This morning I fished with the Mayberry family currently stationed at Ft. Hood. The Mayberry’s oldest child, 12 year old son Keaton, actually did all the fishing, the rest of the family (Dad, Mom, and baby sister) all just came along for the ride.

Keaton got tickled while looking at the minor movements that the white bass’ eye was making as he held this fish, our largest white of the trip, up close for the photo! This fish went 13.5″.

I met the Mayberry’s two weekends ago at the “Captains’ Weekend” event hosted by Cabela’s in Buda, TX. At this event, 25 guides from all over the state of Texas (both fresh and saltwater) were invited to set up booths to advertise their services, as well as to be present to answer questions, give guidance on gear, do seminars, etc. David is in the military, so we had that in common and began talking. As it turned out his son was about to go on his first wild turkey hunt and David thought a fishing trip would be the perfect Spring Break vacation addition to round out the outdoor experience, so, he booked a trip for the whole family.

I liked our conditions as we started off this morning — balmy, breezy, and grey.

I introduced Keaton to both flatline trolling and downrigging gear, and we ran one setup of each on opposite sides of the boat. The downrigger got us 3 fish with a White Willow Spoon attached to the business end, while the flatlining rig picked up a single on the Shad Rap. After the first two fish came on the downrigger, we buoyed a small concentration of fish, then backed off and cast Cicadas at them in ~13 feet of water. We boated 6 fish out of this school before they scattered. We then continued with the flatline and downrigging program for two final fish off this area (Area 1048/108) before moving on as the skies began to clear and the winds began to go slack.

We checked a few areas coming up with just 1 white bass and 1 crappie at Area 986/789. We continued to struggle for about 90 minutes as bright, calm conditions prevailed.

Finally, around 10:30a, a light S. breeze began to come up and we headed to open water where its effects would be most felt. We got on fish at Area 1052 and boated exactly 23 white bass here, all on a TNT180 slab, and all with a jigging technique.

TALLY = 35 fish, all caught and released.

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp: 63F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 58.0F

Wind: Winds were S6 until 9:15a, then went calm, then picked up at S8-9 after 10:30a.

Skies: Skies were 100% overcast when the wind blew, and partly sunny during the calm mid-morning time.

This morning I fished with returning guests “Grandma” Joyce W. and two of her six grandsons, Nate (8) and C.J. (12). This is the fourth year in a row the trio has made the drive from the Dallas area to camp out in a Salado hotel and then fish with me during Spring Break.

C.J. was “Mr. Consistent” today, keeping his vertical jigging technique just right when it counted and he enjoyed consistent success as a result.

Nate, we joked, was like the blind sow that occasionally found the acorn! He sang, told jokes, listened intently to my war stories, snacked, and, oh yeah, caught a fish now and then, too!!

Over the years we’ve encountered some crazy Spring Break weather, and this year was no exception. Over the weekend a cold front, followed by a slow moving Pacific low pressure system dumped rain over all of Central Texas. We got 2.2 inches on the south shore of Stillhouse, but the lake didn’t take on much runoff. However, a heavy blanket of fog awaited us this morning but, fortunately, began clearing as we got out on the water.

We started early doing some trolling to find fish and then cast Cicadas to them once we found larger concentrations and buoyed them. We boated 15 fish in the vicinity of Area 995 in 15-17 feet of water during the time that some lifting fog obscured the sunlight.

We struggled a bit during mid-morning as the fog lifted leaving us with bright, calm conditions (among the toughest for white bass fishing).

By 10:45, a light S. breeze at 6-7 picked up and the skies went from bright to fair. We hit some deepwater areas (40-45 feet) and found congregated white bass ready to feed. We stayed atop Area 1042 for ~2.5 hours steadily boating fish with a jigging retrieve, an easing tactic, and, occasionally, with a slow smoking tactic. We put 41 fish in the boat at this one location over this time frame including 40 white bass and 1 drum, which Nate was enamored with (hence the photo above).

One of the lighter moments of the trip came when a kind of quiet had fallen upon us … Joyce was enjoying being outdoors, C.J. was concentrating on jigging for his next white bass, I was focused on reading sonar, and Nate was (suspiciously) quiet. For no reason whatsoever, Nate states, “I’m adorable.” Joyce and I just looked at one another, smiled, shook our heads, and went back to enjoying the quiet.

TALLY = 56 fish, all caught and released.

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 1:15p

Air Temp: 53F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 58F

Wind: Winds were calm at (obscured) sunrise and until around 10:30, turning S6-7 for the remainder of the trip thereafter .

Skies: Skies were fair.