This morning I fished with Preston S. from Phoenix, AZ, and his father-in-law, Phil, from near Torrance, CA.
Preston (L) and Phil (R) with our four best white bass of this morning’s trip.
Both men were here in Central Texas for the birth of Phil’s grand-daughter, who arrived healthy and happy just yesterday at Darnall Hospital on Ft. Hood.
Preston is a former Los Angeles policeman and Dept. of Justice agent who is now working in real estate around the Phoenix area. He has his own boat and does a bit of reservoir fishing, mainly for largemouth bass. Phil, on the other hand, came to America as a boy of 8 from Puerto Rico. He and his wife raised 4 daughters and a son while working as a maintenance man for the Honeywell Corp. He is now retired, and, at age 73 had never wet a line nor landed a fish before in his life. We fixed that!!
As they have been doing over the past several days, the white bass fed even more heavily on the surface from just minutes before sunrise to around 8:15am. This took place in the vicinity of Area 160/205, and out to Area 1221. During this time, I maneuvered the boat from school to school putting Preston and Phil within casting distance of the fish. We used spinning tackle to throw small bladebaits imitating the young of the year shad these white bass were feeding upon. Most well-placed casts landing as the fish fed or very briefly after they had disappeared from the surface drew a strike. We fished for over 5 1/2 hours, but landed the majority of our fish during this first 90+ minute feed. The fishes’ activity level dropped off sharply thereafter, as it often does this time of year.
When the topwater feed had all but ended, we immediately switched over to downrigging using tandem rigs to present Pet Spoons at depth to target the same fish which had been feeding at the surface, but which were now down at mid-depths (19-26 feet or so). We successfully downrigged for the remainder of our time on the water at Areas 1221, 453/822, and 457/1135.
One of Preston’s desires was to get exposure to techniques he was not already familiar with. As I downrig in the summer months, I’ll often come across solid concentrations of fish, either suspended or on bottom, which I feel I can target with a vertical presentation by hovering over top of them and working a jigging spoon (a slab) around them. Although we really didn’t encounter a solid opportunity to do this today, we “made do” and at least showed Preston the mechanics of the presentation. We did land 3 white bass in this manner, so he was able to get the gist of it, but he also realized how much more effective downrigging was for fish that had begun to turn off.
By trip’s end, thanks to a solid topwater bite and catching quite a number of “doubles” on the downriggers, we amassed a catch of exactly 110 fish, including 1 drum, 1 sunfish, 3 largemouth bass, and 105 white bass.
TALLY = 110 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 6:15a
End Time: 12:10p
Air Temp: 63F at trip’s start with very low humidity.
Water Surface Temp: 81F
Wind: Winds were ~3-5mph from the NNE, then shifting thru the E, to SSE at 10mph by trip’s end.
Skies: Skies were fair with 10-20% cloud cover.
Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas