Mike holds one of our best two whites which taped 14 inches.

Finesse fishing vertically with a light slab was the ticket to today’s success.
 
Our spring is still running way behind normal.  For comparison’s sake, our water temperature on the surface for today’s trip was around 52F.  Last year at this time going into Spring Break our temperatures were at 56-57F.  That my not seem like a big difference or a big deal, but these cold-blooded fish are just very sluggish as their metabolism is slow and they are not yet feeding frequently or heavily.  Couple that with low flow in the Lampasas River, and there is not much current to draw fish upstream and concentrate them in the upper end of the reservoir.

Today we were successful fishing vertically with TNT180 slabs in 25-27 feet of water and slowly trolling flatlined crankbaits targeting fish holding at 10-15 feet down.  I used a spread of 4 crankbaits to cover 10, 11, 12, and 15 foot depths by adjusting line lengths and the type of crankbait selected.

Our best action was between the end of an early morning mist and some partial clearing before the winds turned northerly on the lead edge of the incoming cold front, from ~8:30 to 9:30.  At that time, the winds were from the SE at 5-6, the skies were 100% greyed over, and the ambient temperature was right around 56-57F.

We finished up today at around 11:40a, and for our efforts boated exactly 20 white bass and 2 largemouth bass.   4 of these fish came on the troll, and the balance came via vertical jigging.

Jeff contributed a GREAT fishing story today.  It seems he and his family went out to Granger Lake last year for a family outdoor day, which included some fishing from his pontoon boat.  Jeff asked a buddy to hook up the sonar unit while he tended to other things.  The friend did as he was asked and soon the party was off to set some trotlines for catfish.  Jeff had fished Granger before but never noted as many fish showing on his sonar unit on previous trips as he did on this particular day, so, he was feeling pretty good about his chances.  As they cruised along in about 30 feet of water, suddenly, they went aground, hitting a shallow stump.  After shaking off the surprise, they inspected everything confused at how they could have hit bottom with the sonar still reading about 30 feet.  The conclusion:  the sonar was still in demonstration mode as Jeff’s buddy had forgotten to hook up the transducer!!   Long story short, the day only got worse after that…

I’m an optimist by nature, so, I find that the good thing about this cold, long winter and the current struggle to put together more sizeable catches is that the best is yet to come!!