Art Ferguson III
Lake Toho- BASS Tour January 24-30
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1-24-05
day 1 practice:
 
Not much to report on day 1 of practice....VERY COLD....was 22 on a local bank and wind was blowing at around 15mph. I figured wind chill was around 10 or so.
 
I covered quite a bit of water today, and had another fisherman with me practicing. We fished 3 of the 4 main lakes and saw some good looking water that I was suprised we didn't catch fish in. He ended up getting one bass late in the day in an area I like and I feel like if I spent all day in an area like this, it would be productive.
 
I don't feel that disappointed with no fish today. Weather is stabling and should get better in week as well as better fishing.
 
Get up and go at it in the morning. Looking forward to fishing Toho tomorrow. Lakes have really changed since the hurricane and draw downs. Not the same system as the past. Should have fish bunched up with less grass because there are surely a lot of bass in the chain of lakes.
 

Art Ferguson

1-25-05
day 2 practice:
Day 2 of BASS Toho practice went much better for me in many ways. First of all, weather broke a bit and we were out of our snowmobile suits and heavy winter jackets by around 9-10am today. Changed up a bit from yesterday and went flipping a bit more today. Had several bites in a few areas and rose one up around 6lbs. Feel like this could be a BIG WEIGHT tournament as it was when Rojas won a few years ago.
 
Weather is getting better each day, though not as much site water for spawning and suppose to rain last 3 days of the tournament. This will definetely effect the guys looking for beds, but I am guessing in next 2 days they will move up big time. Full moon was today and water should be in 60's tomorrow. I saw one 2 1/2lber on a bed today and will spend time tomorrow looking around for more.
 
Confidence is high and hoping to keep it high all week. Typically, we are having decent weather in practice then the front hits during the tournament or right before, this time is different and we'll see how it goes.
 
Flipping a Mizmo tube on 46lb. Sunline PE braid.
 
Art Ferguson

 

1-26-05 Day 3 practice
 
Interesting day to say the least. First, the weather man was wrong, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? Said it was to be sunny and upper 70's today, it hardly hit 70 and we had rain clouds hovering over all afternoon.
 
I had a lower unit problem on my Mercury around 11 today. Wasn't Mercury problem, but a dealer who I had change my lower unit oil kind of forgot to put the o-ring back in the lower unit after tightening down the screw and putting new Merc oil in it. This was about 2 weeks before the FLW and finally it blew!! Had to get towed in and great for me, Terry Heist, the Mercury service mechanic and a great one at that was there and got me back on the water in about 20 minutes.
 
Before that, I had a tough time, only had 2 bites, but when I got back out in the afternoon, I got in the zone and started getting bit just about everywhere I went.
 
I'm very excited about tomorrow, not getting many big bites, but from the "dock talk", I feel good about this. Going to keep my 7'11" Kistler LTA busy tomorrow.
 
Thanks for reading.
 
Art Ferguson
1-27-05 Day one results:
 
We started off with a 2 1/2 hour fog delay which I wasn't all that concerned about since the last 2 days of practice, I was catching and getting more bites later in the day.
 
Went to first area today and caught a nice 2 1/2 lber flipping mats on the Mizmo tube and felt real good about it. Moved over to another area close by and saw the mat move, threw in and it nailed it, another about 2lbs. Fished for a bit, nothing more and decided to go where I had found some fish late on the last day of practice, some isolated clumps of grass. Set up on a fish and unfortunetely, had my braided line slip through the eye of my Owner 6/0 wide gap hook. Hadn't had any issues with this until the big day!! Lost what seemed to be about a 2-3lber.
 
THEN, NOTHING for about 3-4 hours of fishing. Wearing on me, but kept the faith and pushed through. Went to an inside grass edge where I had 3 bites in practice on day 2 and flipped out a nice 3 1/2lber after 4 attempts to drop the tube into the mat. Felt good with about an hour and a half to catch a limit. No other bites for me, my partner ended up catching 2 small keepers on worms around me.
 
Tough bite, really thought it was going to improve big time. Weather was great, warming water and fish wanting to bed. Heard rumors that a 6lber was caught off of a bed today. I'm sure there were others also.
 
I'll get some rest, pray and go into tomorrow in 44th place, with an open mind and try to stay focused. I'm about 3 1/2lbs. out of top 12 and that is very reachable anytime you are in Florida waters.
 
Thanks,
 
Art Ferguson
1-28-05 Day two results:
Man, weather men are wrong wrong wrong....ha
 
Word had it before this tournament started that the weather was going to get warmer and warmer as the tournament progressed. Today, the temps dropped down about 5 degrees during the day and the wind blew about 10-25mph out of the NE and that was good for me since most of my fish were in northern areas of the lakes/pockets. But the extreme cloud cover and drops of rain put my flipping bite on hold.
 
I actually caught a bass in first 15 minutes by throwing a Yamamoto Senko on an inside weed edge and landed about a 2lber. Good start, pleased with that but didn't catch on to what was happening the rest of the day.
 
Caught my 2nd bass about 4 hours later on an edge of thick grass flipping the Mizmo tube and got him in after fighting 4' of grass with the bass. Felt good about this fish, knew it would keep me in the money and progress my day, but still didn't move with what I was "feeling" to fish quicker and cover water with the clouds. Had only one other bite all day flipping and missed that one.
 
I was uncomfortable fishing about the last 4 to 5 hours and that is not a good place to be in this sport or in life in general. I knew I should change up but sometimes in bass fishing, that is THE hardest thing to do. Though there were some big fish caught flipping today, I think most guys caught them in open water and either throwing blades or Texas rigged worms.
 
Not a bad start, but after 2 great practice days, I felt I could have executed better. I did miss 2 or 3 bass in the event which would have moved me up probably 20 spots and we all know how important points are in this Tour.
 
I need to get on them at Harris and stay open enough to change when necessary.
 
Thanks for reading. Taking the day off to rest today and start getting ready for Harris chain on Sunday after finding a local church to fellowship/worship at. It's very interesting trying to keep up with bills, fans, mail, etc., when on the road and your mail gets forwarded to your Florida address from Michigan which puts about 4 day delay in it and then having your local resort forward your email to your present motel. This is gonna be INTERESTING, CHALLENGING and EXCITING!!!
 
37th in points, FLW
66th in points, BASS

 

Art Ferguson