WHO I FISHED WITH: Californian-turned-Texan Eric Balders now living in Marlin, TX, after moving from Chula Vista, CA, to work in the aerospace industry here.
Eric Balders caught the first white bass of his life today, and used a Carolina rig to catch his first largemouth on such a rig, thus opening doors to more than just fishing visible cover for that species.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass in the first 3 hours, then on largemouth bass for the remainder of the trip.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse
WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 07 October
HOW WE FISHED: Eric’s hope was to recalibrate from the saltwater fishing he’d grown accustomed to in California where he pursued yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, and yellowtail, over to freshwater fishing. We split the trip into two distinct parts involving a focus on white bass early, then a focus on largemouth towards the end. While fishing for white bass, we used downriggers, tailspinners, and slabs (smoking and easing). After some limited success on downriggers, we found a cooperative school of white bass that “stayed put” for nearly two hours allowing us to tally exactly 51 fish before we set our sights on largemouth. Eric had never before landed a white bass.
From just before 10am to our wrap-up around noon, I coached Eric on the use of a Carolina rig to help him access other than shallow water fish at his new “home” lake of Tradinghouse Reservoir, near Waco. At our first of 4 stops Eric felt a largemouth take his bait, responded quickly by taking up slack and doing a sweeping hookset, and then hooked and landed his first largemouth on a Carolina rig.
OBSERVATIONS: Compared to Thursday and Friday’s topwater action, this morning’s topwater action was much reduced. The bite also began later today, not really getting going until around 8:15 versus right at 7:30 on Thursday and around 7:45 on Friday.
TALLY: 53 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:15a
End Time: 12:00noon
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70
Water Surface Temp: 78.8
Wind Speed & Direction: SW5-7
Sky Conditions: 20% white cloud cover at sunrise, increasing to under 30% by trip’s end
Water Level: 1.22 feet low
GT = 0
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 1998 sparse success on downriggers
**Area 2020 – 0.5 hours of solid white bass action on tailspinners
**Area 1027/1029 – ~1.5 hours of solid white bass action on tailspinners
**Area 771, 680, 534, and 675 – Carolina rig for 2 fish at 771
Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide
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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