I fished a wonderful “Kids Fish, Too!” trip this morning with Mr. Jesse R. of Azle, Texas, and his three sons, Eli (age 11), Emilio (age 9), and Esteban (age 8). These young men were troopers … they slept outdoors overnight at one of the Corps of Engineer parks on Belton and then woke up to a 54F morning only to head out fishing in the cool weather fueled by oatmeal and beef jerky!! This was definitely a “guys’ weekend”!!

The stubborn, damp east winds of the past 4 days finally moved out and a rising barometer and NW winds served to spur the fish on to feed well today.

It was only fitting that big brother Eli caught the largest fish of the trip in both the white bass and largemouth bass category

The boys — Esteban (L), Emilio (C), and Eli (R) — show off a few we put in the livewell for a photo op at trip’s end

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 54F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~66.1F

Wind: Winds were out of the NNW at 8-12 .

Skies: Skies were leaden grey the entire morning.

While waiting for this family to arrive at the boatramp this morning, I fiddled with gear, sharpened hooks, cleaned my sonar screens, etc. all while keeping an eye and ear open for action, just in case. At exactly 6:50a, a small school of white bass mixed with juvenile hybrid began to feed at and near the surface on shad at Area 616. The boys arrived, and, wanting to take advantage of this action while it lasted, I gave them some very quick casting lessons with closed-face reels rigged up with Cicada blade baits. The boys started lobbing casts out where the fish were feeding and, once they got the retrieve speed down just right, they were able to put a few fish in the boat before I even turned the key to crank up the outboard!! Eli caught 2 white bass and Emilio got 1 in this brief flurry.

We then ventured out in search of more fish. I scanned over a potential spot with sonar and found some markings on bottom in 20-22 feet of water. I was hoping for hybrid, so we baited up with live shad, only to find that fish I was marking were white bass instead … not a bad problem to have with 3 young men on board all eager to catch some fish!! I switched us over to jigging spoons (TNT180’s in 3/8 oz., as always) and we started to figure these fish out. A straighforward jigging approached did the trick for most fish, although a smoking tactic also put some bonus fish in the boat when I saw suspended schools form and could direct the boys to tempt them.

We stayed on top of this concentration of fish for 3 hours straight in 17-21 feet of water from Area 614 to Area 615. Over that period of time we caught an additional 62 fish, including one largemouth bass, 2 channel catfish, 11 short hybrid stripers, and 48 white bass.

I was very impressed with all 3 boys. They all stayed very focused on thier technique and were very consistent on controlling the depth of their presentation as well as the action they imparted to it. They responded well as I offered suggestions and corrected their form, and their willingness to be taught paid off for them.

TALLY = 65 FISH, all caught and released