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