This morning I welcomed back Jenn (mom) and 15 year old Jess (daughter) Dietz of Round Rock. Jess was fishing, Jenn was an innocent by-stander, and I was doing the best I could to run the trolling motor and keep the fish perked up for my teenaged partner.

Jess D. of Round Rock with 2 of 45 fish we boated today.

Jess with a scrappy black bass we boated amidst a mixed school of fish, all keyed on shallow shad. From the same 15′ x 15′ area came white bass, crappie, a gar, and this fish.

With an obscured sunrise, things got off to a slow start before the skies brightened enough to kick things in gear. As we “treaded time” waiting for nature to wake up, we sniped a single white bass at Area 102 over 29 feet of water.

With plenty of birds in this vicinity, but none taking flight and acting “fishy”, I decided to move and do some looking when the light level got just about right.

We first spotted some action (BA:18T,4G) at Area 729, and noted as we fished that there were distinct pockets of activity from here southward nearly all the way to the bank. White bass were pursuing shad aggressively. We were catching them in 19 feet of water right where the flat breaks, but fish were found all over the flat, the break, and down to about 14′ over the channel.

We spot hopped several times just trying to stay up with the action, and boated fish at Area 729 (4 white bass), Area 730 (8 white bass and 1 crappie), Area 727 (16 white bass, 1 crappie, 1 largemouth, and 1 missed longnose gar), and the span between Area 105 and 728 (11 white bass). In all cases, straightforward jigging accounted for most of the fish, with an easing tactic reviving the bite and perking up a few fish when things got quiet. We tried using a lift-drop technique today on a few occasions, but, the water is still a bit cool and this didn’t pay off as well as it will as the water warms a bit more.

By about 11:15 the action was waning.

We moved downlake to see if any residual bird activity was taking place, but found none. I sampled Area 161 and we pulled 2 short white bass off that area, but it was like pulling teeth at this point.

We called it a day at that point and returned to the dock where I demonstrated for Jess how to assemble and use a slip bobber rig for sunfish. I left the two at the dock for a bit so Jess could practice casting without feeling the pressure of someone watch her as she worked the kinks out. When I returned, both were kind of grinning. I though perhaps they’d landed a sunfish after I’d just explained at length why not to expect to catch sunfish in the shallow water this early in the season. Well, that was not to be. It seems that Jess’ dad, Carl, who was accompanying her not-so-outdoorsy sister for the morning, was unwittingly dragged into a prom dress store to shop while dressed in his Saturday DIY project finest. Mom was, despite the cool, damp conditions, suddenly all too happy to be the one on fish patrol — hence all the grinning.

TALLY = 45 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:45am

Starting Air Temp: 47F

Water Surface Temp: 56.6F

Wind: SSE9 nearly the entire trip, changing suddenly to S11 right at 10:45.

Skies: Completely grey and overcast to just shy of the point of misting.

Encouraged by this morning’s results AND the fact that the warm, muggy S. winds and heavy cloud cover continued into the afternoon, contrary to the forecast, I did a bit of probing this evening in the last hours of daylight.

We had “white bass weather” all day today which got the fish up shallower and put them in the mood to feed. This screenshot shows gamefish and bait up high in the water column.

I headed out at 4:45pm and fished until dark (~6:30).

I found two distinct groups of fish, one at the base of the breakline in 25 feet of water off of Area 728 (picked up 9 fish there), and another group of fish right at the top of the breakline in 19 feet at Area 732. I was very appreciative of a fellow angler who motioned to me and told me that he’d found fish in the area, landed 6 immediately, and was continuing to see fish on sonar but not catch them. I accepted his invitation to join him (and kept my distance until that was offered) and also begin seeing fish on sonar. I was using a TNT180 in 3/8 oz, — all white; he had on an elongated slab in white and green. I was able to boat 18 fish in a matter of minutes right until the moment the sun set. At that moment the fish quit orienting to the bottom and began to rise up in the water column (I’ve seen this many times and theorize that it is to rise, along with the bait, to the more well-lit water near the surface to continue feeding in the failing light). As I witnessed this on sonar, I immediately began flatline trolling with crankbaits and boated 8 more fish in the last 15 minutes of the trip.

I would mark today as the day that we “turned the corner” on Spring fishing. This is the first time I’ve seen fish up shallow and the first time this winter I’ve seen fish not only aggressively pursue a lure, but willing to rise quickly and go quite some distance for a lure originating some distance from them. It should only get better from here on in given stable weather and the absence of flooding rains.

TALLY = 34 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 4:45p

End Time: 6:30p

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~56.5-58.3F

Wind: Winds were SSW12.

Skies: Skies were 80% cloudy.