This morning I welcomed aboard a family of four from The Woodlands, Texas — Charles and Jodi C. and their children, Madison and Mason.

Madison’s 2nd fish of the day was this record-breaking 5.00 pound, 23 3/8 inch blue catfish taken on a Pet Spoon.

Mason and Madison doubled up on hybrids from the deep toward the end of today’s adventure.

Nature seemed to be a little out of sorts this morning. Winds had a slight easterly component (which never helps the fishing) despite a forecast for mild SW winds, we didn’t see a lick of topwater in the low light period prior to sunrise, and even the downrigger bite on suspended fish was tough. For every 80-100 fish showing on sonar we’d only pick up 1 or 2 fish. It was just one of those tough days.

All of our fish today came via downrigging on both Pet Spoons and on the Swimmin’ Image. Our first spot of success came at the patch of water contained within Areas 840, 841, 843, and 488. These fish came at 24-26 feet over a deeper bottom. Toward the end of our trip we also picked up a few fish between Areas 813 and 474 from out of 27-30 feet of water over a deeper bottom.

Madison emerged as the star of the show today. Her second fish hit hard and battled long. She put her all into fighting what turned out to be a very healthy blue catfish. As soon as it neared the surface I suspected it may be a record, and by the time I’d netted it, I knew it was a record, beating out the former record by 1 1/8 pounds set last autumn.

I spoke with several “regulars” out on the water today and everyone had experienced similar results — slow fishing for scattered fish.

We ended up our trip over in Frank’s cove poking around in the shallows for panfish, but the resident hen mallard and her flock of ducklings stole the show. We did manage to boat a blacktail shiner and a green sunfish while on location, but, the novelty wore off pretty quickly as the sun grew hotter and the winds calmer.

We finished up today with a total of 20 fish. Congratulations, Madison, on your big catch.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:00a

End Time: 11:10a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.2F

Wind: Winds were SSE6 at trip’s start, slowly turning S4.

Skies: Skies were fair, dry, and bright with no clouds.