And the prettiest fish award goes to … this smallmouth bass!
Norm treated Rachel’s sister to a fishing trip over the winter, and today was Rachel’s turn. Actually, it was Rachel’s turn quite some time ago, but a loved one in Norm’s family passed away on the first date we had scheduled, and one of Norm’s grandchildren was born prematurely, so the family has been spending a lot of time at the hospital.
Rachel is a sweet, friendly, curious young lady who caught on quickly to all I introduced her to on today’s trip, and who asked a lot of good questions about how things work. Her family is a part of Temple Bible Church and homeschools Rachel and her siblings. Thursdays are a scheduled break from bookwork, and usually involve adventures with PaPa Norm.
On today’s trip we experienced a slow start in the first 2.5 hours, and then things picked up a bit during the last 2+ hours on the water. At first we had some difficulty finding fish, and then we had a tough time getting the fish we found to bite. I compared notes with one retired guide, one other guide who was on the water today, and another recreational fisherman, and all reported tough, slow conditions, including difficulty in getting fish they did find to strike baits.
Rachel wound up with a nice variety of fish, including 1 blue catfish, 2 white bass, 1 longear sunfish, 1 smallmouth bass, and and 8 hybrid striped bass.
Nearly every time a fish would take an interest in a live bait and begin pursuing it, we could see this play out by watching the rod tip and sonar. As we did, Rachel would say, “This is exciting!”, referring to the sense of anticipation that the rod was about to go down under the weight of another fish taking our bait.
TALLY = 13 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:15a
End Time: 11:45a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F
Water Surface Temp: 72F on lower lake
Wind Speed & Direction: SE12 for the entire trip
Sky Conditions: 100% heavy cloud cover.
Other: GT=20
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1559
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Salado, TX
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com