Fishing was Off the Chart Today! — 168 Fish, Central Texas Fishing Guide Report, 14 June 2013






This morning I fished with Chris M. and Comptus D., both serving our nation as members of the U.S. Army Signal Corps currently assigned to an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) unit on Ft. Hood.


Comptus (L) and Chris (R) were consistent in quickly and accurately casting to surface-feeding white bass. This allowed them to take take full advantage of the potential the fish offered us today as they fed long and hard on shad in the upper third of the water column.



We regularly witnessed hooked fish being chased by multiple schoolmates. In this instance, one of those schoolmates took a swipe at the lure in his hooked schoolmate’s mouth and also got hooked.


Our first stop this morning came at Area 057/061. The low-light, early morning largemouth action here was significantly reduced over the past several mornings. I attributed that to the cloud cover in the east “buffering” our sudden brightening of the skies that seems to have been a light-related trigger for largemouth of late. We stayed in the area for about 90 minutes and steadily had “boils” to cast to, but they were well-spaced both time-wise and distance-wise. We picked up a total of 8 fish and moved on.

Our next stop at Area 205 saw the most aggressive topwater action I’ve seen from white bass in a long time, and certainly in this run of 9 excellent fishing days. We enjoyed constant topwater action for 2 full hours. Both fellows started with silver bladebaits (the Reef Runner “Cicada” in 3/8 oz., silver), then Chris got adventurous and began throwing a Rebel Pop-R and did well on it, too. Comptus kept right on going with his “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy and landed fish after fish on his Cicada. Basically any timely, well-placed cast got responded to positively. Many times we witnessed a hooked fish at boatside being accompanied by 5-6 other schoolmates aggressively pursuing after the lure in the hooked fish’s mouth. On one occasion, one of the pursuing fish got a bit greedy and also got hooked — two fish landed on one lure!

Chris said it well when he mentioned that this experience was no place for a new fisherman — they’d simply get spoiled and think it was this easy all the time. He noted that you’d need to have been out regularly enough to know you usually have to work to find fish in order to appreciate how special today’s conditions were.

After the fish vacated the upper third of the water column, we decided to try another technique for variety’s sake. This took us over to Area 458/1135. We began downrigging, were successful at that, and, as we approached the western end of this topographic feature, saw fish stacked up well in the lower third of the water column in 18-24 feet of water. With the fairly bright, and only slightly breezy conditions, I decided to try to saturate the area with horizontally cast bladebaits worked “lift-drop” style. We picked up both white bass and largemouth doing so, and rounded out our fish count at 168 here. It became apparent that as the winds lightened and the skies brightened that the fish had done about all they were to do this morning, so, around 11:15 we called it a day and headed back in.


TALLY = 168 FISH, all caught and released

back to home page


Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83-84F

Wind: Winds were SSW6-8.

Skies: Partly cloudy at 50% on a hazy sky.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Honey-Do List Put on Hold for 4 Hours — 85 Fish, Central Texas Fishing Guide Report for Stillhouse






This morning I fished with John Hauck, home on a bit of leave time from Afghanistan.



John is a retired Army officer who is now employed by DynCorp International. In this capacity, John now advises friendly Afghan nationals on logistics management. John is well-traveled. The tales of his multiple visits to Honduras, which always included some open ocean SCUBA action, were of particular interest to me. We’d traipsed some of the same ground in northern Europe, so, comparing notes there was fun, too.

Today was day 7 of an amazingly consistent run of topwater action on both white bass and largemouth bass on Stillhouse. This action has been so consistent that John and I were actually sitting in place just yards from where the first visible signs of topwater feeding first broke out.

We were able to stay in the largemouth bass for about 2 hours throwing topwater hardbaits to fool these schoolies which ran anywhere from 13 to 15 inches or so — very energetic strikes and entertaining aerobatics after the hookup! This took place between Areas 061 and 1096.

After the largemouth were done abusing the shad, it was the white bass’ turn. From 8:50 to 9:20 (we had to pull the plug early so John could make a doctor’s appointment) we caught nearly a fish per cast catching white bass in both the 1 and 2 year class on bladebaits between Areas 204, 205, and 484.

