Mr. Ryon D. and his kids had such a good time out on the water Monday, they came back again today, AND brought friends with ’em!!!

L to R — Logan, Waylon, Brooke, and Lorna team roped a mess of white bass today!!

It was 6:32am, the winds were calm, the day was as cool as it was going to get at 84F before sunrise, and out of the Dunlap family pickup came four very excited cowboys and cowgirls!!

We got everyone suited up with lifejackets and headed out to the fishing grounds. At 6:49 we boated our first fish just seconds before the sun came up over the horizon. We kept right on boating fish, 61 of them to be exact, until the novelty wore off around 10:15. Along the way, siblings Lorna and Waylon learned how to fish with downriggers as cousins Logan and Brooke had on Monday’s trip, and they both got really good at it.

We also captured a live mayfly, plucked a dead threadfin shad and a dead crawfish out of the water, we wore Mr. Bob’s bait net on our head, we got to practice landing fish using a landing net, we ate snacks, we had brother/sister squabbles, we practiced taking turns and using good teamwork, we ate more snacks, we “popped wheelies” as I throttled up to go from place to place, and, did I mention, we ate snacks. It was a very active 3 1/2 hours, afterwhich I told Ryon that I thought I’d be taking a nap this afternoon (which I did!).

With such strong high pressure set up firmly over Texas, the cookie-cutter weather has made for some incredible predictable fishing. The fish are doing nearly the same thing at the same times each day.

As we got started, we downrigged with Pet Spoons from Area 040 to Area 853. By 8:00am, the fish had shifted north slightly and were best caught between Areas 854 and 862 also via downriggers. We did have a brief shot at some bottom-huggers right on top of Area 862, but it didn’t last long, so we resumed downrigging. By around 10:15 the winds were slacking off, the sun was getting high and hot and the kids ready to head to the house, so we made our way back in, took some photos, and said our good-byes.

Our highlight of the trip today was a magnum white bass caught by Miss Lorna. This fish measured 15 1/16 inches long, and therefore qualified her for a Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. “Big Fish” award. This is the second trip in a row in which we’ve boated a qualifying white bass. If you fish for whites much, you’ll know a 15+ incher doesn’t come along too often.

As we headed in, I noted some schooling largemouth action on top just getting going. After getting everyone safely to shore and getting photos taken and fish released, I headed back out to the scene of the crime to investigate.

The hotter, brighter and more still the conditions, the harder those small largemouth would feed as they silhouetted the shad against the surface and then used the surface as an edge to trap that bait against. The lake had long cleared of any other boats, so I had these all to myself. Between 10:40 and 12:45, I boated 57 more fish, of which 44 were largemouth bass ranging from 12 to 15 inches, with the remainder being white bass that I picked up off bottom below the largemouth whenever the topwater action lulled.

TALLY = 118 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:35a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp: 84F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~86.3F

Wind: Winds were SSW4 at trip’s start, building to SSW7 by 10:00, then tapering to near calm thereafter.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.