10 | April | 2016 | Fishing Report

This morning, Saturday, 9 April, I fished with Mr. Don Buchholz, his son John Buchholz, and John’s friend Greg Horton. These men have met together every year at this time of year for 22 consecutive years for a fishing weekend and homecoming to Killeen, TX, where Don now resides.

While jigging for white bass and hybrid stripers in 26 feet of water using white slabs, this 10.25 pound flathead (a.k.a yellow) catfish mistook a slab for a shad and wound up in Greg Horton’s hands for this photo.

From left: Greg Horton, Don Buchholz, and John Buchholz on their 22nd consecutive annual fishing excursion. Missing this year was Gary Cheer, a friend from the UK, who succumbed to illness and couldn’t make the flight to the US.

We met at 7:15a and I explained the various options available to us which included fishing for high numbers of smaller fish with artificial lures, and/or fishing for better quality fish, but fewer of them, using live shad as bait.

There was no doubt about it, my trio was clearly interested in more action for more fish, regardless of size. So, with that in mind, we sought out bird action in shallow water which pointed the way to post-spawn white bass aggressively feeding on threadfin shad.

While waiting for it to get light enough for the birds to begin working, we slabbed off of a main lake point, picking up 22 fish right off the bat using an “easing” tactic with slabs. Although the skies were completely obscured with gray clouds and a very light rain was falling, the birds began to work around 7:45a, thus pointing the way to very active, very catchable white bass. We maneuvered into the midst of the birds in 12 to 15 feet of water, and began the fan casting blade baits and slabs using a lift-drop method and scored continuously through around 9:15 AM when the winds went slack, and the fishing eased back several notches.

At this time, I moved to the edge of the flat we’d been fishing over top of, and fished the breakline in about 22 feet of water, allowing us to continue using the easing tactic, and allowing us to score another 30 fish in no time at all, including a 10.25 pound yellow catfish.

Right about this time, as the fish were beginning to slack off, I got a call from a fellow guide who had found a nice bunch of keepers sized hybrid in deep water, using live shad. He invited me over, since his clients were keeping their limits of fish and their trip was about to conclude.

We Spot Locked with my Minn Kota right on top of the spot he had been fishing, and were also treated to his left over shad since he was headed on an anniversary vacation trip to the Texas coast, and wouldn’t be needing those baits this week.

This lead was a solid one, and allowed for everyone to catch a couple of keeper hybrid before the bite died, my trio got antsy for action, and we moved on to continue vertical jigging for more, but smaller, fish.

By 11:20a the morning bite had run its course, and with a storm cell sitting over Copperas Cove headed our way, we decided to call it a good day right at the four hour mark with 154 fish boated for our efforts, including three large mouth bass, three freshwater drum, one 10.25 pound flathead catfish, and a mixed bag of short and keeper white bass, and short and keeper hybrid striped bass.

TALLY = 154 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: 58F

Water Surface Temp: 66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were ESE, but velocity varied greatly and frequently from near-calm to 13+

Sky Conditions: 100% grey skies the entire trip.

Water Level: 594.82 and falling with 594.0 being full pool. Water being released at 765 cubic feet per second. Lake fell 0.07 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 25

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):