I fished a morning trip solo today in advance of a long-planned weekend trip for 4 long-time buddies from Houston. I wanted to scout things out so I don’t let these fellows down. In summary, the fishing is pretty tough right now. We’ve seen a crazy cycle of low pressure systems and cold fronts accompanies by rain and north and east winds, all of which always make for tough fishing.

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:35a

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~78F

Wind: Winds were very light from the S at 6.

Skies: Mostly cloudy skies changing to heavily overcast skies by noon, only to clear to partly cloudy in advance of a cold front that arrived in the evening at ~7:30pm, once again dropping our temps and dropping ~1/3 inch of rain.

Environmental Note: Saw migrating white pelicans today; ~150 birds in 4 distinct groups.

I found fish at only 2 locations today. My first stop came pre-dawn at Area 407. I fancast bladebaits here in 8 to 17 feet of water and began to pick fish up right before sunrise. The fish bit well, responding to a vertical presentation better than to a horizontal one. A steady 5-crank retrieve worked, as did a jigging motion with a high lift. I boated 26 fish here within 40 minutes of sunrise and decided to leave them biting in order to search for additional active fish while the “window” was still open. Of these fish, only 1 in 5 would go legal size, and all of those were right at 11 inches and were not really chunky at all.

I looked and looked with sonar and with the naked eye for sign leading the way to fish, but it was slim pickings after that initial morning feed. Areas 390, 411, 444, and 480 held nothing.

I did find a small, tight school of white bass holding on the gentle break at 40′ between Areas 70 and 71. I first picked them up on sonar and downrigged over them 3 times without a response. I was absolutely sure they were white bass by the sonar image they gave off, so, I buoyed them and then began to work with a slab. I got little response there, and then switched to a blade and that perked them up a good bit. Over a 40 minute span, I put 6 more fish in the boat. These were all healthy 13″ fish. Once this school dispersed, I never contacted fish again over this entire area.

I did some more looking after this, but found little.

TALLY = 32 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