On Saturday afternoon, 12 March, I fished with Army buddies Brandon Griffel and Jared Zornes and their sons, 7-year-old son, Payton Griffel, and 13-year-old son, Ethan Zornes.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
From left: 7-year-old Payton Griffel and his dad, Brandon Griffel, and Jared Zornes and his son, 13-year-old Ethan Zornes. This crew of 4 put 80 fish in the boat today fishing slabs in deep, clear water away from the mud brought in by the Lampasas River and Trimmier Creek due to recent rains.
We had all manner of weather going on this trip, some of which helped us and some of which hurt us. At the start of the trip, the last of the heavy grey clouds which had moved in around 10am was about to clear from south to north. These clouds held some rain to the point that there was some sprinkles falling even as the sun shone as we prepared to launch.
This turbulence and change in the weather turned the fish on at an unusually early part of the afternoon. We made our first stop where I’d witnessed some terns feeding over 36′ of water, and, in our first 50 minutes boated 40 fish in the 1, 2, 3, and 4 year class using slabs. Once this action dried up, we had quite a lull in the action before the fish cranked up again.
From 4:00p to 5:15p we got back on fish in 38-44′ of water. These fish were not overly aggressive and required that we make short hops to move regularly to present our lures to “new” fish, as the fish were not active enough to come to us as the fish we boated created commotion beneath the boat.
We put another 26 fish in the boat over this span of time.
Our final action of the trip came from 6:20 to 6:50 under terns feeding on shad forced to the top by white bass feeding in the failing light right at and just after sunset. We put a final 14 fish in the boat in this flurry of activity, putting us right at the 80 fish mark for the trip’s total.
All fish were caught on slabs today.
TALLY = 80 FISH, all caught and released
CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE
CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 2:30p
End Time: 7:00p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F
Water Surface Temp: 64.2F
Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable
Sky Conditions: Fair skies with less than 5% cloud cover.
Water Level: 625.67 and rising with 622.0 being full pool. Water being released at 2159 cubic feet per second
Other: GT= 0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1714 — vertical jigging for heavily schooled fish in 36′ during the last turbulent weather of the day under light sprinkles and clouds before the skies cleared and dried. 40 fish (half of our overall catch) came in our first 50 minutes on the water.
**Area 1567/1564/1563 — after an hour’s lull under brightening skies and calm winds, we found a few patches of fish by spot hopping in this general vicinity, fishing in 38-42′.
**Area 1192/072 — “last light” bite took place here with ~12 terns pointing the way to the action in 25-35′ along slope.
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle