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.