Near-perfect conditions today coupled with several previous days of warming saw the fish go on a feeding binge lasting nearly nine hours today. This was my first day on the water with the new Lowrance HDS-10 with downlooking Structure Scan. This technology far surpassed my expectations … more about that as the season progresses.

This is a split screen image showing white bass on a deep breakline as shown on sonar (right) and as shown on downlooking Structure Scan (left). The imagery is much clearer and allows you to avoid misinterpretation of the less clear tradtional sonar images.

This image shows suspended white bass beneath a school of suspended shad. The detail is so clear you can tell with way the fish are oriented!! The large end of the white targets are heads, the tapered ends of the white targets are tails. Awesome stuff, Lowrance!!

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 6:40p

Air Temp: 51F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: 52-54F

Wind: Winds started light and variable from the E, then very suddenly shifted SSW at 13 and stayed there all day.

Skies: Skies were fair and partly cloudy all day.

Environmental Note: Spotted the first migrating Sandhill Cranes headed north today.

I fished all day today with two goals to accomplish: 1) get comfortable with the new sonar gear and 2) find reliable concentrations of fish. By day’s end both goals were met.

I found fish at 3 locations today, and all three groups of fish behaved a bit differently.

The first group of fish I encountered was on a deep breakline, and was bottom-hugging. These fish never went into overdrive, but stayed biting steadily for nearly 3 hours. The fish never go active enough to pursue a moving lure, but steadily struck at a jigged slab, a deadstick slab, and an eased slab. Rarely would a fish from this bunch follow a hooked schoolmate off bottom, and rarely did a fish appear more than 3-4 feet from the bottom. I landed 77 fish at this location by 11:45am when another boat got much too close for comfort (not to mention courtesy) and I left these fish biting instead of revealing a hot location to a potlicker. Of these fish, 4 were crappie, 5 were largemouth, and the balance were white bass. This was at Area 596.

The next group of fish I found within a quarter mile of the first, but these fish were suspended off the S. side of the channel over 40-60 feet, and were found holding generally at 30-40 feet with scattered bait doing the same. These fish were very lethargic and would only respond to a sniping approach with ice jigs. Even at that, only 1 in 3 or 4 would make a move on the bait. I stayed here for right at 3 hours and boated 67 fish, of which 4 were largemouth, 4 were crappie, and the balance were white bass. This was in the vicinity of Area 597 over to Area 594.

The final group of fish I found came in 25-26 feet of water and were bottom-hugging. These fish were in a smaller school, but the most aggressive of the three. These fish aggressively struck a jigged spoon or a smoked spoon, and hooked fish were always pursued by schoolmates. The action here (which I’m sure I came in at the tail end of) lasted only about 30 minutes, dying right around 5:50p. I landed 16 fish here, all of which were white bass. This was between Areas 035 and 536.

TALLY = 160 FISH, all caught and released