TPWD Big Fish Award!! Spring Break Trip #2, 30 Fish, 11 March 2014

This morning I fished with Nathan and Angela Smith of Burnet, and their kids, 16 year old Jordanne, and 10 year old Ryan.  The family planned a Spring Break campout at the Union Grove Park, so, we fished Stillhouse and launched from this park for the sake of convenience.
 

L to R – Ryan, Angela, Nathan, and Jordanne with some nice 3 and 4 year class white bass taken on Cicada bladebaits in less than 17 feet of water.

On her 16th birthday, Jordanne anchored our nice string of fish with this bruiser of a white bass.  It taped at 15.5 inches which qualified Jordanne to receive a TPWD big fish award.  These are given for certain species of fish exceeding a minimum threshold size.

Nathan is a Cedar Park Fire Department lieutenant and U.S. Air Force veteran, and Angie owns her own hair salon with four employees in the town of Burnet.

After covering some some safety basics and going over our plan for the day, we set out in search of fish.  Our job was immediately made easier when a flock of gulls feeding on shad forced near the surface by hungry white bass pointed the way to where we needed to begin our day.  We fished over these loosely schooled and widely spread white bass for about 2 hours, catching fish consistently and boating a total of 26 fish before things went quiet. We used Cicada bladebaits to work along the bottom where the majority of these fish were patrolling.

We then moved along to some shallower water and set out 4 flatline trolling outfits, each equipped with a different crankbait so as to cover a horizontal band of water from 8 to 15 feet beneath the surface.  We boated 3 more white bass and missed another in about 8 passes through this area before the sun brightened and the wind calmed bringing an end to this bite.

We then retreated to deep water and searched a number of areas from 25-45 feet, but only managed to hook two fish and boat one of them before calling it a day with the action now waning significantly.


TALLY = 30 FISH, all caught and released

GO TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE HOME PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:45a
End Time: 12:00p
Air Temp: 56F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 53-54F 
Wind: SSW5-10 and puffing
Skies:
Low 100% cloud cover for first hour with
light SSW breeze, clearing to 20% cloudy by 9:45a
Other Notes: GT20

Areas Fished with success:

** Horizontal fishing with bladebaits from Area 1350-1351
** Flatline trolling in area bounded by 1345/1346/374
** Deep vertical jigging between 1322/1314






Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas