During the afternoon of Nov. 19th I met with a boat full of buddies from Sun City retirement community in Georgetown, TX. I welcomed back returning guest Pat Sprague. Pat brought with him Bob Hansell, a U.S. Marine Corp veteran, and Dennis Healy, a fairly new resident at Sun City.

Pat Sprague scored our largest fish of the trip with this solid hybrid going right at 4.50 pounds.  It fell for a bladebait fished just under the surface amidst other such fish forcing shad to the surface in the late afternoon.

Dennis Healy boated this nice 3 pound class hybrid striped bass just minutes after Pat’s large fish came aboard.  This fish also fell for a bladebait fished high up in the water column where actively feeding fish were patrolling for shad.

From left: Dennis Healy, Bob Hansell, and Pat Sprague with the 3 largest white bass we culled from among the dozens we landed.  These fish ranged from 13-14″.

This afternoon I met with a boatful of buddies from Sun City retirement community in Georgetown, TX. I welcomed back returning guest Pat Sprague. Pat brought with him Bob Hansell, a U.S. Marine Corp veteran, and Dennis Healy, a fairly new resident at Sun City.
After a morning during which we had to work for our fish thanks to tough, post-frontal conditions with characteristic clear skies, bright sun, and light winds, we continued down that path this afternoon.
We got off to a solid start as a gentle breeze that began blowing at mid-day moved the water a bit and turned the fish on until it resided. We got right down to business catching fish within minutes of departing from the courtesy dock, and caught about 1/3 of our entire afternoon’s catch at this location inside of our first hour on the water.
Over the next hour or so we made a number of quick stops to fish for congregations of fish we found on sonar. As was the case this morning, the bite was pretty subdued. Despite seeing a lot of fish on sonar, we caught fish only at a moderate rate until around 3:40p when the sun’s angle got sufficiently low to key the beginning of the evening’s low light bite.
At this time we positioned ourselves over a 20-22 foot flat, near the first breakline connecting the flat to deeper water. A I watched sonar, I could follow fish moving up out of deeper water and onto the flat to feed. Feeding gulls helped us with fish location, and sonar helped us zero right in on the “spot on the spot”.
We caught a mix of just-short hybrid, several keeper hybrid and white bass of all sizes at this area. These fish were numerous, but quite scattered, and so we opted for a horizontal casting tactic using bladebaits. Depending on fish activity, we fished these baits everywhere from just barely subsurface to hugging bottom.
This area produced as many fish as the first location, but it took a bit longer to put that catch together just because of how scattered the fish were, thus requiring several casts per fish caught versus the “one after another” results we experienced while fishing vertically just after getting on the water.
Smaller baits continued to produce best for us, with the 3/8 oz. Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 slab producing best when we went vertical, and the 3/8 oz. Cicada bladebait producing best when we went horizontal.
There was next to no sunset bite tonight thanks to the winds going completely calm about 30 minutes prior. For their efforts, the fellows wound up boating 84 fish this evening, enjoying both being with one another and in the great outdoors on a nice, clear, dry day here in central Texas.

TALLY = 84 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time: 5:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Water Surface Temp:  68.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and primarily from the NW under 6mph all day

Sky Conditions:  Blue bird skies

Other: GT= 65

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1636 smoking and easing for whites and hybrids

**Area 1635 smoking and easing for whites and hybrids

**Area 1637 smoking and easing for whites and hybrids

**Area 1638 smoking and easing for whites and hybrids

**Area 1627/408 threw bladebaits horizontally for shallow whites & hybrids while observing moderate sub-surface activity/birds

 

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com