This past Tuesday morning, May 3rd, I fished with Dr. Jim Wood of McGregor, TX.

The demands of life and patients have been high of late for Dr. Wood and so, despite trying to piece together a fishing date since the late January weekend of the Central Texas Boat Show, this past Tuesday was the first date that was mutually agreeable.

 

A mild cold front passed through Texas over the weekend, leaving cool, dry, clear post-frontal weather in its wake.  The pre-dawn ambient temperature was just 52F.

 

Given the cool temps and northerly breeze, I was pleasantly surprised to find spawning threadfin shad readily available.  One throw of the 7′ castnet brought in over 370 shad.

 

I met up with Jim at a few minutes before 7am and we got right down to business. By 7:15am we were buckled down overtop of active hybrid striped bass in 52′ of water and Jim was reeling in keeper hybrids.

 

We fished only 3 areas this morning, and these areas gave up exactly 81 fish.  Our first area produced the best quality fish, but only a few of them.  Our second stop produced a blend of keeper and short hybrid and white bass of all sizes.  And our last stop, made for variety’s sake and to demonstrate to Jim the difference in appearance between white bass and hybrid stripers on sonar, yielded mainly white bass taken on slabs worked with an easing tactic.

 

All was going well until I raised my rod to lift a short hybrid out of the water that had struck my slab.  As the fish cleared the water, the hook came out of the fish.  The fish fell back into the water, but the lure was catapulted toward me at high velocity.  When it hit me, one of the points of the treble hook buried well beyond the barb into the middle joint of my left middle finger.  It was hurting, to be sure!  Jim and I kind of weighed our options; I would do the surgery, and Dr. Jim would assist.  We worked together to cut away the lure and the other two points of the treble hook with a pair of wire cutters, leaving just the eye of the hook and the point that was stuck in me.  Jim pressed the eye down toward my finger and I looped some fluorocarbon leader material around the bend of the hook.  On “ready, set, go” I yanked the hook backwards.  All went just as illustrated in the Boy Scout handbook and, after licking my wound for a minute or two, we went back to jigging.  Thanks, Doc!

 

TALLY = 81 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:55a

End Time:  11:20a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Water Surface Temp:  68.3 to 72.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were light at NNW5-8

Sky Conditions:  High, clear blue skies.

Water Level: 8.88 feet above full pool with a fall of 0.19 feet in the last 24 hours with a release of 4922cfs ongoing.

GT = 30

 

Wx Snapshot:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1277/683 – keeper hybrid on live shad

**Area 1012 – blend of keeper & short hybrid and white bass on live shad

**Area  1299 – nearly 100% white bass on slabs

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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