This morning I fished with the Mayberry family currently stationed at Ft. Hood. The Mayberry’s oldest child, 12 year old son Keaton, actually did all the fishing, the rest of the family (Dad, Mom, and baby sister) all just came along for the ride.
Keaton got tickled while looking at the minor movements that the white bass’ eye was making as he held this fish, our largest white of the trip, up close for the photo! This fish went 13.5″.
I met the Mayberry’s two weekends ago at the “Captains’ Weekend” event hosted by Cabela’s in Buda, TX. At this event, 25 guides from all over the state of Texas (both fresh and saltwater) were invited to set up booths to advertise their services, as well as to be present to answer questions, give guidance on gear, do seminars, etc. David is in the military, so we had that in common and began talking. As it turned out his son was about to go on his first wild turkey hunt and David thought a fishing trip would be the perfect Spring Break vacation addition to round out the outdoor experience, so, he booked a trip for the whole family.
I liked our conditions as we started off this morning — balmy, breezy, and grey.
I introduced Keaton to both flatline trolling and downrigging gear, and we ran one setup of each on opposite sides of the boat. The downrigger got us 3 fish with a White Willow Spoon attached to the business end, while the flatlining rig picked up a single on the Shad Rap. After the first two fish came on the downrigger, we buoyed a small concentration of fish, then backed off and cast Cicadas at them in ~13 feet of water. We boated 6 fish out of this school before they scattered. We then continued with the flatline and downrigging program for two final fish off this area (Area 1048/108) before moving on as the skies began to clear and the winds began to go slack.
We checked a few areas coming up with just 1 white bass and 1 crappie at Area 986/789. We continued to struggle for about 90 minutes as bright, calm conditions prevailed.
Finally, around 10:30a, a light S. breeze began to come up and we headed to open water where its effects would be most felt. We got on fish at Area 1052 and boated exactly 23 white bass here, all on a TNT180 slab, and all with a jigging technique.
TALLY = 35 fish, all caught and released.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 7:45a
End Time: 12:00 noon
Air Temp: 63F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 58.0F
Wind: Winds were S6 until 9:15a, then went calm, then picked up at S8-9 after 10:30a.
Skies: Skies were 100% overcast when the wind blew, and partly sunny during the calm mid-morning time.