This past Saturday morning, June 25th, I fished with Mr. Ray Rudloff, Mr. Mike Turner, and Mr. Dan Caudle. Ray’s wife, Nikki, gave Ray a fishing gift certificate for three, and today was the day they decided to cash it in.
From left: Mike Turner, Dan Caudle, and Ray Rudloff all with keeper hybrid taken seconds apart just minutes after we got our first live baits in the water, and while the sun was still low in the morning sky, obscured by low, grey clouds.
Ray Rudloff with our largest fish of the trip, tilting the scales just past the 5 pound mark.
To say finding live bait was tough would be quite an understatement. I spent a solid 2.25 hours continuously throwing my cast net only to come up with 22 shad to supplement the 39 I was fortunate enough to carry over from a previous trip. I was hoping the scarcity of shad was not a foreshadowing of a scarcity of gamefish.
At 6:15, I picked up my three clients with 61 baits on board which made me a bit nervous, but in the end it all worked out. As I’ve done for the last several trips, we probed a number of areas while fishing at the same time by using downriggers. This allowed us to pick up several small fish, but more importantly, eliminate unproductive water while zeroing in on an area where both hybrid stripers and bait was apparent on sonar.
Around 7:10, we switched over from downrigging to using live shad. I also began to chum and to thump on the boat. As we got live baits in the water, these three factors combined to draw hybrid in. From roughly 7:20 and until 9:15, we experienced a consistent bite from keeper size hybrid striper, the largest of which went right at 5 1/8 pounds. The fish showed a definite preference for live baits, whereas on previous trips live and dead baits drew equal attention.
As we fished, we got talking about the particulars of the hybrid striper and their great fighting ability. Dan, who works cattle for a living, appreciated the concept of hybrid vigor — a term used in animal husbandry to describe how a hybridized animal (like a mule, for example) will be stronger and have more stamina than either contributing parent (a horse and a donkey). Hybrid striped bass definitely display such characteristics when hooked.
By around 9:30 the bite sharply dropped off allowing us only one additional hybrid on live bait. We spent the last 45 minutes of the trip downrigging with a single large Pet Spoon and a three-armed umbrella rig equipped with smaller Pet Spoons. This produced five additional fish taking our tally for the morning up to 44.
TALLY = 44 fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:15a
End Time: 10:00a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F
Water Surface Temp: 83.1F
Wind Speed & Direction: S8 at trip’s start, shifting to SSW10 by trip’s end.
Sky Conditions: A nice, thin, grey cloud layer kept the direct sun from beaming on us for the entire duration of this morning’s trip.
Water Level: ~24+ feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing. Lake is still rising due to even heavier flows out of Lake Proctor upstream from Belton.
GT = 0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1763-1764 – downrigging for smaller fish early
**Area 1768 – live shad fished for suspended fish for 2.5+ hours; mainly keeper hybrid
**Area 1765-1766 – downrigging for last 20 minutes for 3 whites and 1 short hybrid
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