Joseph B. of Willow Springs Elementary School in Killeen landed the first fish of his lifetime this morning, thus earning himself a Texas Parks and Wildlife “First Fish Award”.
Joseph proudly displays the first fish he’d ever caught. This was a 14″ largemouth bass that fell for a Pet Spoon downrigged from 14 feet of water over a 25 foot bottom. Joseph caught it using a conventional reel.
The last fish of our trip was a very nice 13″ white bass which Joseph caught on a lead slab in 39 feet of water using spinning tackle.
Joseph was battling this fish less than 15 minutes into our trip this morning as a mild ESE breeze helped to bring some warming following our first mild freeze and light frost of two nights previous.
We used a combination of 2 downriggers and 2 flatline trolls to fool a total of 7 fish (3 largemouth and 4 white bass) caught by 9:00am, and another 3 fish (2 whites and 1 largemouth) escaping before we boated them as Joseph went through the learning curve that every young fisherman does.
By 9:00, the winds went flat calm and the fishing got very tough. With surface temps now in the mid-60’s, our shallow sunfish bite is nearly completely over. We did poke around over two typically productive hydrilla beds and caught 2 small sunfish and were fortunate to find even those.
By 10:15, a promising breeze had begun from the SE, and began increasing and swinging SSE by 10:30. We visited a few deepwater breaklines and high spots and finally found a small concentrations of white bass right at Area 232. We jigged until Joseph caught one using this technique so he’d have exposure to and success with the use of spinning gear. Once we cleared that hurdle it was time to head back in to meet Aunt Marisa at the boat ramp.
Joseph independently boated 10 fish all by himself today. Way to go, Joseph!!
TALLY = 10 Fish, all caught and released
Start Time: 7:40a
End Time: 11:00a
Air Temp: 47F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: ~66.7F
Wind: Winds were ESE7 prior to sunrise, going flat calm until 10:20, then coming on strong from the SSE at 13-14 by 10:30.
Skies: Bluebird changing to fair.