Jake and Chris are both Specialists in the U.S. Army working in Army Aviation, specifically, with the Apache attack helicopter. They share a common interest in fishing and contacted me about a month ago to schedule this trip after finding me using a Google search.
When Jake and I first spoke, he told me about a fairly elaborate contest that he and about 5-6 other friends had entered into. The way I understand it, the entire group agrees upon a contest start date and end date — typically around a 9-month span. During that time, each participant weighs and photographs each fish they catch using a Berkley digital scale. The fish are released, but the cumulative weight is tallied. At the end of the 9-month period, the person with the highest cumulative weight is declared the winner. What does the winner get, you may ask? The same group has developed plans for a grand trophy rivaling the size and appearance hockey’s Stanley Cup. Now, this Stanley Cup of Angling has never actually been made, but, just the idea of winning such a grand prize, even if it is in a conceptual state only, is evidently enough to keep these guys going.
And so it was, for every one of the 53 fish we put in the boat today, a quick weight was taken, along with an accompanying photo!
Fortunately, the fish cooperated sufficiently this morning to help advance both Jake and Chris in their standings. We shoved off right at 6:45am, and were into fish within 10 minutes. At first we downrigged for high-riding suspended fish up high in the water column taking advantage of the minimal light available there. As the wind and light level increased, the fish pushed down in the water column and began to feed within a few feet of the bottom. By 8:45am a full-on feed was going on, allowing us to put over 30 fish in the boat over the next hour.
Every last fish we boated today was a white bass, ranging from 1-3 years old and going from 0.25 pounds up to just a shade over 1 pound (remember, we actually weighed EVERY one!!).
As the action was ramping up and tapering down, we boated fish on Pet Spoons fished on a tandem rig behind downriggers, and, when the feed was peaked, we caught them within feet of bottom on slabs and bladebaits worked horizontally.
We finished up with 53 fish, with only 1 fish landed in the final hour on the water.
TALLY = 53 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 11:15a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F
Water Surface Temp: 74F
Wind Speed & Direction: SE12-13 for the entire trip
Sky Conditions: 100% heavy cloud cover.
Note: Most fish showed evidence of feeding on mayfly nymphs, as well as shad.
Other: GT=0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 088/129
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Salado, TX
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com