PM TRIP DETAILS:

I fished an evening “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with little Lily L. and Jason B. Miss Lily had fished one time before and had a close encounter with a turtle, but had never caught a fish in her life at the tender age of 5.

Lily’s first bass – and the largest fish of our trip today!!

So, we set out to change that for the better today and, about 6 minutes after she arrived, we were successful at doing just that. Her first fish, a green sunfish, earned her a Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. “First Fish” award.

We had high pressure building in with the winds calming, meaning the pressure was no longer changing much, but was now high and staying there, so the conditions were much tougher than we experienced this morning with a still-rising barometer.

I introduced Lily to using a slip float rig, and she went right to town on the local sunfish population in and around Area 239, boating a mixed bag of 10 longear, bluegill, and green sunfish in under half an hour.

I then suggested that we try for some bigger fish, and she was game for that. We looked over Area 206-665 and found little. We then downrigged over Area 032 and pulled up a single 2 pound largemouth bass which would be our largest fish of the trip. This area did not continue to produce, so, we headed on to Area 671 to 453. Despite some solid sonar readings on fish at 38 to 41 feet deep that I know were white bass, we only got 2 fish to strike and lost both as they “arm wrestled” Lily’s rod down flat and pulled off without any shock absorption left in her gear.

We let these fish regroup and headed off to Area 231 to once again mix it up with some sunfish, and boated an even dozen sunfish, most of which were greenies.

Once we thinned these fish out, we returned to Area 671 – 453 and again had a tough time catching despite plenty of fish showing deep on sonar.

Finally, just before, during, and after sunset we concentrated our efforts between Areas 644 and 665 and boated 6 nice white bass to cap off the evening.

I think the neatest thing I’ll remember about this trip was Lily’s little “shriek” that she made. It was a blend of a lot of excitement and a wee bit of fear all coming out in one sound at experiencing something very new but being a bit unsure of it all. This was especially noticeable when either Mr. Jason or I let a fish get a bit too close for comfort!!

As we wound down our evening, our count stood at 30 fish, all caught and released.

AM TRIP DETAILS:

The fishing this morning was on fire. I fished solo to try to pin down some locations in advance of a trip scheduled for the evening, and on the heels of our first significant cold front that began pushing in Sat/Sun.

I fished 4 areas and found fish at 2.

My first stop came at Area 999. I fancast a Cicada right at sunrise and came up with 3 white bass.

I then hit both Areas 123 and 116 and zeroed.

Around 8:15 I headed to Area 037, saw some fish identifiable ONLY with the downlooking feature of Structure Scan, buoyed them and began jigging. In 90 minutes I boated 38 fish including 2 keeper largemouth, and a mix of 36 keeper and short white bass. Every one of these fish hit a smoked slab. I tried both a 1/4 silver Rattle Snakie and a 3/4 oz. slab. The fish definitely preferred the smaller profile, telling me that the forage was likely smallish threadfin shad.

At 9:00 the fishing was getting soft and by 9:25 it was over.

TALLY = 41 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s tally = 41 in the AM, 30 in the PM = 71 Fish on the day.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start/End Time: 7:00a to 9:30a and 3:45p to 7:50p

Air Temp: 56F (AM); 76F (PM)

Water Surface Temp: ~80.1F

Wind: Winds were light from the N at around 7-8.

Skies: Skies were high, clear, blue, and dry.