Fished a half-day morning trip today with father-and-son team Marty and Kyle W. of Killeen. The weather dealt us a difficult hand today in that our string of windy days with breezes from the S and W began to breakdown in advance of an approaching low pressure system. The winds began to swing E bringing slower fishing with it.

MARTY AND SON, KYLE, WITH A NICE MIXED BAG OF WHITES AND BLACKS

Start Time: 7:30a (with DST now in effect)


End Time: 12:05p


Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start. Temps peaked at around 78F today.


Water Surface Temp: ~60-61F

Wind: Winds were SE at 8-9 before sunrise (obscured) and then actually went slack for about 45 minutes leading to a premature end to the morning feed. The winds then steadily built to 22 with higher gusts to 25 by afternoon from the SE.

Skies: Skies were overcast the entire trip.

We started off doing some flat line trolling near “The Trough” without result.

We then headed to the S of Area 375 and I showed the fellows how to use a bladebait. Once they got the hang it, we were fortunate enough to see bird activity develop over Area 375 and to the S. of it, up as shallow as 14 feet. We worked over these aggressively feeding fish with bladebaits for about 30 minutes, putting a total of 15 fish in the boat in short order.

At this time, the winds went slack and the birds lifted off of the fish which had turned off, and focused on some nearby loon activity.

We then began to search with sonar for fish, hoping I could find a concentration of fish that had slipped back into deep water. Instead we found fish very scattered at 26 feet and shallower, both at mid-depth (on occasion) and (primarily) on bottom. These fish were not well schooled, so a downrigging approach seemed the way to go. We dropped dual riggers down and began to steadily pick up fish again. We added 6 fish to the tally and the wind began to blow again, and again from the SE. I chose to leave this area as the wind built up on it, hoping the w

I found fish at between Areas 186 and 362 , in about 41-43 feet of water. These fish were very sluggish, responding only occasionally to an easing technique. I picked up 5 white bass here and moved on.

To finish out the trip I headed to between Area 107 and 103 in 25-27 feet of water, and, from 11:15 to 12:05 was pleasantly surprised to find still-active (albeit barely active) fish. I jigged for these fish and caught 13, all white bass, and all caught on the pause of a standard jigging approach.

TALLY = 34 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