07 | November | 2016 | Fishing Report

This past Saturday morning I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Andres Gamio and his friend, Riley Caple, both of Belton, TX.

10-year-old Riley Caple (camo Longhorns hat) and Andres Gamio (boonie-style hat) paired up to put 84 fish in the boat this morning under ideal white bass fishing weather conditions (with grey cloud cover and wind). The “big kid” in the middle is Justin Caple, Riley’s dad, who arrived just in time to help with the photos!

Just minutes before my alarm was due to go off this morning I was awakened early by the National Weather Service radio alarm indicating a flash flood warning for Coryell and McLennan counties, including the Mother Neff State Park which is an upstream tributary to Lake Belton. I immediately switched on the weather radar on my smartphone and saw that all of the active weather was to our north and west and was moving to the northeast. Something to keep an eye on, but not a threat to our trip.

As I met my two young anglers at dockside as they were dropped off by their dads, there was a light rain falling, a northeast wind blowing, and the barely perceptible flicker of very distant lightning occasionally illuminating the sky.

As we got to the fishing grounds, it was still a bit too early and dark for the fish to begin feeding, so I assessed the boys ability to cast with spinning rods and we worked on that until I was confident both of them could cast to any fish we saw near the boat.

Once the fish began to feed, they fed for a solid four hours both on top, and at mid-depths, but not as much near bottom today. I suspect that was because of the murky cloud cover preventing sunlight from penetrating to the bottom in the 20 to 30 foot depths we were probing.

The boys listened well and, as a result, were able to catch fish using a variety of techniques including casting with soft plastics, using several vertical tactics with slabs, and using the downriggers.

Two of Andres’ cousins (both girls) also recently fished with me, and Andres was anxious to try to beat their total. I told both boys they would need to stay focused in order to accomplish that feat. As 11:15 came around, our agreed-upon meeting time back at the dock, the boys had done their part and managed to land 84 fish today, including 83 white bass up to 14 inches, and one large mouth bass.

Our starting morning water surface temperature was still over 74° – – unseasonably warm and certainly very helpful to this strong, ongoing white bass bite.

TALLY = 84 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp: 74.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: E8-9

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

Water Level: ~0.30 feet high and slowly rising thanks to light, area-wide rainfall

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 664-1665-1822165-788 – shallow casting early, then vertical tactics for the remainder of the trip.