I fished a half-day morning “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Justin and Jacob T. and thier buddy, Hunter S., all accompanied by Mr. Carl.

Little Jacob with a nice black bass taken on topwater just as the sun was rising

Justin was “all over ’em” when it came to downrigging the white bass

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 11:00am

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s with clear, calm conditions.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.1F

Wind: Winds were W at 3 at sunrise, then went light from the SSE at 3-4, then went slack after 10am.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

As we pushed off this morning we headed for open water looking for some topwater bass action that should be starting about now. We found some sporadic activity around Area 026 and I did hook and let Jacob land one bass here, but this was not conducive to the casting abilities the boys possessed — these fish were surfacing few and far between and required both fast and accurate casts, so, we passed on these fish and searched elsewhere.

We headed to between Areas 485 and 459 and hit the white bass with downriggers and one skimmer, all rigged up with Pets. We spent about 75 minutes working these fish over until things got real quiet. By that time we’d netted 6 fish for each of the boys (18 total). 16 came on the downlines set at 8-10 and at 18-21, and 2 came on the skimmer.

We next headed to between Areas 207 and 208 and again went with the downriggers and one skimmer. We boated 3 more white bass here and missed 2 more. By now, even with the action moderate, the boys’ attention span was maxing out, so, we went and did something totally different in the way of sunfish fishing in shallow water with slipcorks. Despite a few snags and tangles, each boy managed one sunfish at Area 200, and then it was off to fish for a final big largemouth.

We anchored up at Area 430 and put 3 tightlines down. Long story short, we had 4 solid strikes and landed one fish out of these, a nice 16 inch largemouth that chose Jacob’s rod. With that mission accomplished, we decided to call it a day and get the boys delivered back to dockside for an afternoon jiujitsu tournament (wish I still had that much energy!!).

TALLY = 26 FISH

I fished a half-day morning trip with returning guests Scott and Spencer L. of Temple, on the occasion of Spencer’s 11th birthday. Our summer fishing patterns are beginning to fall into place: possible topwater at first light and beyond, then downrigging for the still-active fish once they sound, then a bit of largemouth bass or sunfish or bait fishing once things get quiet, depending on the clients. Today was no exception. We struggled with very light winds and very bright conditions today, but eventually found some fairly reliable topwater consisting almost entirely of white bass schooling on young of the year shad. Once the white bass were done on top we continued to pick them up downrigging. Once that got quiet we hit some sunfish action, and then tried for some largemouth bass with bait.

Spencer’s “birthday bass” — Happy 11th, Spence!!

Spencer with a beautifully colored bull bluegill taken shallow this morning

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s with clear, calm conditions.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.1F

Wind: Winds were W at 3 at sunrise, then went SE at 1-2 by 9:00am

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

We began our day looking for topwater action between 254 and 555 and saw little, so, I headed right down to Area 007. As we arrived, there was more activity here, but, it was sporadic at best. I knew both fish and bait was present, as we saw plenty of action on sonar, so we stayed in the vicinity of Area 017 just sharpshooting at whatever would hit the surface. Once this proved to be less than productive, we changed over to downriggers, and immediately began bagging fish in the vicinity of Area 204 to 444. Most of these fish were smallish whites bass, but, that’s what was feeding, so, that’s what we fished for. Gradually, as we downrigged and kept an eye on the surface, more and more schools of white bass began to rise to the surface and stay there for up to a minute or more, thus giving us a fair shot at success. We stowed the ‘riggers for a while and threw bladebaits at these surface feeding white bass for about 30 minutes in the vicinity of Area 644. When the action began to fade to “few and far between” we again put the downriggers to work and continued catching fish. Most everything was over by around 9am with 31 white bass and 2 largemouth bass boated.

Spencer wanted to fish for sunfish and then fish for largemouth, so, we went hunting sunfish at Area 195 and Area 189. There were many saucer-shaped sunfish spawning beds located in both areas with fish on the nests that refused to bite, but there were also plenty of non-spawners and immature fish, too. We caught a total of 8 sunfish including longears, bluegills and green sunfish.

Next, it was out to find some largemouth, however, by now it was hot, bright, and glassy calm and I had a feeling we’d be hard pressed to get largemouth to do much at this point in the game. We fished 3 separate areas without a single touch. I hinted to Spencer a couple times that we might need to change our game plan, and, after a while, he agreed. We took the last 30 minutes of the trip and spent them downrigging. As is often the case when a bit shuts down, we saw a lot of fish on sonar, but rare was the fish that would strike. We did manage 2 small whites and a small crappie on the downriggers from between Areas 534, 601, and 643 as we wrapped up the day with a tally of 44 fish for our efforts.

