This past Thursday morning, March 30th, I fished with Mr. and Mrs. Gary Moore, Mr. Kirk Bateman, and their friend, Pat Moore (no relation). All are part of the same church in Copperas Cove, and all but Pat had fished with me at least once before.

 

Retired Command Sergeant Major Gary Moore put our largest of nearly 30 hybrid in the boat this morning just minutes after sunrise.

 

Mrs. Margaret Moore occupied the portside bow position and did quite well for herself

Mrs. Pat Moore got a call from her husband serving as a contractor in Iraq just seconds after landing this nice hybrid.  When she told him we’d caught 68 fish up to that point, he just couldn’t believe it.

 

Kirk Bateman worked the portside stern rodholder this morning for a good number of keeper hybrid.
We began the morning in open, unprotected water, and the winds that were forecast to be between 9 and 13 mph were easily 14 to 15 thus making it a bit uncomfortable on my crew. Although we did catch our target species – – hybrid striped bass – – at this first stop, the great number of white bass also mixed in made it no big deal to leave this area and search for better grounds. As we left this first, windy area, Gary let me know he’d prefer that the ladies keep their strings stretched versus hunting indefinitely for larger hybrid. With this preference communicated, I did not hesitate to stop when I saw a nice, bottom – hugging congregation of white bass.

As I moved into more protected water to try to keep our baits from being jerked up and down by wave action, I ran into white bass at four distinct areas. Each gave up at least a few fish as we used slabs fished vertically to tempt these heavily schooled fish.

At around 10:15, and with a mixed bag of 60 fish now boated, I offered that we might once again focus just on larger fish even if it meant a little bit more wait time in between bites. Everyone concurred, and I headed back to deeper, more open water in the search of hybrid unaccompanied by white bass.

Over our next 90 minutes on the water we were able to put 33 more fish in the boat, of which right at 27 were legal, 18+ inch long fish. It was not until the last 20 minutes that white bass began to show up in our catch.

As we closed out our trip, everyone was able to enjoy a good mix of quality fish courtesy of the hybrid stripers, and a quantity of fish courtesy of the white bass that very willingly hit our vertically jigged slabs. My crew of four ended the day with 93 fish for their efforts.

TALLY = 93 FISH, all caught and released

WX Snapshot:

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Water Surface Temp: 66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW16+ at sunrise and for ~3 hours thereafter, then tapering off to WNW13

Sky Conditions: Clear and bright

Water Level: 1.22 feet above full pool

GT = 60

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 714/1288 early hybrid

**Area 1820 – whites by vertical jigging

**Area 211 – whites by vertical jigging

**Area 1914 – whites by vertical jigging

**Area 788 – whites by vertical jigging

**Area 930 late hybrid

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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