This afternoon Mickey and I hit Ferguson with the gauge reading 8 feet. We were marveling at all the things that we can see now that the water is down. Good thing we had that to amuse us because we sure weren’t catching many fish. I started with a Bomber Fat Free Shad, the largest one they make and it was trying to pull the plug out of the lake bottom. When I tired of that a brand new Strike King XD5 was next. A gar promptly snipped it off after a few casts and it took about 5 anxious minutes to float to the top.  After that I went back to the FFS and finally caught a fish. It seemed like I had a strike and I set the hook, but nothing, so I stopped the bait to take up the slack line and when I caught up the fish was on. Mickey was fishing with a DT-16 and he caught a couple pretty much the same way. We moved and I came up with this.

Certainly not the FOD but an unlucky cooter hooked by the back foot. That FFS has some good hooks. By the end of the day I almost had a blister on my hand from that hard pulling FFS. We found a few fish but they were scattered and were not enthusiastic about biting. The fish are not fat but long and lean. The FOD we caught was 3-1 but earlier  this year would have been 3 1/2.  It seems almost like the warm water has diminished their appetite. I do not know the answer but we got our fanny spanked this afternoon. We only caught 7,  5 of which I invited home to dinner. I have a new ceviche  recipe that I want to try. If I like it I’ll put it on here.

I went to see Hal Friday in the Memphis hospital. He had a 4X bypasses and had returned to a room. I thought he looked surprisingly good.  Richard called today to bring me up to date on a few complications that have set in since I left. I think what started it all was the doctor told him it was going to be a pretty good while before he was going to be able to go fishing. Lets all say prayer for him to get well soon.