This past Friday morning, March 31st, I fished with Mr. Raymond Pagel and his wife, Anna.
Raymond kicked this off this morning with the first of 23 hybrid in the boat, landing this one just minutes after sunrise.
Anna figured out what was grabbing a number of our shad by the tail after this one decided to bite a bit closer to the head-end of the shad she was using for bait.
This fish went crazy, swimming far out away from the boat, then underneath it, tangling 3 of the 4 lines we had out before we cooled its jets in the net.
We targeted hybrid striped bass for the first 2.75 hours of our trip, and then worked over a deep school of white bass for the last portion of our trip.
Raymond is the owner of Pagel & Sons Jewelers near the Killeen Mall, and Anna is a pharmacist for HEB. We started our trip at 7:15. My plan was to fish deep, clear water while the winds were still manageable, as they were due to increase to around 17 mph by around 10 AM. During this effort in deep water, we put 29 fish in the boat. 23 of these fish were keeper hybrid, two were short hybrid, two were white bass, and two were blue catfish, one of which weighed 4.5 pounds.
The bite this morning was moderate but steady and the fish seemed to have a preference for medium-sized shad. The “jumbo” shad I used often got ignored, or wound up getting toyed with until they were killed, typically without resulting in a landed fish.
After the winds came up and produced a swell sufficient to start jerking our baits up and down, I decided to move us to more protected waters.
After a bit of searching, we found a nice school of white bass in 42 feet of water. These fish were bottom hugging and tightly congregated – – just right for vertical jigging.
Long story short, we sat over top of these fish for right at one hour and took our tally from 29 fish up to 94 fish. All of these white bass were in the one and two year class.
Because the Pagles are fairly well-traveled anglers, it was enjoyable to me to ask them about their experiences in some of the waters I have yet to fish, namely in Alaska, and hear of the techniques employed for different species in different environments.
Anna told me something towards the end of the trip that really resonated with me. Although she has done quite a bit of fishing, she said she still had trouble detecting when a fish was biting. Being able to practice feeling a fish bite and then setting the hook on it with the repetition she saw as we fished over these white bass, allowed her to really get practiced and confident in this situation.
TALLY = 94 FISH, all caught and released
WX Snapshot:
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:15a
End Time: 12:15a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F
Water Surface Temp: 66.1F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6 at sunrise, shifting and increasing to S17 by trip’s end
Sky Conditions: Clear and bright
Water Level: 1.11 feet above full pool
GT = 45
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1380 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′
**Area – 1277 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′
**Area 1749 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′
**Area 152 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′
**Area 294 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′
**Area 1362 – white bass on slab with Hazy Eye Stinger hook
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