I fished again this morning with Army Captain Nathan H. Nathan is an easy-going, likable fellow who really has a desire to learn to fish better, and, most importantly, he is very teachable and listens well to the guidance I try to provide to enhance his success. We fished together for the first time late last week and, despite it being a slow day, Nathan took away some valuable lessons which he put into practice right away while fishing on his own the following weekend. He sent me a note that he’d like to chase white bass once again before he deploys later this spring, so, when I saw today’s favorable forecast (stiff SW winds, heavy cloud cover, in advance of a wind shift prior to a mild cold front) I gave him a ring. He rearranged a few things with his First Sergeant and we made a short morning outing with me out of it.

On this, his 2nd trip in two weeks pursuing white bass, Nathan was much more adept at reading sonar, at knowing where his lure was in reference to the boat, bottom and fish, and then effectively reacting to gamefish as they showed on sonar. We boated 23 keeper white bass today including these 13 and 14 inchers.

As we got going this morning, birds were present but not working fish. We used sonar to find ample numbers of suspended gamefish in and around Area 102. The water was warm enough and the fish were active enough to use a smoking tactic with TNT180’s (white, 3/8 oz.) to target those fish we found on sonar. At this area, every fish we caught was suspended. Over the course of the first two hours of the trip, we slowly put together a tally of 18 fish with only one hooked fish lost before being landed. Most of the fish that fell for our presentation first presented on sonar at around 14-23 feet and with schoolmates. Later, the fish seemed to push down a bit and were not as likely to be found high in the water column.

After that action died, we headed to Area 161 and found some sluggish fish tight to the bottom in 22-23 feet of water. These fish responded best to an easing tactic. We boated 3 fish here before searching for greener pastures.

Downlake from Area 161 proved to hold little today, so with Nathan’s report time drawing ever nearer and the bite beginning to soften, we returned to Area 102 and capped the day off with on last white bass for Nathan at that location.

By 11:10 he was on the road and by 11:15 it was pouring down rain (the guy has great timing!).

I expect great improvement in the fishing from this point forward, albeit weather dependent, as always.

For our efforts today we boated 23 healthy, plump white bass.

TALLY = 23 fish, all caught and released

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:00am

Starting Air Temp: 65F

Water Surface Temp: 55-56F

Wind: SSW9 at sunrise slowly increasing to SSW13 by trip’s end

Skies: Completely grey and overcast to the point of rainfall right as our trip concluded.