This past Tuesday morning, November 22nd, I fished a 1/2 day, multi-species trip on Lake Georgetown with Doug Norman of Liberty Hill, Texas, and his 82-year-old father, Les Norman, of Mountain Home, Arkansas.
From left: Doug and Les Norman with some nice 3-year old class white bass taken via downrigging on a very tough day out on Lake Georgetown.
In addition to white bass, we also landed this just-legal hybrid striper and a largemouth bass, also via downrigging.
Doug works as a software engineer for National Instruments in Austin, and Les is retired from Honeywell where he worked for many years in Phoenix, AZ.
I would normally not fish a trip on other than Belton Lake this time of year, especially given the excellent results we have had lately, but Doug really wanted to fish Georgetown since he lives nearby, and I obliged.
We had dark, murky, turbulent, weather in advance of a mild cold front which would come in overnight. As I reviewed the weather, we experienced what meteorologists call “pre-frontal compressional warming” which typically involves strong southerly wind before a cold front induces a wind shift, thanks to the atmosphere being “squeezed” between low and high pressure systems. Long story short – – we struggled to put just 11 fish in the boat in 5 1/4 hours’ worth of effort.
I had diligently tried to scout the lake out the previous Tuesday, enlisting the help of friend and good fisherman, Jason Weisberg. The two of us put 102 fish in the boat and mapped out a number of areas so as to give me a starting point for this morning’s trip. Despite our good results that day, today’s turbulent weather trumped all of that. None of these came off of the areas we had scouted, but rather via downrigging at the opposite end of the lake.
Fortunately, Doug and Les were delighted to see all of the technology in use on my boat, including the Lowrance Gen3 sonar, the self-deploying Ulterra trolling motor, and the Cannon electric downriggers; and, the 11 fish we caught, according to them, was more than they would have landed on their own.
I try to be a “straight-shooter” and in so doing be very credible in my blog and on Facebook, posting all of my results, not just results from the exceptional days. I’d have to rank this particular trip in the “other than exceptional” category.
TALLY =11 fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: Noon
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F
Water Surface Temp: 68.2F
Wind Speed & Direction: S14-16
Sky Conditions: 100% dark grey cloud cover and just shy of precipitation
Water Level: 2.31 feet below full pool
GT = 30
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 854-1850 via downrigging, then exploiting limited success via jigging
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
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