I fished an evening “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Duane B. and his son, Dalton, as well as Dalton’s buddy, Sammy, and Sammy’s dad, Sam, all of Eddy, Tx. Both boys were 13 years old.
By luck of the draw, Sammy got his licks in first picking up this white bass with a Swimmin’ Image worked down at 30 feet.
Dalton was very focused and persistent right up to the last minute, and put his share of fish in the boat including this white bass that fell for a Pet Spoon worked at ~25 feet.
After fishing a morning trip this morning and experiencing a weak morning bite, and then an atypical midday bite, I was concerned that things might be tough this evening, and, with the 20+ mph winds eliminating some options, things looked even tougher before we even got on the water.
As we headed out, I checked over a few areas intending to cover some water with baits down while studying sonar to try to zero in on some fish. We spotted scattered whites suspended down at exactly 30 feet out to the east of Areas 214/307 but it was tough getting a bite. As we moved in closer to shore I saw more fish, but little bait, and we did pick up one solid white bass on a Swimmin’ Image. Further passes here were unsuccessful, as were attempts at several other areas.
We tried to fish Area 492, and got 4 sunfish (our intended quarry here) on slipfloats, but the wind peaked at around 24mph at this point and we had to give it up and head for calmer water.
We checked several areas and even put down livebaits at one area, but still came up short.
As we ran from one area to another, I spotted a briefly surfacing school of whites chasing very small shad on the surface just west of Area 447. I got us close and got the boys into the fish where we hooked 2 and landed 1 before the school sounded for good.
About an hour before sunset we made our way in to Area 387/565 and fished to the channel side of a line between the two. Sonar revealed a good mix of white bass and bait, suspended consistently at 25 feet. We ran twin ‘riggers over these fish for an hour plus and slowly but surely picked up white bass on a solo Pet as well as a Pet/Licker combo. Over this time we boated 7 fish here and missed two more. Action died as the sun set (which is a bit earlier than typical), and we had to settle for the hand we’d been dealt.
By trip’s end we’d put 13 fish in the boat. That’s pretty tough fishing for June when, typically, things are about as consistent as they’ll be all year. I suspect that until that seasonal high pressure system sets up over Texas heating us up and drying us out and making one day’s weather nearly identical to the next, that fishing’s going to be a bit hit or miss as it’s been lately.
TALLY = 13 Fish