12 | January | 2017 | Fishing Report

This morning, Thursday, January 12th, I fished with a party of 5 friends from Salado. Chuck Eddy was the trip coordinator, accompanied by his wife, Tracey. Their friends, Dallas and Melissa Everett and Leon Carroll, rounded out the group.

Fish Eat Fish World

We all had a good laugh when Dallas and Tracey landed these two fish just seconds apart and we observed that Dallas’ white bass would have proven but a tasty snack for Tracey’s bruiser largemouth.

This was my excellent crew this morning. From left: Leon Carroll, Tracey and Chuck Eddy, and Melissa and Dallas Everett. This bunch of keeper white bass was captured (along with many smaller fish) less than an hour into our 4-hour trip.

Tracey Eddy anchored the stringer today with this solid, deepwater largemouth — our largest of 249 fish.

Chuck is an insurance adjuster, Tracey is a family therapist, Dallas is retired from construction work, Melissa is a homemaker, and Leon retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

I was really looking forward to this trip, as the weather was about as close to perfect as you could hope for in January — we had grey skies, a breeze with a southerly component, and we were in day 5 of a warming trend which actually brought the water temperature up a few degrees after the 3-4 degree drop following the last arctic cold front that came through.

Despite the fact that all 5 of my anglers had previous fishing experience, they all listened well and followed my guidance on presentation very closely. Sometimes those with previous experience tend not to listen and do what they have become accustomed to in the past, but, not this crew — and they were rewarded for their attention to detail.

Over the 4.25 hours on the water this morning, we caught and released a grand total of 249 fish. When the fish were less aggressive, we used an easing tactic with Redneck Fish’n Jigs slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks to pull these fish off bottom and provoke a strike. When the fish were more aggressive, we used a slow smoking tactic to target fish that were dispersed through the water column from bottom to within 14 feet of the surface. All of our fishing took place in between 26 and 38 feet of water.

It was clear right off the bat that there was going to be some good-natured competition and “ribbing” going on this morning. When it came down to “boys versus girls”, I believe we tied in the quantity category, and that Tracey saw to it that the girls took the quality category hands down.

TALLY = 249 FISH, all caught and released

Wx SNAPSHOT:

12JAN17