This morning I fished with Dr. John Updike of Austin on Decker Lake (a.k.a. Walter E. Long Reservoir).
In the face of the season’s strongest cold front to date, John still managed to put 4 nice hybrid stripers in the boat. These fish were suspended at around 20′ beneath large schools of small shad suspended at 15-20 feet.
Amongst the shad and hybrid, this largemouth also decided to join in for an easy meal of small baitfish.
John contacted me by phone about a week and a half ago. He retired from a career in dentistry back in January and now wants to devote some time to fishing. Because Decker Lake is a convenient drive for him, we wanted to get a good overview on what it takes to catch white bass and hybrid stripers in that body of water. He emphasized that the learning, not the catching, was most important to him. If we landed a few fish, he’d consider that “icing on the cake”.
With this in mind, I came prepared to demonstrate, if not employ, the five most common tactics I use throughout the year in pursuit of these two members of the the temperate bass family: live shad, downrigging, vertical jigging, smoking, and the use of blade baits. I also planned to provide clear guidance on the use and interpretation of sonar.
I had really hoped to catch the tail end of the west wind before it ramped up and transitioned to NNW, as that can offer some of the best fishing in this fall season. The NOAA forecast actually showed we might have 2.5-3 hours worth of a chance at this as of the 3:00am forecast, but, no sooner did we launch and begin heading to our first area, then the wind shifted suddenly, almost violently, to the NNW and the temperature immediately begin to drop. Our job just got much, much tougher.
We started off by throwing bladebaits in 15-20 feet of water after marking a single school of white bass, but, by the time we got positioned, they moved on. We then tried live shad for about 30 minutes near this same area after marking fish on sonar holding at the base of a drop. This did not produce, either. Then, after observing 2 gulls working over open water over one of the cove mouths, we employed the downriggers to allow us to cover some water and see if these gulls were on to something. This, too, failed to produce.
I left this area behind and headed out to check a deep-water area between two main lake points. As we neared the area I hoped to search, I saw several swirls of feeding fish in the very heavy waves now on the water, and suspected these were white bass or short hybrids. As I slowed down to inspect, sonar revealed heavy concentrations of small shad “balled up” about 15-20 feet beneath the surface, and, on occasion, beneath these balls, were the unmistakable sonar signatures of hybrid striped bass. “Balled up” shad are in a defensive posture and are being threatened by something. Whenever I see bait so regularly and tightly balled up, I slow way down an really look for the root cause, which is typically threatening gamefish of some sort. We once again deployed the downriggers into this action and drew a near-instant response.
Using a pair of tandem rigs, each equipped with twin Pet Spoons, we placed the downrigger balls at 18 feet over the hybrid holding at 20-21 feet. We scored 3 hybrid, followed by a largemouth, then another hybrid, all in about 45 minutes’ time.
As the wind got harder, the waves taller, and the temperatures colder, we decided to call it a day a bit early this go-round. Before we wrapped up, though, we sought out a shallower, wind-protected area where I could do a hands-on demonstration with John showing him how both the smoking technique and the vertical jigging (or “slabbing”) techniques are correctly used.
We headed back in for around 10:15am and had quite the experience trying to get tied to the dock in a 20+ mph crosswind (think aircraft carrier landing in heavy seas), but, we managed, and by 10:30, John was warming his hands up in his truck, now a good bit wiser about the pursuit of these species on his “home lake”.
TALLY = 5 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:20a
End Time: 10:15a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F (dropping to 46F over the ~4 hour span of our trip.
Water Surface Temp: 66-67F
Wind Speed & Direction: W5 at 6:20a, shifting and increasing suddenly to NNW18-20 by 6:40a and staying at NNW17-20 for the duration of our trip.
Sky Conditions: 100% clouded, grey skies
Other: GT=50
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1470 through 1480 through 1481 through 1477
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Salado, TX
