I fished a half-day morning trip today with First Sergeant Steve M. of Copperas Cove. Steve is a married father of two, and is an Iraqi War vet with the 1st Cavalry Division (Thanks for serving!!) Steve just purchased a new bass boat and is new to both boating and Texas fishing, so he wanted a general introduction to both during our time on the water.

Steve with a shallow water black that nailed a Zoom Brush Hog.

2 of the 68 white bass we worked over with blade baits today.

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 1:40p

Air Temp: 67F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~64F.

Wind: Winds were already pushing from the S at 7 at (obscured) sunrise, and increased slowly up to 18mph from the S. by 10am, and then leveled off.

Skies: Skies were heavy and grey until 11:30, then slowly cleared to partly cloudy.

We started our day off in 18-21 feet of water looking at Area 165 with sonar after failing to see any bird activity of note. Fish and bait were both present here, so we began our day vertical jigging over these fish. Steve got the hang of the technique, but, the fish were really sluggish. I landed 3, and they all required a bit of finesse, and they were smallish, so, after spending about 20 minutes over these fish and only getting follows but no strikes on Steve’s rod, we moved on. As we ran from place to place I was constantly pointing out sonar interpretation tips and boat handling considerations to Steve. I turned the trolling motor over to him at one point so he could get a feel for fishing with his hands while maneuvering with his feet into a ~15 mph wind.

We next connected with fish at Area 613. We worked blades baits in 5 to 13 feet of water on this fairly flat terrain and found white bass of all sizes holding very tight to the bottom here. The largest went no more than 12.25 inches. Surprisingly, we only hooked one hybrid, a short fish, but lost it at the boat. I was using a white/blue Cicada and struggled a bit while Steve did well on all white. I then changed over to chartreuse and did just fine. Eventually, the fish lost interest in white as the skies brightened and the wind stirred up the silt in here pretty badly. We finished up both using chartreuse. The 3/8 oz. version did the trick for us fished lift-drop style with a fairly slow retrieve. We stayed on these fish for nearly 3 hours, and boated a total of 65 fish here, with numerous other fish hooked and lost. Our tally now stood at 68 fish and the white bass action was clearly over.

We wrapped up our day by changing gears and giving Steve an intro to classic Texas Rig lizard fishing. We hit a protected cove between Areas 585 and 586 and found some buck bass up in the shallows. A Zoom Brush Hog did the trick for 2 small fish, but, small or not, the fundamentals were learned: anticipating ambush points, casting, controlling slack, maintaining contact with the lure and with bottom, line watching, ensuring line control to allow for a hookset, hooksetting, playing, and landing.

We wrapped up a bit before 2p. I very much enjoy “teaching” trips like this one. They’re especially enjoyable when you have an eager, teachable person like Steve on board.

TALLY = 70 FISH, all caught and released