That was it!! Not much moving, not much searching, not much fuel burned, just casting and catching to the tune of 85 fish for our efforts.

TALLY = 85 FISH

back to home page


Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 9:30a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83-84F

Wind: Winds were SSW6-8.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








“…but we’ll need to stay focused.” — 100 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide’s Report, 12 June






This morning I welcomed 3 generations aboard — Gladys N., Deb P. (Gladys’ daughter), and Jared and Austin M. (Gladys’ twin 10 year old grandsons and Deb’s nephews).


White bass? We caught ’em!

Black bass? We caught ’em!


The two ladies had fished with me once before in May on a mother-daughter trip on Belton. This morning we gave Stillhouse a try as it has been very consistently producing both largemouth and white bass with many of the fish cooperating by hitting topwater presentations as they feed aggressively in the upper portion of the water column on shad.

We began this morning’s trip between Areas 057 and 061. Abundant “schoolie” sized largemouth between 13-15 inches were feeding aggressively on shad. We used topwater hardbaits to attempt to quickly and accurately cast to fish as they “boiled” on the surface. Most accurately and timely casts drew strikes early on, then, as the sun brightened, the success rate began to fall off.

After the winds increased sufficiently to stop the topwater bite, we let the largemouth bass fishing fall by the wayside and turned our attention on white bass.

We headed to the vicinity of Area 644/660 and found abundant, suspended white bass and plenty of forage in the form of shad here. Due to the winds being right at 13-14 mph, we went with a downrigging approach, using two sets of twin Pet Spoons on spreader rigs to regularly catch both singles and doubles of white bass for over two hours. Occasionally we would break from this routine to throw bladebaits if an aggressive school of white bass pushed shad to the surface and stayed there long enough to warrant bringing in all the downrigging equipment and e-anchoring in place so as to steady the boat enough for casting in the windy conditions.

All four anglers were casting proficiently by the time we got into the white bass at this location, so, the numbers began to add up very quickly … 60, 70, 80, then 90+ fish. Once everyone realized that a 100 fish day was attainable, we wanted to accomplish that, but, the boys were on edge of having the novelty of the whole adventure wear off.

I had to dust off my pep talk about being so close to reaching a goal and our fate being in our own hands. I advised the boys that we could definitely have a 100 fish day, but that we’d need to stay focused. To their credit, they both rose to the occasion, cooperated well, and brought the last 4 fish in needed to bring our trip total up to exactly 100 fish.

By 10:10am our common goal was reached, so we sought out some calm water, took photos to commemorate the trip, and headed back in to the boat ramp.

TALLY = 100 FISH

back to home page


Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83-84F

Wind: Winds were S5 increasing to S14.

Clouds: ~40% cloud cover on a fair sky.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Thanks for the Fishing Trip, Granny!! — 68 Fish, Stillhouse Fishing Guide Report, 11 June 2013






This morning I fished with cousins Matthew and Kelsie, chaperoned by Matthew’s mom, Kelly. This trip was a gift from the kids’ grandma.


Here Matthew and Kelsey display two of the larger white bass they landed today using a variety of tactics, from top to bottom.

Matthew has been out with me on quite a few previous occasions and is becoming quite the accomplished angler in terms of species he’s landed and techniques he’s capable of using. Now, contrast that with Kelsie who had never been fishing before. It’s easy to guess where I needed to place my attention on this particular trip.

Over the course of the trip I got to realize that Kelsie is a very compassionate, sweet, 9 year old all-American girl. She has 3 horses, 4 rabbits, 2 dogs, and is working on showing rabbits through 4-H participation right now. She was quite concerned about any harm that might befall the fish we were catching today. She seemed to be satisfied that as long as we were catching and releasing our fish, we would remain on the straight and narrow.

To help Kelsie along, we did some casting practice from the shore before we even stepped foot on the boat. She got the hang of casting a spinning rod very quickly. After several consecutive, flawless casts, we all loaded up and moved on out to where the fish were.

