I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip today with father and son Josh and Corrie M. of Killeen. Josh is a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, and Corrie is a bright 10 year old boy who loves fishing!
Corrie and his dad, Josh, with a pair of 14+ inch white bass taken on downriggers today.
We began our trip looking at first for some topwater action, but none was to be had, so we quickly focused on suspended fish and targeted them with downriggers.
We fished 3 areas thoroughly and had good results at two, and just fair results at the third.
Our most productive Area was along a circuit extending from Area 196 through Areas 39 and 41 to Area 40. I fished this area yesterday and found it even more productive today due to the presence of more bait. We ran our ‘riggers at 23-27 feet all day today; 23-24 feet was the ticket here. Based on a definite preference the fish showed for the White Willow spoon yesterday, I used twin Willows today and both rods stayed busy. We boated 19 fish at this location before the action died.
We then moved on to just N. of Area 644 and fished from here and to the W. by ~200 yards. There was a lot of bait in here, but it was in “blanket” mode and not in a defensive posture indicating the gamefish were not pursuing. We did run across a single large school of white bass, but, even with the balls very well adjusted we failed to hook up. We did land 3 white bass in here, but things just were clicking, so, we moved on.
We made our last stop at between Areas 457 to 458. We found fish here just 2-3 feet off bottom in 28 to 34 feet, and tried to keep the downriggers at 26-27 feet. We struggled a bit here at first, going over a lot of fish with relatively few striking. Then, one of the white bass we caught regurgitated a shad that allowed us to see the forage size these fish were keying on. We downsized to the small Pet Spoon on both rods at this point, and, despite the late hour (now past 10am) saw an uptick in our success to finish out the trip. After the bait change, we landed not only white bass, but a largemouth, a drum, and a channel cat which told me everything eating shad in that area was keying on those small baits.
We ended our trip with exactly 30 fish landed and ~3-4 more lost as Corrie got the hang of playing and fighting the fish down real well. The two have plans to head to Wisconsin before school begins and try their hand at musky fishing up there. I know Corrie will be up to the challenge!
TALLY = 30 FISH, all caught and released
Today’s Conditions: Start Time: 6:30a
End Time: 10:40a
Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s.
Water Surface Temp: ~86.1F
Wind: Winds were SSW at 4-5 before sunup and increased to SSW10-12 by trip’s end.
Skies: Skies were clear and dry under strong high pressure.