Today, Thursday, 25 Feb. , I returned to the water after some pretty wacky, windy weather extending from late Monday into late Wednesday. A windy, but not particularly cold, cold front blew in with gusts over 30mph. As a result, the water temperatures dropped just a bit, but are still in the high 50’s. This morning I fished with Brad Simonds and his friend, Kirk Hull. The two have been friends since childhood.
From left: Brad Simonds of Temple, TX, and his childhood friend, Kirk Hull, in visiting from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Most all of the catching this morning took place in the first 2 hours as we enjoyed action in under 16 feet of water aided by the presence of gulls and terns feeding over top of these white bass as they chased bait toward the surface. The 3/4 oz. Binsky made short work of these hungry fish. These early morning fish have shown a preference for flat topography. When these freshwater pelagics get on a flat piece of ground, they like to move — fast! Thus, keeping up with them can be a chore. Today, we chose our intercept angles well and landed 25 fish before the shallow bite died.
It was a different story, however, once the birds stopped flying around the same time our winds shifted from SE to NW on a mild, dry cold front.
We searched a number of mid-depth and deep water areas, finding little. What few birds remained active were distracted by feeding loons, so that was of no help to us. We finally contacted some fish on a deep flat, averaging about 41 feet deep. I saw occasional suspended schools of white bass ranging from 10-25 individuals, and, I saw occasion fish glued tight to bottom. So, we ran tandem downriggers set at staggered depths accordingly and began to catch fish one at a time in this manner. This yielded another 40 minutes of action for 5 more fish, and then the bottom dropped out and the bite was over by 10:15am.
TALLY = 30 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:55a
End Time: 11:35a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 38F
Water Surface Temp: 57F
Wind Speed & Direction: WSW11 at sunrise, briefly shifting SSE7-8 for about 40 minutes, then coming on strong from the N at 13-14 for the remainder of the trip.
Sky Conditions: Clear and bright.
Water Level: 622.45 with 622.0 being full pool. 0.04 feet of water was released in the last 24 hours. The ~1.25 inches of rain that fell Mon/Tues mostly soaked in, but did bump the lake up a few inches.
Other: GT= 20
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 888 — shallow whites under birds, all spread horizontally over a large areas; used Binsky bladebaits
**Area 531/290 — shallow whites under birds, all spread horizontally over a large areas; used Binsky bladebaits
**Area vic 074 – downrigged for white bass suspended at 25-27′ and for fish laying tight to bottom in 41′. ThinFins worked well.
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
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