This morning I welcomed aboard 4 1/2 year old Tres T., and his dad and grand-dad, J.J. and Dennis. Grandma Vikki set this trip up over a month ago and I was hoping against hope that we’d still have some sunfish up shallow, but this week’s hard cold front put the final nail in that coffin. However, that same cold front brought falling water temperatures which always creates a spike in fish activity this time of year and today we saw the first bit of that action. This was Tres’ trip and J.J. and Dennis were there to make that young man successful, not to catch fish themselves, which is really the best frame of mind to approach a trip with a boy so young.
Tres (with help from daddy J.J.) and his biggest fish of the trip — a trip which included catching the first fish of his life!
And, of course, we need to include grand-dad Dennis in a photo, too!
We got on the water just at sunrise, a few minutes before 8:00am. There aren’t a whole lot of options open for a 4 year old this time of year that are engaging enough to keep a youngster’s attention and which they can do well enough to be successful. We went with a downrigging approach and tried to keep Tres involved in every aspect of the technique, including stripping out the right amount of line, having him keep his hands on the downrigger crank as we dropped the ball, retrieving the ball, and, of course, reeling in the fish.
We hit the frontal cycle just right today as it was the first day of S. wind following several days of N. winds. The fish fed hard from sunrise until around 10am, then again from 11:30 to around 2:00p. We kept Tres very busy during the first of these two bites, often with both downrigger rods catching at the same time.
We fished two area over the 2 1/2 hours that Tres stayed engaged. The first area (BA: 8HG) was bounded by Areas 676, 677, and 473. At this location we found ample numbers of keeper whites tight to the bottom in 23-26 feet and took at least one fish on most every pass we made. We also picked up 1 short and 1 keeper hybrid here. All of these fish came on Pet Spoons.
The second area of success was in the vicinity of Area 080 (BA:15 HG). We arrived in this area around 9:30a as the bite was tailing out at our previous location. Here, in 35-37 feet of water over a fairly flat bottom, we found white bass schooled on the bottom with wolfpacks of 3-6 hybrid patrolling the middle of the water column at 12-29 feet. We put on one large Pet up high and one small Pet down low and combed out 2 more nice hybrid and 2 more white bass before Tres announced to all that he had enjoyed enough fishing for one day.
We headed over to the waterfall for some photos and some exploring, then did a bit of boat driving instruction just to try to round out little Tres’ outdoor experience this morning. He and his fishing buddies were headed back to Austin by around 10:30 with exactly 24 fish boated for their efforts today.
I then laid over and continued fishing and patrolling the lake for signs of fish activity, namely looking for any birds pointing the way to fish.
In about 4 hours’ time, I found fish in 3 separate locations. All of these fish responded well to a smoking retrieve as I used both a 3/8 and 3/4 oz. TNT 180 slab. I found these fish between Area 214 and 477 (BA: 9 HG), and at Area 686 (BA: 20 HG) and Area 687 (BA:4 HG). Over this 4 hour time I boated an additional 64 fish consisting only of white bass and hybrid striper. I caught a mix of legal and short fish of both varieties, including 3 more legal hybrid. At times, fish holding up high in the water column (7-12 feet down) would push shad to the surface and then pursue them on the surface. There was rarely more than 1-2 fish visually appearing on the surface at a given time.
TALLY = 88 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS
Start Time: 8:00a
End Time: 2:30p
Air Temp: 38F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: ~68.8F
Wind: Winds were light at S2-3 at sunrise, increasing to S7-8 by midday.
Skies: Skies were bright and clear the entire trip under high pressure.