Day: January 28, 2016

Happy Birthday, Dad … Happy Birthday, Son — 94 Fish, Stillhouse, 27 Jan.

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I fished with Jeff Wynn and his father, John Wynn.  Jeff is a firefighter on Fort Hood, and John retired from law enforcement and now serves as a municipal court bailiff. The two have birthdays on either side of this date they chose for the trip, although I do believe any excuse would have passed in order to allow for a day on the water.

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Most winter trips targeting deep white bass result in at least a few largemouth and drum caught, as well.  Here, John shows the largest of the two largemouth we took this morning.

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John and Jeff show a sampling of the 96 fish we caught this morning in deep, cool water, including multiple white bass exceeding 14″.

We saw a mild, dry cold front move through mid-day yesterday, so I was concerned about our weather this morning. Bright, cold, and windless conditions can be quite tough, however, the forecast indicated we were to have 10 to 11 mile-per-hour winds this morning. Fortunately, those winds did develop about 45 minutes after sunrise, and the fish responded accordingly. After downrigging during the windless 45 minutes following sunrise and catching nothing, we moved as the wind began to blow and spotted gull activity spurred on by the feeding fish beneath them. From roughly 8 AM to 10:45 AM we enjoyed nonstop action on deep, heavily congregated white bass, with an occasional largemouth bass and freshwater drum mixed in.

We caught fish on three distinct areas this morning. The first area was the shallowest at about 34 feet, the second area we fished was the deepest at 43 feet, and we wrapped up at a third productive area in 39 feet.

The quality of the white bass we caught today was exceptional. Only two of the 96 fish we caught today were below the 10 inch limit, and most were right at 13 to 13.5 inches.

Our go to lure today was the three-quarter ounce white Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 in the three-quarter ounce size, equipped with both a trouble hook and a Gamakatsu G–Stinger hook.

Neither John nor Jeff fish very often, perhaps 2 to 3 times per year. They really did not know what to expect, and like many people, thought that cold weather and cold water translated into slow fishing. They quickly realized that is not the case. Jeff commented, “Man, we would have been happy just catching 15 fish or so.” I am glad we were able to exceed his expectations.

The current five day forecast calls for unseasonably warm weather, which should result in a net warming of the surface temperature which this morning stood at 53.1 Fahrenheit.

If you’ve got cabin fever and want to get out and see how winter time fishing with sonar and jigging spoons is done, this is an excellent time to get on the water and learn. Give me a call anytime.

 

TALLY = 96 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:25a

End Time:  11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 38F

Water Surface Temp:  53.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW7-8 for the first hour, then picking up to NNW9-10 for the remainder of the trip.

Sky Conditions:  Bluebird, post-frontal skies.

Water Level: 622.95 with 622.0 being full pool.  0.05 feet of water was released in the last 24 hours.

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1686- vertical jigging for fish found on sonar with initial assist by birds

**Area 1687/1688 – vertical jigging for fish found on sonar with initial assist by birds

**Area  1566/679 – vertical jigging for fish found solely with sonar after bird action had ended

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle