Fished a morning trip today with Amy, Benn (12), and Eric (10) B., of Pocatello, Idaho.
Start Time: 7:30a
End Time: 1:00p
Air Temp: 57F at sunrise (obscured by fog), warming to 68F.
Water Temp: 53-54F
Wind: Winds were slack until around 10:45a, then picked up from the NNW at 6-7 for about 2 hours, then went slack for the remainder of the day.
Skies: Skies were foggy until 10:45 when the fog lifted for the remainder of the day, only to return overnight.
Amy and her boys were in Texas for the holidays visiting their grandma — the boys had mainly trout fished in streams, and had never been all that successful at it. After covering the safety basics, we headed to Area 112 and went over the basics of casting spinning gear. The boys caught on pretty quickly, and, on our third cast of the day, Eric landed a 1.25 pound largemouth. No white bass seemed to be using this area, so we left in search of a concentration of fish.
We flatline trolled the Area 319 to Area 336 circuit and did quite well, picking up at least one fish, if not a double, on every pass we made. Soon, a trend emerged as to where we were being most successful in our trolling passes, and, after catching 26 white bass and 1 more largemouth by trolling, I switched the boys back over to casting bladebaits to saturate the area where our trolling had been successful. This turned out to be very successful — the boys landed an additional 22 fish on a standard lift-drop retrieve.
By about 11am, Amy and Eric, still a little travel-weary, were ready to call it a great day, although I think Benn would have hung with me all day if his mom would have let him! I headed back to the ramp and we said our goodbyes — I then headed back out by myself to see if any birds were working or rafted anywhere as the fog was just lifting, and the light level was increasing rapidly.
I found birds and fish at 3 locations. First, Area 330, in about 23 feet, held active fish primarily on bottom. I landed 3 whites and a sweet 7.75 pound largemouth here (see photo) before the birds gave up pretty quickly.
I moved on and found birds once again at Area 331. Here the fish were both on bottom in 31-34 feet and were suspended. The bottom huggers were much more likely to strike than the suspended fish. I could only get 3 of 10 suspended fish to move toward a smoked bait, and perhaps 1 of 10 would hit. As for the bottom oriented fish, I found a delayed pause did the trick, as did a very light 1/8 oz. slab. I caught fish steadily here for 70 minutes and tallied 28 fish at this location. A bit of a spike in activity occurred as a WNW breeze started, but it quickly died, and the fishing fell off with it.
Around 12:30p, another flock of terns was sighted at Area 332. There were both suspended and bottom oriented fish here in 27-29 feet of water. I vertical jigged for 3 whites just to confirm what sonar revealed. The birds dissipated and I called it a day.
TALLY = 85 FISH, all caught and released
Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing