This past Monday morning, April 10th, I fished with Mr. George Ward of Austin, Texas, and his brother-in-law, Jim Smigie, of the Wilmington, Delaware.
From left — Jim Smigie and George Ward with a pair of 4 pound class hybrid taken just seconds apart on live shad fished above bottom at 31 feet.
George is a retired history professor from the University of Texas, and Jim, after a stint in the Coast Guard, worked in and retired from the chemical industry in Delaware.
Based on their preferences, we divided the trip pretty equally pursuing white bass on artificial lures in the first half of the trip, and pursuing hybrid striped bass using livebait during the second half of the trip. I had hoped to find some white bass in water shallow enough, and with the fish congregated enough, to allow for some blade bait fishing, but this simply did not materialize due in part to the slow brightening of the skies under heavy cloud cover this morning.
Instead, I moved offshore and began looking at irregularities in the bottom in the 40-50’ range. The very first area I searched looked promising on sonar, so, we put lines down. In about 75 minutes’ time, we put 51 white bass in the boat using 3/8 ounce slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks from out of 43 feet of water. These fish were bottom-hugging and responded well to an easing tactic.
When the first batch of fish we had located on sonar lost interest, we moved three or four boat lengths away and continued catching fish which were part of the same school we encountered at our first stop, but which were not near enough to see and get used to our presentation.
With 51 fish in the boat, we decided to change up and pursue hybrid striped bass on live shad right about 9:00am. I moved us to a slight rise near a break line in around 39 feet of water and saw hybrid on sonar before we put baits down. We quickly got 4 rods baited and in the rod holders when Jim got the first pull down. That resulted in a boated striper, and our success continued running about 50/50 with a mix of keeper hybrid and two-year-old white bass.
After about 45 minutes at this area, things quieted down and we moved on.
I took us to another very similar area on a breakline in about 42 feet of water. This area gave up 17 keeper hybrid, four white bass, and one blue cat.
This trip was initially scheduled for Tuesday, 11 April, but heavy rains were forecast for that day as far back as last Friday. Those same rains were due to begin today between 11 AM and noon, so we kept a close eye on our weather apps on our phones the entire time we finished. At 11:17 AM, we heard a distant clap of thunder to our south and east and saw the skies were gray and murky right around the same time the weather radar indicated some showers popping up over and north of Austin. We decided to call it a very good day right then and there with exactly 84 fish boated for our efforts.
TALLY = 84 FISH, all caught and released
Wx Snapshot:
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:40a
End Time: 11:20a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F
Water Surface Temp: 68.2F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8-9 the entire trip
Sky Conditions: Grey overcast the entire trip just shy of drizzle
Water Level: 0.58 feet above full pool
GT = 50
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 714 and vicinity – 51 white bass via vertical easing presentation on slabs/stingers
**Area 081/1545 – mix of white bass and keeper hybrid on live shad
**Area – 1556 – mostly keeper hybrid on live shad
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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