TALLY = 44 FISH

I fished a half day “Kids Fish, Too!” trip this morning with Mr. Paul S. and his sons, Tanner and Ty, of Temple. The boys had some basic fishing skills down before they arrived, and we reviewed the use of both spinning gear and closed-face gear at dockside before starting the day’s hunt for fish. We had storms in the early evening last night that resulted in cooler, overcast conditions this morning with a NW to N breeze puffing at 5-7 mph the entire trip.

Tanner with a nice downrigged white bass taken from a suspended school of fish

Ty with a beautifully colored bull bluegill taken on a slip float rig up shallow

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s with clear, calm conditions.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.1F

Wind: Winds were W at 3 at sunrise, then went SE at 1-2 by 9:00am

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

At sunrise, we searched for topwater action and found only light, briefly appearing schools of white bass in the vicinity of Area 017. To do well in this scenario, quick, accurate casts were a must. The boys did their best and did land a handful of white bass by casting Cork Rigs to these fish, but I saw we were going to be hard-pressed to excel at that, so, we turned to downriggers to help us out. By around 9:35am we’d boated 14 white bass from between Areas 017 to 204 to 205. As the novelty of these two techniques wore off, it was clear that a change of pace would be a good idea.

We headed out in search of some sunfish and found a good supply of them holding at the transition from weed to rock near Area 189. The boys wore these fish out with slip-cork rigs, boating 27 sunfish at this single stop.

We then searched for some congregated deep-water bass to fish for but found little despite 3 immediate strikes upon anchoring at Area 193.

As we reached the end of our trip, the boys requested that we make one more sunfish run. This time we headed to Area 200 and finished off the day with an additional haul of 9 sunfish here.

TALLY = 50 Fish

I fished a half day “Kids Fish, Too!” trip this evening with Mr. Cliff S. and 3 of his grandchildren: Tyler, Zach, and Mason, all cousins to one another. All three boys were under the age of 13 and were some of the most fishing-capable kids I’ve had on my boat. They could handle spinning gear, closed face gear, flipping, casting from muliple positions, taking their own fish off the hook, and more.

Mason with the record-breaking largemouth — a 7.75 pound, 24.25 inch monster!!

Zach with a nice pair of white bass

Tyler with his lunker

Start Time: 4:45p

End Time: 8:45p

Air Temp: 84F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.1F

Wind: Winds were WSW at 7-9 until tapering off to 1-3 at sunset

Skies: Skies were grey, but bright.

After the usual safety talk, we headed to the rocks at Area 642 and used slip corks to fish for sunfish. This let me gauge how the boys could cast, retrieve, stay-tangle free, etc. Nearly immediately Tyler and Zach were fast to fish. Mason, who didn’t have a lot of spinning reel experience got off to a bit slower start, but, with some one-on-one by grandpa, he was holding his own by the end. The boys randomly picked the number 27 at the number of sunfish we should catch before moving on to a new technique, so, catch 27 we did, then packed up and headed elsewhere.

We got onto suspended white bass between Area 534, 601, and 643 and the boys immediately grasped the concept of teamwork when it came to fishing with downriggers by setting the lines out, reeling the balls in once a fish was hooked, and helping one another out. We boated 20 fish via downrigging including 18 white bass and 2 drum. We were fishing a single Pet and a Pet/Licker combo. Of the 20 fish, all 20 came on the Pet. Only one fish hit the Licker, and it was a white bass double, however the lead fish came off.

The boys expressed an interest in shooting for some largemouth, so, with about an hour left before sunset, we slipped over to Area 125. I saw good sonar readings here that looked promising. Again, with excellent teamwork, the boys got the rods unsheathed, dipped bait, and kept good noise discipline over our anchored position. As we began putting our 3 lines down, we immediately got thumped. Little Mason had a titanic struggle with, and eventually prevailed against, a sweet 7.25 pound 22.25 inch largemouth. Then, incredibly, as we continued baiting lines and getting them down, each of the boys landed a bass over 5 pounds. We then took another run through the batting order landing 3 more solid largemouth. We then began our THIRD run through the batting order. Mason was up once again. The rod went down, he went to work, and I netted a 7.75 pound, 24.25 inch largemouth that just left us all slack-jawed — not that it happened, but that it happened twice to the same kid on the same night!!! This fish broke the existing Jr. Angler Catch and Release record for Stillhouse which was set on my boat only a few weeks ago by young Mario P. of Copperas Cove. We gathered all the necessary data and photos and will be submitting it all to Austin this weekend. We finished the night off with one last fish for Zach and called it quits right at dark. Wow!!

TALLY = 55 Fish