Once again this morning we were fortunate to encounter topwater action. This time, we found fish popping young of the year shad around Area 239. We used bladebaits to target these fish and boated 13 before this action died after just 20-25 minutes. I am proud to say Kelsie caught a fish on her very first cast!

Due to the fairly thick, grey cloud cover right at sunrise, the bite got off to a bit of a slow start. We had to look for fish for about 25 minutes before finding some solid action. We found more white bass feeding at and near the surface on occasion, and very actively in the 21-25 foot range in the vicinity of Area 205/484. Accordingly, we targeted these fish with downriggers when they were “down” and with topwater baits when they were “up”. We also tried a “lift-drop” tactic with bladebait when I marked bottom-oriented fish while downrigging. We worked in this area for nearly 2 hours.

When I sensed the novelty of downrigging was wearing out on Kelsie, I suggested we do a bit of shallow water sunfishing. Both kids were up for that, so, off we went to Area 1098. We found abundant bluegill and longear sunfish here in shallow water and caught fish steadily on slip-bobber rigs.

As the 10 o’clock hour approached, the sunfish were losing interest in our baits, so, I suggested we give downrigging one more try in a different area. The kids’ enthusiasm was rekindled for that technique, so, we headed to Area 832/458 and downrigged at 21-24 feet for 4 final fish, putting our grand total at 68 fish boated for the trip.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Matthew was a huge help today in making his younger cousin successful. A number of times I nudged him to fend for himself on things (untangling knots, asking questions, taking fish off the hook, setting up the downrigging equipment, etc.) which I’d normally be helping him with so I could devote more attention to Kelsie. He rose to the occasion and wound up learning a lot thanks to the “sink or swim” approach I took on a few of these things.

Great job, kids!

TALLY = 68 FISH, all caught and released

back to home page


Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 82F

Wind: Winds were S8-10.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Don’t Deploy without Fishing First! — 22 Fish, Belton Lake Fishing Report, 10 June 2013






This morning I fished with Daniel L., currently serving with the 1st Cavalry Division as an Army medic. Daniel has been deployed to Iraq twice and is headed to Afghanistan soon.


Daniel got a “multi-species double” catching a white bass and a hybrid striped bass at the same time on a tandem rig.

In short, conditions were tough today and so was the fishing. The winds were light and the skies were bright — that’s always a tough combination on these clear, limestone lakes like Belton and Stillhouse.

We got on the water before sunrise and found some light topwater action. Small schools of white bass were forcing young of the year shad to the surface in the vicinity of Area 1143/952. Because the shad are small and swim slowly, it takes very little effort for the white bass to overtake and eat them, thus, there are no big splashes or boils or explosions on the surface — just subtle, small swirls. We caught 8 white bass throwing blade baits before the hot, bright sun drove the fish deep.

Next, we downrigged over the same area and picked up a few single white bass on Pet Spoons.

When this action died, we went hunting for deep, suspended hybrid striped bass and targeted them with live shad. We hunted and pecked, but never got on a really solid bite until a buddy of mine invited me over to where he had located some fish near Area 512. What I found here was loose, small schools of hybrid suspended down around 27-31 feet over 50+ feet of water. We got baits down to just above these fish and picked up 2 hybrid and 2 blue catfish. The bite was definitely on the downhill slide, as indicated by the great number of fish we saw versus the very few strikes we drew. We decided to add some horizontal motion to the mix by downrigging instead of fishing bait, and this worked well for us.

We were able to land 4 more hybrid and several large white bass using Pet Spoons on our downriggers. Most of these fish came from between Area 512 and 815.

TALLY = 22 FISH, all caught and released

back to home page


Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 82F

Wind: Winds were light and variable at <3 from the SSW.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Of Grand-Daughters and the American Dream, 110 Fish, Texas Fishing Guide Report, 08 June 2013






This morning I fished with Preston S. from Phoenix, AZ, and his father-in-law, Phil, from near Torrance, CA.


Preston (L) and Phil (R) with our four best white bass of this morning’s trip.


