This morning I fished with retired University of Texas history professor Dr. George W. of Austin.
Around 11am, under heavy grey skies, a SE wind, and light rain, George landed this 7.00 pound largemouth from out of a school of mixed year-class white bass.
George and I first met several weekends ago when I presented a seminar about sonar use and interpretation at the Cabela’s store in Buda, TX. We agreed then and there to do a trip that included both catching fish and practical sonar interpretation and adjustment.
As we got going this morning we encountered several brief episodes wherein birds (mainly terns) would feed over both loons and gamefish. Since we found this action mainly in water less than 15 feet deep, we cast horizontally with bladebaits or worked light slabs on mono for these fish. By 10:30 we’d put together a catch of 24 white bass, all of which were solid, thick 13-14″ fish. These came off of Areas 116/407 (7:15-7:45), Area 1176 via vertical jigging (8:30-9:00), and off Area 741 (9:30-10:00).
As the bird and fish action slowly died, I headed out to search deeper areas with sonar. We found a solid school of bottom-hugging white bass at Area 074 around 10:30 and went to work vertically jigging slabs on braid. We doubled our catch to 48 fish in ~35 minutes, and, by the time the school dissipated around 12:15, we’d nearly tripled our shallow water catch, taking our tally up to 69.
Satisfied with our results, we turned our focus to sonar use. Actually, we payed close attention to sonar all morning which served as a bit of “OJT” for George, however, there were some specific skills that he wanted to be sure to have nailed down before hopping back in his own boat on Lake LBJ. We worked on waypoint creation and management originating from the chart screen, the sonar screen, and the StructureScan screen, and then how to access these in the files section under the Waypoints tab. George was a pretty quick study (hey, what do you expect from a professor?), so, when I turned the unit over to him, he did all the right button pushes showing he’d understood the rationale for doing as we did.
George is a well-traveled fisherman with a lot of experience in the big tidal rivers of the Northeast. Comparing notes with him was very enjoyable for me — he may have even convinced me to try a “wacky worm” this year!!
TALLY = 69 fish, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 12:30p
Air Temp: 56F at trip’s start
Water Surface Temp: ~57F
Wind: Winds were ESE most of the morning, ranging from 7-11 mph.
Skies: Skies were heavy grey with occasional drizzle and light rain.