This morning I fished with Mark C., his teenaged son, Colby, and Mark’s brother-in-law, Tim. These fellows live out west of here between Hamilton and Hico, Texas.
(L to R) Tim, Colby, and Mark boated these 3 fish simultaneously as we fished over a 32 foot bottom with live shad today.
After finding white fuzzy mold growing on his newly purchased beef jerky, young Colby went in search of alternative menu items. This was by far the most creative use I’ve seen for those leftover shad at the end of a trip … Shad in a Blanket!!
This was a great trip with a bunch of fellows who obviously enjoyed one another’s company. The whole family decided to make the Live Oak Ridge park on Belton their destination for an RV-reunion of sorts. No reunion on the lake would be complete without a fishing trip, so, that’s where I came in.
As we got going this morning we were blessed to encounter the most aggressive topwater action I’ve seen so far this season. Between 6:20am and 7:22am these three fellows boated exactly 69 fish on topwater. I had all three rigged up with a Cork Rig and the fish just came over the side non-stop. Most fish were average white bass around 11″, or short hybrid around 13″. This topwater action involved multiple moderately sized school feeding simultaneously over a span of water stretching from Area 811 to Area 959. These fish were feeding on both newly hatched shad and smallish adult shad. We were fortunate to have some thick cloud cover to keep the bright sun off the water, but, once that sun shone through, those fish left the surface not to return again. By 7:25 the surface was calm and there was no evidence of the frenzy that had just taken place.
We then turned to downrigger fishing to try to locate some suspended, active fish. We found little after searching several areas and moved on after catching just one hybrid and one small white bass in about 45 minutes of effort.
After doing a little more hunting, sonar revealed some solid action in the lower fourth of the water column in 32 feet of water in the vicinity of Area 1097. We got 4 rods down baited up with live shad and went to work.
Over the next two hours the action was moderate and consistent. We managed to boat 21 more fish including a mix of keeper hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, freshwater drum, channel catfish and blue catfish. We fished primarily from an e-anchored position with a little drifting thrown in at the last 30 minutes of the trip just to cover some territory as the bite began to flatten for good.
Along the way we got to share tales of Algeria, dysentery, nurse cows, Hick-O, high-end cheese, the Lord’s favor, FFA, and much, much more. Thanks fellows. It was good to get to know you!
TALLY = 92 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 6:15a
End Time: 11:45a
Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 81.2F
Wind: Winds SSW8 at sunrise, then slacking off to SSW5-6 for remainder of trip.
Skies: Skies were overcast and bright grey.