Both men were here in Central Texas for the birth of Phil’s grand-daughter, who arrived healthy and happy just yesterday at Darnall Hospital on Ft. Hood.

Preston is a former Los Angeles policeman and Dept. of Justice agent who is now working in real estate around the Phoenix area. He has his own boat and does a bit of reservoir fishing, mainly for largemouth bass. Phil, on the other hand, came to America as a boy of 8 from Puerto Rico. He and his wife raised 4 daughters and a son while working as a maintenance man for the Honeywell Corp. He is now retired, and, at age 73 had never wet a line nor landed a fish before in his life. We fixed that!!

As they have been doing over the past several days, the white bass fed even more heavily on the surface from just minutes before sunrise to around 8:15am. This took place in the vicinity of Area 160/205, and out to Area 1221. During this time, I maneuvered the boat from school to school putting Preston and Phil within casting distance of the fish. We used spinning tackle to throw small bladebaits imitating the young of the year shad these white bass were feeding upon. Most well-placed casts landing as the fish fed or very briefly after they had disappeared from the surface drew a strike. We fished for over 5 1/2 hours, but landed the majority of our fish during this first 90+ minute feed. The fishes’ activity level dropped off sharply thereafter, as it often does this time of year.

When the topwater feed had all but ended, we immediately switched over to downrigging using tandem rigs to present Pet Spoons at depth to target the same fish which had been feeding at the surface, but which were now down at mid-depths (19-26 feet or so). We successfully downrigged for the remainder of our time on the water at Areas 1221, 453/822, and 457/1135.

One of Preston’s desires was to get exposure to techniques he was not already familiar with. As I downrig in the summer months, I’ll often come across solid concentrations of fish, either suspended or on bottom, which I feel I can target with a vertical presentation by hovering over top of them and working a jigging spoon (a slab) around them. Although we really didn’t encounter a solid opportunity to do this today, we “made do” and at least showed Preston the mechanics of the presentation. We did land 3 white bass in this manner, so he was able to get the gist of it, but he also realized how much more effective downrigging was for fish that had begun to turn off.

By trip’s end, thanks to a solid topwater bite and catching quite a number of “doubles” on the downriggers, we amassed a catch of exactly 110 fish, including 1 drum, 1 sunfish, 3 largemouth bass, and 105 white bass.


TALLY = 110 FISH, all caught and released

back to home page


Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 12:10p

Air Temp: 63F at trip’s start with very low humidity.

Water Surface Temp: 81F

Wind: Winds were ~3-5mph from the NNE, then shifting thru the E, to SSE at 10mph by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair with 10-20% cloud cover.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Kids Fish, Too! — A Trip Just for Kids — 76 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow, 07 June 2013






This morning I fished with a boatload of kiddos very happy to be done with school and finally on summer vacation!


(L to R)Mason, Madi, and Morgan boated these nice white bass running downriggers for suspended fish feeding on young of the year shad.


Madi’s best fish of the day.


Mason’s best fish of the day.

Morgan’s best fish of the day.


At just a few minutes prior to sunrise, I met up with Mr. Royal C. of Georgetown, TX, along with his daughter, Morgan, his son, Mason, and his niece, Madi. As we got going, I assessed where everyone’s ability level was, adjusted equipment as needed, did some practice casting so I could judge range and accuracy levels, and off we went.

Based on yesterday’s positive results and the lack of any major weather change, I expected today’s fishing to be much like yesterday’s, and it was.

We experienced a solid topwater bite from the first 80 minutes of fishing, finding white bass aggressively pursuing young of the year shad at or on the surface in the vicinity of Area 160/205 and Area 1221. These fish were just gorging themselves on the small, slow-swimming young shad. Many times as we brought the fish aboard, they would regurgitate freshly swallowed shad, which definitely drew a few “Oooh’s and Aaaah’s” from the kids.

Next, we stayed in the vicinity of Area 1221 knowing that the fish that had just been feeding at the surface were still in the area, only that the brightening sun had pushed them down deeper, as verified by sonar. We used a downrigging tactic to continue to take fish steadily (both in singles and doubles) for another 90 minutes. This time was interspersed with an occasional stop to attempt a “smoking” technique when we encountered heavily schooled fish near bottom, but, the fish definitely preferred that horizontal motion.

