This past Friday morning, April 15th, I fished with a crew of 4 from Pride of Texas Landscaping including trip coordinator and long-time client Rob Ramey, Justin Pride, the company’s owner, Ricky Guest, one of the company’s clients, and Brian Badour, a former co-worker who now runs his own company.
From left: Rob Ramey and Justin Pride, both of Pride of Texas Irrigation and Landscaping, had a field day on white bass and hybrid stripers.
I had a bit of a “situation” develop when my trolling motor malfunctioned, but, thank God for the foresight to have a running spare and for an awesome wife willing to deliver that running spare to me! We were delayed about 45 minutes, but, there was such a thick blanket of fog covering the lake that the fishing didn’t start until it had begun to thin, anyway.
We fished what has been a very predictable bite for primarily white bass up in shallow water for about an hour casting blade baits in 12-17 feet of water, putting a total of 76 fish in the boat as the fog cleared with a SE wind.
Once the laughing gull action died as the fish pulled back on their feeding, we headed to deeper, clearer water to search for hybrid stripers using sonar.
We enjoyed a full 2.5 hours of solid hybrid striper fishing spread over two distinct areas. At the first area, I found hybrid suspended from 25 to 40 feet over a 55 foot bottom, and at the second area we found hybrid in the lower fourth of the water column in 48-49 feet of water near a breakline.
Neither Justin nor Brian had any prior experience in fishing for hybrid striper and both quickly gained an appreciation for the hybrid vigor these fish demonstrate. This was a great crew to fish with — and very good-natured in joking with each other.
Despite the rough start, we ended the trip with exactly 142 fish boated as the action tapered off quickly right around 12:30 following our late start.
TALLY: 142 Fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 8:15a
End Time: 12:30p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F
Water Surface Temp: 66.1F
Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were calm under foggy conditions until 8:15a. A SE10 wind began and blew out the fog through around 9:30a. Winds then scaled back to SE6-7 and the skies grew brighter through about 70% cloud cover. Conditions remained this way for the remainder of the trip.
Sky Conditions: See above
Water Level: 594.57 and falling with 594.0 being full pool. Water being released at 765 cubic feet per second. Lake fell 0.05 feet in the past 24 hours
Other: GT= 60
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 749-1734 whites and short hybrid on blade baits up shallow
**Area 1738 hybrid on shad suspended at 25-40′ over a 55′ bottom
**Area 1739 hybrid on shad at lower fourth of water column in 48′
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