This morning I fished with north Austin angler Pat W. Pat works for the University of Texas and chose to spend a part of some much needed down time on the water with me.
Pat caught a personal best today. This 6.25 pound largemouth hit a shad pattern TNT180 slab in ~30 feet of water.
We had a little oddity occur on board — this white bass regurgitated a freshly swallowed log perch. Evidently these cigar-shaped and tiger-striped members of the darter family are fair game when white bass are on the prowl!!
You’ve heard the basketball phrase “nothing but net” when a shot goes perfectly — not even touching the rim as it goes into the basket. Today we experienced the fishing version of “nothing but net”.
Pat and I met up just as the sun was peeking over the cloud bank in the east. He was easy-going and willing to listen and learn. Over the next 5+ hours we would catch fish from start to finish using a variety of tactics in shallow water and deep.
We had flat calm conditions at first so, I started us out flatlining Rapala Shad Raps in the vicinity of Area 995, expecting sluggish, scattered fish holding tight to the bottom until the winds picked up. We picked up two white bass in short order here and, as we did, noted a concentration of fish holding on a slight breakline in this general vicinity. Since it’s difficult to run crankbaits on the face of a slope, I buoyed the fish, backed off a cast’s length, and began horizontally casting bladebaits (Reef Runner Cicada’s) to these fish. The fish jumped all over these baits!! We e-anchored in one spot and pulled 37 white bass up to 14 inches from this area, of which, only one fish went less than 10″. We stayed on this area until the bite died at around 9:30a. We resumed flatline trolling while checking adjacent areas out on this same feature. We caught one more white bass, but saw nothing leading me to decide to stay here any longer.
By now the skies were brighter, but still overcast, and a nice pre-frontal NW breeze came up around 8mph. We searched a number of deepwater areas until finding fish at Area 1047 (BA:6T, 3RBG) in approximately 32 feet of water. We used a combination of jigging and easing tactics here to boat exactly 39 fish over a two hour span. These were larger than average fish, with most going 12.75 to 13.25 inches, and several going 14.00″ to 14.125″. Every last one of these fish came on the tried and true TNT 180 in 3/4 oz. size.
By just after noon, things began to slow as they typically do. We hit one more location, just E. of Area 176. Much like our first area this morning, we found fish gathered along the face of this short, gentle breakline. This time, I hovered us over the break and we jigged for these fish at first. Pat put two fish in the boat before I could even get my lure to hit the bottom, then we both began catching fish (and missing them as these fish began short-striking as sluggish fish about to turn off often do). When the vertical approach gave out, we went horizontal with bladebaits, allowing us to land our final 2 fish of the day to top us off at 86 fish.
It was great to have success from start to finish. This is typically not the case and I was quick to point this out to Pat. I told him I didn’t want him to go home spoiled thinking it was always like this — most days involve more “hunting” than “pecking”.
TALLY = 86 FISH, all caught and released, including 2 largemouth, 1 crappie, and 83 white bass.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 7:30a
End Time: 1:15p
Air Temp: 70F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 59.7F
Wind: Winds were calm at (obscured) sunrise, turning NW8 for the duration as of ~8:00a.
Skies: Skies were overcast the entire trip.