As I was driving to the ramp on Belton where I’d agreed to meet the Mitchell’s a call came in from Bill Pasko, a very good local angler and all-around nice guy, letting me know he’d found some shad spawning up shallow.   I met up with Bill minutes later and topped off my bait tanks and anticipated a great day on the water.Hybrid stipers, our quarry this day, just seem to bite better on days that the shad spawn during this peak season between the end of March and the third week of May.

Jim and Marcus showed up on time so we were on the water hunting fish before the sun’s direct rays struck the water.  As we motored along out in open water, I kept my eyes on the shoreline in hopes of spotting gamefish crashing bait along the shore.  Sure enough, along a 200 yard rocky stretch of shore, we found several wolf packs of hybrid stripers driving shad right up onto the bank.  This behavior would be short-lived, but we had a number of hookups and 2 keeper hybrid brought into the boat before it all ended, and we’d only pulled away from the dock 11 minutes earlier!

As the morning unfolded, it would turn out to be a fairly bright day with low wind speeds, which never helps the fishing.  We spent about 90 minutes fishing in ~34 feet of water after being drawn there by about a dozen gulls feeding on shad driven to the surface by hungry fish below.  We landed the majority of our legal hybrid at this one area using live shad on downlines.

When that bite died, we faced the brightest and most calm conditions of the entire morning.  For variety’s sake, I suggested we “go deep” and look for fish willing to respond to a vertical jigging approach.  It is a truism for white bass and hybrid striper that the deeper the water, the larger and more tightly congregated the schools of fish tend to be.  I’ve seen this on all of the lakes I’ve fished for these species, and in all seasons and water conditions.

Sure enough, as we headed out to 38-43′ of water the sonar began to confirm the presence of lots of bottom-hugging fish.  It was clear these were smaller fish, but, at least this would provide some action until the wind began pushing the water.

We spent about 45 minutes jigging, making 4 short stops in deep water, and finding the same results at each — the fish would fire up at the initial appearance of our slabs near the bottom allowing each of us to hook up 2, 3, or 4 times, then the fish would cool off, settle back to bottom, and become much more difficult to tempt.

Finally, around 10am, the wind began to blow S10-12.  We resumed our search for hybrid striper.  We found the classic, thick yellow and red sonar arches suspended about 4-6 feet off bottom, and in good numbers at one location, got baits down, put 3 short hybrid in the boat, and then, just as they had done on the slab bite, the fish turned off.  Even the use of chum wouldn’t get them turned on again.

From here it was a downhill slide with steadily decreasing evidence of active fish on sonar and steadily decreasing activity on the bait rods.  By 11:45 we agreed the bite was over and we called it a good morning with 59 fish boated.

 

28 April AM (7:30a – 11:30a)

03 May AM (7:30a – 11:30a)

06 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

12 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

13 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F

Water Surface Temp:  66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S6 at trip’s start, then going slack, then increasing to S10 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  Fair, cloudless skies.

Water Level: 594.85 and rising with 594.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 252 cubic feet per second.  Lake rose 0.03 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1731 solid hybrid bite on shad initially beginning under birds
**Area 1728 brief bite by mainly white bass on slabs
**Area 953/1544 brief bite by mainly white bass on slabs
**Area 1487/953 brief bite by mainly white bass on slabs
**Area 1390/787 brief bite by mainly white bass on slabs
**Area 346 brief bite by mainly short hybrid striped bass on bait