We gave Area 842 a try, but the fish were a bit sluggish despite the presence of bait and occasional topwater outbursts.

We wrapped up as the morning bite was dying down by resuming our downrigging at between Area 457 and 1135.

The kids were a blast to have on the boat; they listened well, were eager to succeed, and were fast learners. All of these things contributed to their success. I was especially proud of young Madi, who overcame her reluctance and both held and released several of her own fish without the aid of a “fish-gripper”. Great job today, kids!!


TALLY = 76 FISH, all caught and released

back to home page


Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 77.8F

Wind: Winds were ~7-8mph from the NNE.

Skies: Skies were fair with some high, thin white clouds for the first 90 minutes following sunrise.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








It was a “God Thing” — My Five Dollar Challenge






A few weeks ago at my church, Memorial Baptist Church in Killeen, our pastor, Bro. Ken, challenged us all to take action “meet a need”.

Jordan with a 2.25 pound largemouth caught from out of school of bass feeding on shad on topwater around 10:15am

Bro. Ken went one step further and “primed the pump” by giving a $5 bill to every person who wanted one to invest in meeting a need in the local community.

Of course my challenge was somehow going to relate to fishing!! I had a great dad both as a boy and well into my 30’s. When I lost my dad in a tragic accident, I realized how much he meant to me. For whatever reason, since that time the Lord has given me a heart for boys without dads — to encourage them and help them build confidence.

I decided to ask the Lord to lead me to a boy without a dad. I wanted to take him on a 4-5 hour fishing trip on my boat to Stillhouse or Belton Lake.

I would put the $5 of gas in the tank and make this trip happen whenever the right boy came along.

That Sunday evening, I crafted an ad which I placed in the “Free Stuff” section of our local Craigslist in order to let the community know I was making this available. The ad simply would not post correctly on Craigslist despite electronic confirmation messages to the contrary. I experienced the same difficulty in posting on Monday, and again on Tuesday. Finally, around 3:30pm on Wednesday, after three more attempts earlier that day, the ad “took” and appeared on Craigslist as intended.

Nearly instantly, I got a text from a man in the local area which read: “I just wanna commend you for offering a fishing trip for boys without a dad!! Too many nowadays aren’t introduced into these kind of things anymore. Thank you! Well God bless you and your church for challenging you and I hope someone will take your offer.” That was encouraging!!

Next, just 5 minutes later, a man from Lewisville called and said he thought I shouldn’t post anything on Craigslist potentially leading to a meeting between a child and an adult. I tactfully thanked him for his input, expressed to him that we’d just have to agree to disagree and hung up. That was a bit discouraging.

So, I suppose the public’s vote was now tied. I needed a tie-breaker!

Then, about 10 minutes later I got another call from a man by the name of Dee who lives in Academy. He told me of a boy in Heidenheimer whose name is Jordan L. Jordan is 15 years old and is an only child living with his mom. Jordan’s dad was a truck driver. He was killed 9 years ago in a trucking accident. It’s just been Jordan and his mom making it together since the accident.

About 8 minutes after Dee phoned me, I received another e-mail from Craigslist stating that my ad had been flagged and removed (probably by that naysayer from Lewisville!!!).

It dawned on me that I had prayed for just the right person for this trip, and that in the brief 15-20 minute window that this ad actually appeared on Craigslist, that person had been identified.

Dee passed my information on to Jordan’s mom, Ann. Ann and I spoke by phone later that evening and arranged a fishing trip for Jordan when school let out. That trip took place last Thursday, June 6th.

I met Jordan and his mom, Ann, at the boatramp at 6:30. Jordan is a pretty quiet young man — very respectful and unassuming.

We fished on Stillhouse and landed 42 fish. We caught white bass on topwater in the early morning (Area 160/205), then caught white bass using downriggers in the mid-morning (Areas 876 & 842), we dabbled with some sunfish up in the shallow (Area 231), then found some largemouth bass feeding on topwater in the late morning (Area 870). Prior to this experience, Jordan had done some pond fishing, but nothing quite as extensive as today’s trip.

After I get through this busy summer season, we agreed to link up again in the fall or winter for some more time together using tactics different from the ones required in this warm, early summer season. I’m looking forward to that.


TALLY = 42 FISH, all caught and released

back to home page


Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start with very low humidity.

Water Surface Temp: 81F

Wind: Winds were ~4-6mph from the NNE in the wake of a disturbance that brought early morning thunderstorms just north and east of our area.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








To Tawakoni — 2 Lake Records and a Personal Best Hybrid Striped Bass, 30 May – 02 June 2013






Following a very busy and productive 8-week long spring hybrid striped season on Belton Lake, the threadfin shad spawn is now ended and, as happens every year, the hybrid fishing had begun to take a nosedive as the bait and gamefish scatter and the water begins to slowly stratify as it warms from the surface downward.


This “personal best” 8.5 pound Lake Tawakoni hybrid striped bass took a 5″ swimbait in 12 feet of water just after sunrise.


This made for a good time to get away to do a little fishing on my own.

Mrs. Rebecca and I packed up the truck and boat and headed out to Lake Tawakoni near the small town of Wills Point, TX. I was going to fish for 4 days solid and she, joined by her sister, Teri, and niece, Mattie, was going to take in the First Monday Trade Days in the nearby town of Canton.

I can’t tell you much about Canton, but, as for Lake Tawakoni — WOW!! What a tremendous difference in the fertility and productivity of the waters of the Sabine River versus what we experience here on the eastern edge of the Texas Hill Country.

Just looking around one sees the trees are taller, the vegetation is more lush and so much more dense, there is more rainfall, there is more agriculture, and so on. This fertility translates into the region’s surface waters, too.

Now, bear in mind, I had only been to this lake once before and did not fish this section of the lake during that previous visit. I did not consult with any guides, rather, I just relied on my “fish sense” and the maps in my Lowrance sonar unit to seek out the fish I caught.

Everywhere I searched with sonar there was ample bait. 3 mornings in a row I caught over 70 shad in one throw of my cast net. Just for comparison’s sake, I’ve fished Stillhouse and Belton for 22 years now and have landed exactly 5 white bass over 17 inches. My FIRST FISH caught on this trip was a 17 inch white bass, and I went on to catch numerous whites between 16-17 inches in the several days there.

Likewise, after fishing Belton for 22 years, the largest hybrid I’ve had come over the side of my boat was the Catch and Release category record, an 8.00 pound fish caught by a client, Lacey Sparkman. On this trip, I boated my own personal best hybrid which pulled my certified Boga Grip down to 8.50 pounds!

One time I pulled up on a hump hoping to find hybrid in about 36 feet of water. The hump was covered with fish, but I could tell they were too small to be hybrid. I got my live shad baits set up and began to catch blue catfish. Once the first few fish got whiff of the bait and began to feed, the entire sonar screen just blacked out in the last 8 feet of the water column. For about 40 minutes it was all I could do to keep just 2 rods down and baited. Every single one of these blue cat was 16-20 inches long and plump. I caught 42 fish in that spree.

I went to Tawakoni with the goal of catching a white bass lake record on my fly rod. I accomplished this goal on Thursday, then caught an even larger white bass on the fly on Friday, and then caught an even larger white bass on the fly on Saturday.

As icing on the cake, I fished in very rough, windy conditions on Sunday morning before we were to “break camp”. While casting a blade bait to a mixed school of white bass and yellow bass, I hooked and landed a yellow bass which exceeded the weight of the current yellow bass record in the “Kept Fish” category.

This is an incredible fishery with very light weekday traffic. Planning to head back as soon as time and budget allow!!!

The results for the week:

Thursday, 30 May – 43 fish

Friday, 31 May – 98 fish

Saturday, 01 June – 76 fish

Sunday, 02 June – 32 fish

Average = 62.25 fish per day