This morning I fished with long-time returning guest Pitt G. of Austin. I’ve fished with Pitt on Stillhouse, Georgetown, and Belton before, but this was the first time we’ve used live shad on a trip of his.
This healthy, hard-fighting Lake Belton hybrid slammed a live shad and tipped the scales at 4.75 pounds.
Pitt is never so much interested in catching the fish as he is in figuring out how the fish are caught. Accordingly, he always arrives prepared with some key questions he’s looking to get answers to. Some have to do with electronics, some with wind and weather, some with seasonal transitions. His questions are always good ones and it makes for a great trip to be engaged in conversation in between fish.
Since our last trip together Pitt has added a trolling motor with i-Pilot technology and a single Lowrance HDS-10 to his own boat, so, many of his questions had to do with getting the most out of his new gear, as I have identical equipment on my boat.
Shad were a bit tough to come by this morning but, as the old song goes, “…I get by with a little help from my friends.” By trip time, I had more than enough bait and we set out in search of hybrid.
Between the time I finished collecting bait and the time Pitt arrived, I did a bit of scouting to try to find active fish to immediately put him on once he arrived. I was fortunate to find fish at the third area I searched with sonar, so, when Pitt arrived, we headed right there and got to work.
As has been the case over the past several trips, we could scarely get 2 of the planned 4 rods in the water before our baits were hit and the game was on.
We stayed on Area 1075 the entire trip boating a mixed bag of keeper and short hybrid, keeper whites, 2 blue catfish, and a largemouth bass.
By around 10:15 a nagging back injury was telling Pitt he needed to not overdo it, so, we decided to wrap it up a bit early. By this time we’d already boated 56 fish including 4 keeper hybrid, the largest of which (pictured above) went 4.75 pounds.
This is going on the 5th week of the shad spawn, so it won’t be lasting much longer. We’ll keep making hay while the sun shines, though!
As we headed back in, we did so at idle speed for quite some distance as I constantly changed screen views and manipulated screen variables so Pitt could appreciate the different capabilities of his own sonar unit the next time he fishes from his own rig.
TALLY = 56 Fish, all caught and released.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 7:45a
End Time: 10:30a
Air Temp:74F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 73.6F
Wind: Winds were SSE16 for the entire trip.
Skies: Skies were partly cloudy on a fair blue background.
Environmental Note: Elevation was 594.18 ASL releasing water at 325 cfs, with normal full pool at 594.