This morning I welcomed back Trey and Ann B. of Georgetown and their sons, Brandon and Jon. This family had come out with me once before back in August of 2009 but recently got rid of their own boat and just had to scratch that fish-itch before the summer was over.
(L to R) Trey, Ann, Brandon, and Jon with 4 of our 87 fish boated today, primarily on downriggers with a bit of topwater and a bit of slabbing thrown in for good measure.
We met at 6:30a and first made sure everyone was familiar with the tackle and the techniques we would employ. We then headed out in search of fish.
The first area we searched was within a 200 foot radius of Area 1243. Shad were abundant but there were noticeably fewer gamefish in here than on most mornings last week. We caught fish consistently, but never found large concentrations of them to stop and fish for as I thought we might. We put 23 fish in the boat here before leaving.
As we fished Area 1243, I kept noticing topwater action in the chop caused by the 12-13 mph wind. A combination of white bass and small largemouth were feeding on shad at and on the surface. We dropped back into the fish between Area 851 and 1244 and had success both casting Cork Rigs and “smoking” with slabs. We added 16 fish to our count in short order before the brightening sun killed the topwater bite once and for all.
We moved on to Area 070/883/882 and found abundant white bass holding just above and off of the breakline here at about 29-31 feet down. Try as we might, despite seeing multiple, dense schools of white bass, these fish would simply not respond well to a vertical presentation. By way of example, while set up just to the NW of Area 070, with 5 rods working slabs for 10+ minutes, we managed one largemouth and 2 white bass. After changing over to downriggers and working the same area horizontally, we came up with 4 sets of doubles and 1 single fish in roughly the same period of time. This happened to us at least 3-4 times. Ultimately, we spent the majority of our time downrigging here, often picking up doubles and double-doubles (four fish on two rods, all hooked and boated at the same time).
By 10am things were slowing down, and by 10:30am we were really scraping the bottom of the barrel for “just one more”. By 10:45 Trey had everyone thinking about what was for lunch, so, we called it a good day right then instead of turning a great 4 hour trip into a 5 hour endurance test (good call, Dad).
Our catch of 87 fish consisted of 5 largemouth bass, and 82 white bass.
TALLY = 87 FISH, all caught and released
Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page
TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 6:30a
End Time: 10:45a
Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 84.6F
Wind: Winds were SSW10 at sunrise, tapering up to SSW14 by trip’s end.
Skies: 60% cloud cover on a fair sky.
Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas