Family Fishing with the Riveras – 123 Fish, 03 July ’17

by Bob Maindelle

This past Monday morning, July 3, I fished with the Rivera family of Salado.

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Jana and Andrew landed this pair of 2-year class white bass within seconds of one another.

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Samuel kept quiet, stayed focused, and was the most consistent angler of the family today with quiet intensity working for him.

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That grin says it all!

Mr. Richard Rivera is a cabinet maker who now serves as stay-at-home dad to his two boys, Samuel, age 15, and Andrew, age 10. Jana Rivera is an anesthesiologist working at Baylor Scott and White. The boys are home schooled and are also a part of the Providence Academy in Belton.

The family had been on one previous fishing trip – – an Alaskan salmon fishing trip some time ago. So, fishing warm water and locally was a new experience for them. We met at 6:15 AM and, after adjusting equipment to their preferences and a word of prayer, we launched out in search of fish.

We got our first hookup on downrigger number one before downrigger number two ever got sent down to depth. During our first 90 minutes on the water we landed singles and doubles and tallied a catch of 32 fish before the lowlight bite broke down, sending us looking elsewhere.

I headed deeper at this point and begin searching for large congregations of white bass in 40 to 60 feet of water. We stopped five different times over five different loose congregations of fish before finding a group that was really fired up and ready to feed. At each of the stops we picked up at least a drum and perhaps one or two white bass, but the fish never really got excited, even when hooked fish were being reeled up.

At our last location, in 48 feet of water, we put exactly 85 fish in the boat in our last 2 1/2 hours on the water, taking our tally up to 123 fish for the morning. All of these fish from deepwater came on a Redneck Fish’n’  Jigs Model 180 slab, in white, three-quarter ounce, and retrofitted with a Hazy Eye Stinger hook.

TALLY: 123 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Water Surface Temp: 83.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9 at trip’s start, tapering up to SSE11-14

Sky Conditions: 10% clouds on a fair sky following the passage of morning storm cells

Water Level: 0.38 feet high and steady; 0 cfs release at dam

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

03JUL17

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 799 downrigging early for 32 fish

**Area 879 slabbing for 91 fish

 

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

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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