Fished a morning half day trip with Mr. and Mrs. Don C. of Temple today. Don is a retired CPA and has been out fishing with me on a number of occasions, but never with his wife, Diane. I must say she added a nice touch of class to our trip!
Don C. with a just-legal 18.25″ three pounder that fell for a downrigged spoon matching the forage size.
Diane C. with the best of the white bass we caught today, a 14 1/8 incher also taken on a downrigged spoon.
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 11:05am
Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: ~85.5F
Wind: Winds were from the SW the entire trip ranging from 4-10 mph and varying regularly in that range .
After heading away from the dock we started off looking shallow for white bass and were at the right place at the right time as right at 6:45 the white bass began pushing shad toward and even up onto the shore between Areas 172 and 328. Before they headed out to deeper water, these fish drove the shad along about 150 yards of shoreline. We kept up with them and picked up fish regularly. Shallower casts landed smaller fish (even juveniles), and deeper casts landed 11+ inchers.
By 7:15 this shallow action had played out and we turned our attention a bit deeper by lift-dropping bladebaits in 12-17 feet of water. The fish continued to respond, and we landed a fish every 6-7 casts or so, again, averaging around 11+ inches between Areas 171 and 382.
After this bite died off, we went with and stuck with downriggers in this same vicinity for just about the remainder of the trip and, as usual for summer fishing, they accounted for the lion’s share of our catch today. We landed white bass of all sizes, literally from 4 to 14 1/8 inches, along with a single hybrid (which was of legal length). By around 9:05 this area had played out with the sonar showing the area devoid of life from 23′ and shallower.
We moved on to Area 508 and immediately began marking fish. We got both riggers down and came up with a barely short hybrid and a white bass going 13.5 inches. We continued in a trolling grid over these fish and they continued to show well on sonar, but we couldn’t buy another strike here. By now, the sun was getting hot and bright and the wind was slackening. We began to see some “popcorn” schools of whites working on shad over open water. The SOP here was run full throttle to them, cast quickly into the fray, and hope you were in time to get 1, 2, or maybe 3 fish at the most as these fish would only stay exposed for seconds at a time. We did the run-and-gun routine a few times and interspersed some downrigging in the slow times in between in the vicinity of Area 365.
By 11:05 it was getting hotter, brighter, and more still, and the fish were just about shut down for good for the morning. We called it a day at that point with 46 white bass, 2 hybrid, and 1 largemouth bass boated for the effort.
As we snapped a few photos to remember the trip by, Mrs. Diane insisted that Don do all the fish-holding, which he gladly did. Then, I introduced the “hands-free” Boga Grip and, to her credit, Mrs. Diane held up her own fish for a very nice photo. You’re a good sport Mrs. C.!!
TALLY = 49 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