What a great trip this was this morning!!  As a guide, I wish they could all turn out this way!  This morning I welcomed aboard a great crew including Mrs. Terri Covington, her sister, Mrs. Vicki Wetherbee, and their mom, Mrs. Betty Norton.
 


Good sports, every one of them!!  From L to R, Mrs. Betty Norton, Mrs. Vicki Wetherbee, and Mrs. Terri Covington with the first three legal hybrid we boated within minutes of our start this morning.

Terri caught our largest fish of the trip.  This hybrid went right at 5.00 pounds.

This hybrid striped bass of Vicki’s went just a shade under 5.00 pounds.

Mrs. Betty came up with a beautiful smallmouth which, true to form, jumped about 3 feet out of the water just 30 feet off our port side as she was reeling it in.
 

I first began a conversation about this trip with Terri about 4 weeks ago.  She told me exactly what she was wanting (which is helpful to me as it gave me a target to shoot for on her behalf).  She and Vicki wanted to have an enjoyable outing to celebrate Betty’s 81st birthday and not freeze, bake, or be windblown while doing it.  I passed on a few dates even though I knew we could have caught fish because they just weren’t going to be all that enjoyable weather-wise.  Then, last Thursday, as the weather forecast look right for this trip, I kept an eye on things.  The forecast held together on Friday, then Saturday, and then I made the call to Terri that it was time to pull the trigger. 

We encountered 3 1/2 solid hours of catching (not fishing — catching!) under soft grey skies with a gentle southerly breeze at under 10mph and an ambient temperature of 63F, making long pants and long sleeves just right.

The shad I intended to use for bait showed up in force, allowing me to catch all we needed in just one throw of my castnet.  We only needed to fish two areas over the span of this trip to stay in the fish.

For our efforts we boated exactly 73 fish including numerous legal hybrid striped bass, short hybrids, white bass, 1 blue catfish, and 2 smallmouth bass.

As we got to our first spot the sonar lit up with fish and fish were popping shad within earshot of the boat.  I intended to put at least 4 rods out.  As we got the 2nd rod down and were prepping the 3rd, two fish hit at the same time.  For the first 40 minutes we had non-stop action and could not get all 4 rods baited and down to depth at the same time.  As Betty saw me baiting hooks, netting fish, unhooking and releasing fish, giving guidance on use of the equipment, and more she said, “Well, Bob, you’re just busier than a feather merchant in a windstorm!”.  I stopped and laughed out loud at that –never heard that one before, but I liked it.

Ladies, thank you for being such fun guests.  I really do wish all my trips could be like this one!

Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas