I received a call from Rod Seaver this morning. He was looking for a Six Flags alternative and decided to give me a try. I described to him what I anticipated the fishery would do this evening and he was interested. Long story short, he booked a trip on short notice, brought his 12 year old son, Owen, out, accompanied by Owen’s buddy, 12 year old Landon Mulcahy. The whole gang is from Lampasas, TX.
Largemouth ruled the top…
And white bass reigned on bottom.
Before we set out in search of fish, I made sure all of the spinning rods I have dedicated to the “smoking” technique used with slabs had the handle on the correct side for everyone, and we then rehearsed what to do if we encountered a big school of white bass, as I had a feeling we’d run into some big schools of white bass as we downrigged this evening, based on what I saw on sonar during last night’s trip with some other youngsters.
Well, that worked out perfectly because, as I was barreling our way to where I thought the fish would be located tonight, something caught my eye. I saw a tern dive over open water. I watched the area where it dove and saw splashes coming up off the fairly calm surface. Those splashes were being made by largemouth bass pursuing shad at the surface. I pulled a hard turn and headed toward the action, just idling into the area as I got closer to where I’d mentally marked the activity. As I did, the screen absolutely light up with hundreds of white bass schooled together tightly, suspended over open water and feeding on shad.
We put the “smoking” lesson we’d just practiced to immediate use and landed fish non-stop for 2 hours, putting 84 fish in the boat before things began to ease off. The boys were working the slabs non-stop, and Rod was splitting his time between catching white bass down low and largemouth on the surface.
After the strong bite ended at around 6:30pm, we then spent the remainder of our time downrigging in pursuit of a 100 fish day. It took us about another 1.25 hours to meet this goal, but we did it and then some, putting exactly 102 fish in the boat for our efforts tonight including 6 largemouth bass, 2 freshwater drum, and 94 white bass, mostly in the 2-year old class, going right at 12.5 inches.
The following 3 phrases came out of the mouths of these 12 year olds: “Dad, this is way better than Six Flags!”, “I’d rather watch this downrigger rod than watch TV.”, and “I’d rather do this than play X-Box.” Those are truly compliments in this day and age!!
Rod, who is recovering from rotator cuff surgery, was about done as we hit the 100 fish mark, so, at that point he called an early end to our adventure and got the boys’ mouths watering by promising to hit a chicken joint on the way home.
TALLY = 102 FISH
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 4:30pm
End Time: 7:45pm
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 93F
Water Surface Temp: 86F
Wind Speed & Direction: ENE4-6
Sky Conditions: Hazy skies with 40% cloud cover.
Other: GT=45
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1031/1415 Smoking & Downrigging for white bass, topwater largemouth
**Area 1417 Downrigging for white bass
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Salado, TX
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com