! ha

 

Weather was strange today and the water is still falling. Made the 60 mile run up to the next pool along with 70 other anglers. We had about 4 hours of fishing before making the journey back through. That river is crazy with turns and add a bunch of crazy excited fisherman running 60-70mph for that length of time winding through that river and you have one WILD ride. Very scary at times, was praying a bunch.

 

Caught 6 keepers today and probably missed 5-10. They would bite and run to deep water which is coming at you and if you didn't hit them just right, you were going to miss them.

 

I was flipping for my fish with both a Mizmo tube on 16lb. Sunline FC Sniper flourocarbon line on a Kistler 7' heavy action LTA rod....I was using a 1/4oz weight. Also, using a 3/8 oz. black/blue Terminator jig w/Yamamoto craw. I had 20lb. Sunline Shooter flourocarbon on this set up.

 

Fish were in 2-7' of water. Had my chances and actually, coming back in the last 15 minutes of fishing after locking through, I pulled into a bayou that I've never fished and was blessed with a 3 1/2lber flipping a tree. It was awesome and helped me out by culling a 13"er.

 

Looking forward to see what will happen tomorrow. Expecting some great things!

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Art Ferguson

www.artoffishing.com

Day 2, FLW Tour; Ouachita River, LA

 

Good day, COLD run and was in great focus today besides keeping my eye on my water pressure. It was awesome to be able to make 120 mile round trip days back to back and know my Triton 21X and my Mercury 225 OptiMax were gonna get me there and back!

 

That's probably the biggest "worry" so to speak anyone has when you are making that type of run. I just relied on Jay from the Mercury support team. I had noticed a bit of exaust on day 1 from my motor I hadn't seen before, took the Mercury to the trailer and Jay checked it all out and said everything was fine. That's such a relief and I could just set sail today for Arkansas with very little concern. The motor ran awesome as well as the boat and that makes a fishing tournament and a run like that all worth it.

 

Got to my fish and we had completely different conditions today. Sunny and cooler. Yesterday was rain and clouds and today, opposite. I just relaxed and prayed and stayed focused on the bites.

 

Fishing a tube this morning, I wasn't getting bites and so about an hour into the day, I switched to a jig and right away, caught 3 bass and missed one off of cypress trees. Then, went about 2 hours with nothing, so decided to switch back to the Mizmo tube and wham, caught 3 more and missed 1 to end the day.

 

I concentrated on one major bayou about a mile long. Fished small stretches of grass and cypress trees. Every cast you are anticipating a fish. They were real fast bites, when they hit, they ran like crazy with it. Exciting, but you had to stay with them and I personally, let them run with it a few seconds to see where they were moving. That helped my percentages today.

 

Enjoyed the body of water. Had two great partners which is always a bonus. Gerritt Tepastte, from Michigan on day 1 and David Gee from Indiana on day 2. Was blessed today to win another $10,250.00 and this should move me up in the points for the FLW Championship this summer.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Art Ferguson

www.artoffishing.com