This
morning I fished with mother and son team Kelly and Matthew Morrison of Temple, Texas. This was the Morrison family’s 14th outing with me over the past 4 years.
Matthew and Kelly with 2 of the 27 legal (18+ inch) hybrid striped bass they caught this morning.
Matthew caught this 6.00 pound, 23.25 inch hybrid this morning, the largest hybrid any of my clients have taken so far this 2014 season.
Matthew is now 16 years old, involved in baseball and golf, learning to drive, and is a big University of Texas Longhorn’s fan and Texas Rangers baseball fan. Both dad (John) and mom usually accompany Matthew on our trips, but a speaking engagement in the Dallas area found John away from home today. Kelly had just spent a very full day outdoors with her niece at a school field day yesterday, so she was ready to take it easy and let Matthew do most of the rod work today.
One of the things I most enjoy about fishing is that no two days are alike. There are so many variables at work — wind speed, wind direction, day length, cloud cover, water level, and the list goes on. Trying to make correlations between what I’m observing and fish activity is an engaging mental exercise which I’ve long enjoyed.
Today was a bit odd. After 4 days of stable weather and with winds turning to a favorable SW direction and at a manageable speed, I expected high numbers of fish today. With high numbers of fish typically come a good percentage of smallish fish including white bass, sub-legal hybrid striped bass, and blue catfish.
What actually played out today was that we caught fewer fish than in the past several trips, but, the proportion of these which were large, quality, hybrid striped bass was high — 27 of 33 fish to be exact were at least 18 inches in length, with one fish going exactly 23.25 inches and weighing in at exactly 6.00 pounds on a certified scale.
Just when you think you’ve figured things out, you learn how much more there is to learn.
TALLY = 33 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 11:50p
Air Temp: 54F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 68.4F
Wind: SW12 at trip’s start, then increasing to SW15 through 11a, then dying off to SW8 by trip’s end.
Skies: Cloudless fair sky
Other Notes: GT35
Areas Fished with success:
**1199 to 1125 Netted shad here in the AM
** 1374/1294 caught 23 fish here until 9:00am
** 930 caught 4 keeper hybrid here
** 953 caught 2 keeper hybrid here
**835 caught 4 keeper hybrid here
Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas