This afternoon I welcomed aboard a brother and sister team, Wyatt and Hailey K. of Harker Heights in celebration of Wyatt’s 13th birthday which rolled around today. Hailey, his 4th grade sister, got to come along for the ride. Rumor had it that Wyatt was actually blindfolded on the family drive to the boat ramp so as to keep this birthday surprise under wraps as long as possible!!
Brother and sister fishing aces Wyatt and Hailey K. of Harker Heights wore out the white bass today. Hailey caught the first fish of her lifetime on today’s trip!!
With tough (bright and calm) conditions called for this morning, we pushed today’s trip back into the afternoon when some high, thin cloud cover and a bit of breeze (albeit from the E.) were supposed to materialize. Fortunately, both did!
We found abundant, bottom-hugging schools of white bass in open water today and although they were a bit reluctant as we dropped baits into each school, once we got the first 2-3 fish to bite, then the schools really turned on and cooperated.
The kids were eager to catch fish and eager to learn how to do so, so they really paid attention to the intricacies of the techniques I described to them and got the hang of vertical jigging very quickly. We used a combination of jigging and smoking to take our fish today. As a result, Miss Hailey caught the first fish of her lifetime on this trip!!
We found fish in the vicinity of Area 306 (43 fish – all short), in the vicinity of Area 035 (7 fish, all short), Area 186 (36 fish – a mix of shorts and keepers up to 13 inches, plus one 18″, 2.75 pound largemouth, 1 crappie, and one drum), and Area 116 (2 keeper whites). All fish were taken on a combination of chartreuse, white, and silver holographic TNT 180 slabs in 3/8 oz., save the two whites at Area 116 which came on flatlined Wiggle Warts.
TALLY = 88 FISH, all caught and released
Today’s Conditions:
Start Time: 3:45p
End Time: 7:50p
Starting Air Temp: 68F
Water Surface Temp: 60.2F
Wind: ENE8
Skies: High thin clouds at trip’s start gave way to fair skies by trip’s end.