This past Monday evening, July 3rd, I fished with Jordan Miller, his wife Kathleen, and a friend of the family, Sam Garrell.  All were camped out at Union Grove for the long Independence Day weekend.

From left: Jordan Miller, Kathleen Miller, and Sam Garrell with a sampling of the 202 fish they landed the evening of July 3rd.

Jordan’s parents, Mike and Luanne Miller of Harker Heights, were on grandbaby duty, thus giving Jordan and Kathleen a few hours to themselves.

Because of the heat and how the afternoon bite has been trending, we decided to scale back on the normal four hour trip, and launched at 6 PM instead of the normal 4:45 PM start.

Fishing was really on this evening. We drove directly to deepwater white bass holding in the lower 4 feet of the water column in about 46 feet of water and, from the first slab we dropped and until we reeled the last slab in at around 8:15, the fishing was nonstop for white bass in the one, two, and three year classes, with a few largemouth bass and drum thrown in. Over this span of time, we put exactly 186 fish in the boat.

Around 8:15, as the shadows began to lengthen and the air started to cool, these deepwater fish turned off as the light dimmed at that depth. We made a clean break from this area and moved back into 28 to 35 foot water and downrigged with a pair of ‘riggers, both equipped with three armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons. My hope was that we could put a final 14 fish in the boat in order to make it a 200 fish night.

As I scanned the area I intended to downrig with sonar upon our arrival, I liked what I saw. Multiple 20-30 fish schools of white bass were holding at around 21 to 27 feet, up about 7 to 10 feet off of bottom.

I showed everyone how to rig up the downriggers and we got baits in the water.

During our final 30 minutes on the water, we picked up singles, doubles, and one triple, and finished up the evening at exactly 8:46 PM with 202 fish boated.

TALLY: 202 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:00p

End Time: 8:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 97F

Water Surface Temp: 87.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE10-11

Sky Conditions: 10% clouds on a fair sky

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

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 933/878 – 186 fish on smoked slabs in a prolonged feed

**Area 176 – downrigging for singles, doubles, and a triple for a total of 16 fish in the final 25 minutes before dark

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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