I fished a full day trip today with Doug B. of Killeen. Like many fellows I take out, Doug has a good bit of fishing experience, a boat, and sonar, but has had trouble bringing all of those to bear to produce any amount of consistency.
Doug and I encountered steady fishing all day long today boating hybrid stripers of all sizes, white bass of all sizes, largemouth bass, and even a flathead catfish.
That’s me with our “token” catfish. A 4.75 pound beady-eyed yellow cat that decided a jigging spoon was too good to pass up.
Doug was great company – easy-going, lots of stories, and willing to listen and learn. We got to talk about fishing in Canada, fishing the coast, politics, agriculture, construction, God, kids, trucks, and more, but not necessarily in that order!
As we fished today we also specifically worked on sonar use and interpretation, and understanding lake-bottom topography.
With abundant time and cooperative fish, we also got to fine-tune some of the skills Doug already had such as his hook setting technique, his jigging technique, and handling fish more efficiently during hook removal.
The fish activity mimicked the wind speed today with stronger winds bringing a stronger bite and so on. The fish actually fed, albeit lightly at times, all day today. At every stop our most productive method was vertical jigging with a 3/4 oz. TNT 180 slab in natural shad colors including silver and white very near the bottom. Fish were generally too sluggish to respond to an easing or a smoking retrieve.
We found fish at four different areas as follows:
Area 725 (BA:16T, 6RBG) — 64 fish including 62 white bass, 1 hybrid, and 1 yellow cat, all in 17-22 feet of water and all on slabs using a jigging technique.
Area 211 — 16 fish, all white bass
Area 308/993 – 45 fish, mix of whites, short hybrid, and 3 barely keeper largemouth.
Area 817 (BA:3RBG, 8T) – 16 fish, 2 keeper hybrid and a mix of short hybrid and white bass.
If you’re reading this and are contemplating a Christmas holiday fishing trip, please don’t delay in getting that on the books. The week either side of Christmas will offer great fishing due to high water temperatures, but availability will be limited due to advanced bookings.
Also, remember I do have gift certificates available.
I’m at:
Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
TALLY = 141 FISH, all caught and released.
Start Time: 7:30a
End Time: 2:45p
Air Temp: 48F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: ~55.4F
Wind: Winds were SE7 until noon when the began to slowly settle to near calm by 3p.
Skies: Skies were greyed over the entire trip.