I ran a father-son trip this morning with returning guests David and Sean F. Our target species this morning was hybrid striped bass.
Sean (L) and David (R) with 4 hybrid we boated within minutes of one another when all 4 of our bait rods were struck simultaneously by an aggressive school of hybrid striper. That largest fish of David’s measured 22 7/8″ and weighed in at 5 1/8 pounds .
David is a local heart doctor and Sean is a 3rd year college student home on a visit from the Raleigh/Durham, NC, area. Both had been out with me in different seasons on Stillhouse in pursuit of white bass, so, this was a new kind of fishing for the both of them.
The annual threadfin shad spawn is still going on, making the use of live shad a solid choice for the hybrid. The bite was strong this morning, and we were fortunate to find fish early on in the morning, so we maximized our catching time by minimizing our search time.
From ~7:15a to 10:00am we sat atop Area 835 and boated exactly 79 fish, of which 55 were legal (18″ and greater) hybrid striped bass, with short hybrid, white bass, and blue cat filling out the balance. Our largest fish measured 22 7/8″ and went right at 5 1/8 pounds.
By 10am, the fish were still biting well, just not as aggressively as during the nice nearly 3 hour run we’d just experienced. I gave the fellows two options: 1) keep right on doing what we were doing, or 2) go in search of some schooled white bass and add some variety to the mix by vertically jigging for that species. They voted for what was behind Door #2, so, off we went in search of variety.
If you’ve read my blog long enough, you know I’m an advocate of “Don’t leave fish to find fish,” but, the boys had witnessed all those hybrid had to offer and plenty of it, so, we felt that if we didn’t boat another fish, we would still have had an awesome day on the water.
Fortunately, we located some deep white bass at 48 feet on top of Area 1204 and worked up 27 white bass and 2 hybrid stripers on 3/4 oz. TNT 180 slabs in both white and silver, so, we got to experience the best of both worlds by rolling the dice a bit.
This was by far both men’s most productive day on the water. It is always a pleasure to guide people to “personal bests” as we encountered today.
TALLY = 108 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 11:30a
Air Temp: 65F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 67-68F
Wind: Winds were S to SSW1-12 for the entire trip.
Skies: Skies were blue and fair with 30% cloud cover.
Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas