This
morning I welcomed back Mr. Pat Sprague of Sun City near Georgetown, Texas. Pat and his wife recently retired down here from “up north” in Wisconsin, and Pat’s been trying to figure out this man-made reservoir thing ever since.
Pat Sprague of Sun City near Georgetown with one of over 45 keeper hybrid he landed today on large live shad fished in strong winds.
Pat fished with me in March while the slabbing bite was still on and asked me to call him when the hybrid turned on onto live shad so he could experience that first hand. He got a great introduction today.
I brought Pat along to net shad this morning, as I thought he’d really like the experience. I spoiled him, netting over 800 shad in my first throw. I could barely lift my net out of the water!! We culled the largest, keeping about 130 for the trip and returned the rest to continue their spawning. Having Pat aboard for the bait netting allowed us to get right on the fish, whereas I’d normally return to the dock to await my client’s arrival.
We headed out to the fishing grounds and found whitecaps already well-developed. A stiff WNW wind was pushing the water pretty good, but the 36 volt trolling motor really pulled her weight today, keeping us dead on over the fish we found on sonar in 31-35 feet.
Our first stop was our longest and most productive, giving up 40 of our 54 fish in the first 2.5 hours of fishing. Now, catch this — of those 40 fish, exactly 38 were keeper (18+ inch) hybrid, with several going 4.5 to 4.75 pounds on a certified scale. The wind and the large baits really did the trick today.
Around 9:45, the wind shifted a bit more northerly and we got some gusts above 25mph and had to come off our area — waves were occasionally breaking over the bow and twice we were blown off our spot as the wind overpowered the trolling motor. We fished in the lee of the north shore for a while, catching a few white bass, catfish and smallmouth, but, as soon as it looked approachable, went right back out in the blow for the final hour, adding several more keeper hybrid our final count.
TALLY = 54 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:15a
End Time: 11:15p
Air Temp: 58F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 68.6F
Wind: WNW15 at trip’s start, building to NNW20-21 by trip’s end
Skies: Cloudless fair sky
Other Notes: GT100
Areas Fished with success:
**1379 Netted shad here in the AM
**835 caught 40 of our fish here
**1199 caught 6 of our fish here
**1378 caught 8 of our fish here
Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas