On the heels of a very aggressive topwater bite this morning (142 fish boated), I headed back out this evening in search of more action for father and son team Doug and Elliot B. of Killeen. Doug works locally in the pawn industry, and Elliot is about to leave for his junior year at Texas A&M. This was a send-off trip of sorts for Elliot.

Doug with a 3.25 pound fish, and Elliot with our trip lunker, exactly twice the size weighing in at 6.50 pounds and 24 1/8 inches.

Doug with his best fish going 4.75 pounds. It fell for a modified Pet Spoon.

We met up at 5:30p, as my evening trips of late haven’t really seen much action heating up until around 6:30pm. I even pointed out to Doug and Elliot that things would likely start off slowly and build to a peak just before sunset.

We began out day with small baits out on the downriggers working a staggered ellipse over top of Area 473. There was ample bait here, as well as suspended and bottom-hugging schools of gamefish showing well on sonar in 25-26 feet, thus, we ran our balls just over their head with a White Willow on one setup and a white Pet on the other. Both rigs performed identically, allowing the boys to boat 7 fish each over the first hour of the trip. The catch included 1 largemouth, and a mix of 13 whites and short hybrid.

Around 6:30 the bite here got soft, so, we made a move. I took us to Area 084 hoping 1) that we could find suspended fish here, and that 2) if an evening topwater bite was to occur, we could see it from this location. Well, #1 worked out, but, the 12-14 mph SE wind kept #2 from happening. However, the fish we found here were quality fish. We boated 24 fish in this area taking a N-S circuit over Area 084. Of these, 10 were keeper hybrid, with the largest going 6.50 pounds on a certified scale. Additionally, we caught 2 barely short hybrid, and 12 white bass. The fishing got soft around 8:20, but, we landed our final fish right at 8:40. All of these fish were taken on larger P13’s in both white and silver.

To say the least, Doug and Elliot were a bit competitive. The two both asked regularly for an update off of my “clicker” (the device I used to keep a very accurate count of the number of fish we’ve boated). When all was said and done, both gents boated exactly 18 fish despite mixing and matching lures.

By 8:45 things were over and we were headed back to the dock.

TALLY = 38 FISH, all caught and released