This past Friday morning, April 15th, I fished with a crew of 4 from Pride of Texas Landscaping including trip coordinator and long-time client Rob Ramey, Justin Pride, the company’s owner, Ricky Guest, one of the company’s clients, and Brian Badour, a former co-worker who now runs his own company.

From left: Rob Ramey and Justin Pride, both of Pride of Texas Irrigation and Landscaping, had a field day on white bass and hybrid stripers.

I had a bit of a “situation” develop when my trolling motor malfunctioned, but, thank God for the foresight to have a running spare and for an awesome wife willing to deliver that running spare to me!  We were delayed about 45 minutes, but, there was such a thick blanket of fog covering the lake that the fishing didn’t start until it had begun to thin, anyway.

 

We fished what has been a very predictable bite for primarily white bass up in shallow water for about an hour casting blade baits in 12-17 feet of water, putting a total of 76 fish in the boat as the fog cleared with a SE wind.

 

Once the laughing gull action died as the fish pulled back on their feeding, we headed to deeper, clearer water to search for hybrid stripers using sonar.

 

We enjoyed a full 2.5 hours of solid hybrid striper fishing spread over two distinct areas.  At the first area, I found hybrid suspended from 25 to 40 feet over a 55 foot bottom, and at the second area we found hybrid in the lower fourth of the water column in 48-49 feet of water near a breakline.

 

Neither Justin nor Brian had any prior experience in fishing for hybrid striper and both quickly gained an appreciation for the hybrid vigor these fish demonstrate.  This was a great crew to fish with — and very good-natured in joking with each other.

 

Despite the rough start, we ended the trip with exactly 142 fish boated as the action tapered off quickly right around 12:30 following our late start.

 

TALLY: 142 Fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:15a

End Time:  12:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp:  66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were calm under foggy conditions until 8:15a.  A SE10 wind began and blew out the fog through around 9:30a.  Winds then scaled back to SE6-7 and the skies grew brighter through about 70% cloud cover.  Conditions remained this way for the remainder of the trip.

Sky Conditions:  See above

Water Level: 594.57 and falling with 594.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 765 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.05 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 60

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 749-1734 whites and short hybrid on blade baits up shallow

**Area 1738 hybrid on shad suspended at 25-40′ over a 55′ bottom

**Area 1739 hybrid on shad at lower fourth of water column in 48′

 

 

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

This past Thursday evening, April 14th,  I met and fished with Mr. Gordon Caesar who traveled to Texas from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, to visit family near both Houston and near Georgetown.

Gordon and I first came to know one another when he read an article of mine published in In-Fisherman magazine and then bought a few lures from me which I produce and which were described in that article.

 

Gordon’s desire was to understand as many white bass-specific techniques as he could during our 4 hours on the water because he lives near and fishes on Lake Winnebago which has a tremendous white bass population.

 

I covered 4 basic techniques including vertical jigging with a slab, a tactic I refer to as “easing” with a slab, fishing horizontally with a blade bait, and using live bait on tightlines (more of a hybrid tactic, but appropriate for large white bass if using smaller live baits).

 

I also covered the variables I consider when deciding where to fish (mainly wind direction), and I covered the fundamentals of sonar use by providing the essential settings for colored sonar, charts, and StructureScan.  Gordon kept a small spiral-bound notebook and took copious notes the entire time.

 

We found white bass in 31-38 feet deep at four different areas and at the last two, had Gordon identify when and where the fish were located as they appeared on sonar..

 

For a grand finale, I put Gordon on top of some hybrid striper using bait I’d held over from the morning’s hybrid-focused trip.  As the sun began to set, and for about 25 minutes thereafter (thanks to clear skies) the hybrid went on a low-light feeding binge, allowing Gordon to sprinkle a little quality atop his quantity of white bass we’d amassed.

 

We closed out our trip and met Gordon’s wife, Deb, back at the dock following her jaunt to Waco.  We finished up with 49 fish boated (and approximately 49 pages of notes hand-written).

 

TALLY: 49 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were ESE at 3-4 until 9:15.  Then skies cleared and the winds picked up to 11-13mph

Sky Conditions:  90-100% grey skies to the point of light rain until 9:15, then clearing to 40% clouds.

Water Level: 594.62 and falling with 594.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 765 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.05 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 45

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

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1608 jigging and easing with slabs for white bass

**Area 472 jigging and easing with slabs for white bass

**Area 472 jigging and easing with slabs for white bass

**Area 1740/1285 jigging and easing with slabs for white bass

**Area 1012 live shad for hybrid at last light

 

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