Art Ferguson III
Toho- FLW Tour Feburary 9-12
More Tour Journals


I feel good for fishing a month straight. Of course, you get on a roll and have some decent tournaments it definetely lifts your confidence and helps you get up and do it again. I have not been getting the sleep I expected. I have not been keeping up with emails and paperwork quite as much as I expected, but all in all, it's going great.
 
My fiance, Lori, and her children will be here on Friday night to see the final day of Toho. God willing, I will be in it, if not, we are heading to my sisters Sue, in Daytona area and have the opportunity to go to the NASCAR pre-race shoot outs on Saturday night. Then we are vacationing for a week before I get back on the road for TWO MONTHS!!!!
 
Physically, I'm doing well, some aches and pains, but feeling good. Trying to watch what I eat, but not always. Mentally, I'm doing well, but many things on my mind and I have a hard time focusing when that happens sometimes and Spiritually, I'm ALIVE
2/06/05 day 1 practice for FLW Tour: Lake Toho;
 
Got in from Harris chain and that crazy day of fishing with the 11lber and got on the water at Toho on Sunday. We had a front come through over the weekend and it's making fishing a bit tough. The big thing about Florida fishing this time of year is the fish are looking to move up and spawn. With these minor and major fronts passing through, it seems to keep holding the fish off.
 
You can see beds in areas, but I'm personally not spotting any bass on beds. Water is high 50's to low 60's and fish are not biting consistent in anything I tried. Had bites for BASS tournament mostly by flipping a Mizmo 4" tube but this time, only one bite doing that today, though it felt like a good one. Got 4 bites total, one on the tube, one on Senko and 2 on 7" worm.
 
I hope to get focused in one type of depth and have to be ready for fish to move up at ANY time. Suppose to be somewhat warm this week which will warm the water which should trigger some bass, especially with the new moon phase.
 
Thanks for reading,
 
Art Ferguson
 
 
2/07/05 day 2 practice for FLW Tour, Lake Toho;
 
Today went out with Troy Cox of Mizmo Bait Company and we decided to head south the Lake Cypress, Hatheninha (however you spell it) and Kissimmee. We covered a lot of water and 3 lakes. Weather was much warmer, getting up into 70's and water hitting mid 60's by late afternoon. Expected fish to be up and biting but only caught about 6 bass and couple small at that.
 
Thanks to a friend, who I will share about later this week....he helped me out and told me of an area, I went to it today and had 3 bass in a small area, including one about 3 1/2lbs.
 
Undecided as of 9:45pm of what to do on last day of practice. We caught them on a variety of lures today including Senkos, Mizmo Quiver Sticks (new stick bait) and worm and spinnerbait.
 
Thanks for reading,
 
Art Ferguson
2/08/05
day 3, FLW Tour practice on Lake Toho:
 
Today, I drove through the fog in my Nissan Titan all the way down to the south end of Kissimmee lake to check out some areas to fish for tournament. The drive took about 1 1/2 hours. Weather was beautiful, hi 70's and mostly sunny (perfect for finding spawners today, but didn't look). I stayed shallow all day and checked out the Kissimmee river with no success.
 
Don't feel in tune with what is going on and that might be perfect. Usually, when I'm not, that's a great time for God to move in my career! I am just going to stay focused on what I "feel led" to do and go from there. I will concentrate on shallow cover.
 
I did get a couple 2-2 1/2lb. bites up shallow throwing a Yamamoto Senko and Troy Cox of Mizmo was throwing their version the "Quiver Stick". Also a couple on worms.
 
Thanks for reading,
 
Art Ferguson
2/12/05
day 1, FLW Tour event, Lake Toho:
 
FOG!!! The fog to me and I didn't want to threaten my life to run in heavy fog for 25 miles. We hit it about 2 miles down Lake Toho and I decided to fish in Toho until the fog lifted. 2 1/2 hours later, I was heading to my destination. The south end of Kissimmee lake.
 
We got there and I fished some areas I located and what Jay Yelas had told me about and had no fish in the boat at 1:00pm. I decided to hit some canals that I had found late the last day of practice and had 6 bites landing 4 for 5-5. Small bass and I wasn't suprised. I didn't have a great practice and though the weather was AWESOME, in hi 70's today, I still didn't get on the shallow bite like so many other guys.
 
I caught the ones I had on a Yamamoto Senko in the canals and caught one good 2lber on a Mizmo black/blue 4" tube.
 
Spoke with great friend Alton Jones in evening and he put me on the pattern for tomorrow. Fish are SHALLOW and he gave me some tips on how to catch them. He had 12lbs today and said he had 20 keepers throwing as shallow as he could get on Kissimmee.
 
Thanks for reading,
 
Art Ferguson

I had to share my water with another angler-That is a Bald Eagle-very cool.

 

day 2, FLW Tour: Lake Toho-Weather changed today, though not bad, still about 70 out during the day, a major front coming through and got the winds up to 20mph. Still, I was fishing southwest end of Kissimmee and was protected pretty much from the wind.

 
My Triton TR21X series boat and my Mercury 225 OptiMax outboard got me to where I had to be after running over 160 miles the past 2 days for 15lbs of bass total. Amazing what we will do to catch a bass!!
 

We got on them very quickly. Shutting down and just started practice fishing shallow as Alton Jones had mentioned to me. Right off the bat my partner broke off a big fish on a Fluke and then started to throw a Yamamoto Senko to connect with 2 quick bass. I had started out fishing the Zoom Toad and had no bites, so switched to one of my favorites as you all know by now, a Senko and they started eating it up....unfortunetely, they weren't holding it. I honestly had 15 bites today on it and only landed 2. I couldn't figure it out, may have been setting it too quickly and needed them to have it longer.

 
I watched boils come up after it. I actually watched a 2 1/2lber eat it in about 2' of water and still missed it. Even had one smash a spinnerbait and missed it. It was CRAZY....was getting very frustrated and had a fellow angler pass me. He was throwing the Toad and I asked him if he had any bites on it and he caught 3 he had said. So, I packed up and moved to another area after fishing this one area pretty well and catching 2 each.
 
We ran until it looked good and stopped. Almost immediately, I had a nice bass swoosh on that Toad and I missed it at the boat. I had 45 minutes to fish and in that time, had 5 bites on the Toad and one on the Senko only landing 3. First fish on the Toad was a 4lber! Exciting, powerful hit!!
 
I told my partner at around 2:00, we need to get back through the locks (which was about 45 minutes too early) but said, I am going to make ONE MORE CAST and caught my 5th keeper on that cast! God is good!
 
Weighed in a respectable 9-14 and knew it wasn't enough to do anything. Had a blast, just kept missing bass all day. Landed 5 and had around 20-22 bites including the Senko, a junebug worm, the Toad and spinnerbait.
 
Thanks for reading,
 
Art Ferguson