Elementary Waterheads — 221 Fish, Belton, 07 April ’17 (AM)

This past Friday morning, April 7th, I fished with Mr. Rob Ramey, Mr. Justin Pride, Mr. Brian Badour, and Mr. Ricky Guenat.  All four men know one another and work together in the landscaping industry in the Georgetown, TX, area.

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From left: Brian Badour and Justin Pride, owner of Pride of Texas Landscaping.

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Ricky Guenat of Dell Webb works with Pride of Texas at the Sun City location in Georgetown.

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Rob Ramey of Pride of Texas Landscaping was the trip coordinator and possibly the originator of the phrase “elementary waterheads”.
We got going this morning right at 7 AM. My intention was to stay focused on hybrid striped bass until at least 10 AM, and then explore the option of putting smaller, but more numerous, white bass in the boat during our last hour or so on the water.

This plan worked out pretty well. Our first two hours on the water was slow but steady thanks to windless conditions. Around 9:15 the lightest of southwesterly breezes began and the fish responded positively. By 9:30, we had a 9 to 10 mph southerly breeze, and as far as the hybrid fishing was concerned, the half-hour between 9:30 and 10 AM was the most productive 30 minutes on that species.

Using live bait suspended well off bottom in order to keep these baits away from the white bass, everyone caught numerous “photo worthy” hybrid stripers, along with short hybrid and white bass, with a single blue cat thrown in for good measure.

At 10:15 I ran the option of jigging for white bass by my crew, and everyone was amenable to that change of pace. Between 10:15 AM and noon we took our tally from exactly 60 fish up to 221 fish. I was able to find heavily congregated, bottom hugging white bass in two separate locations. Given that all four of the crew capably handled spinning gear and very quickly got the gist of the technique we needed to use, we were able to maximize our catch.  We wrapped up the trip at 12 noon with exactly 221 fish boated for our efforts

At one point when those two crew members on the port side (who shall remain nameless) looked like they were going to get their hybrid stripers tangled while reeling them in simultaneously, I stepped in between the two and coached each of them to move their rods toward bow and stern to avoid this scenario. Unfortunately, that guidance came a little too late, as the hybrid tangled together anyway. On their very next drop, the same two anglers hooked up simultaneously once again. I once again advised keeping the hybrids separated from one another. At this point, Rob, who obviously was not one of the two anglers I am speaking of, reinforced my guidance by first addressing the two anglers these comments were directed at as “elementary waterheads”.

It went something like, “Hey, you elementary waterheads, why don’t you listen up and keep those fish from tangling up, again!”

I suppose in the irrigation and landscape industry, “elementary waterheads” is a teambuilding term of endearment.

 

TALLY = 221 FISH, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

07APR17

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F

Water Surface Temp: 67.4 – 69.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: Near calm at sunrise, WSW breeze starting around 9:30, then shifting and increasing to S10 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Clear and bright

Water Level: 1.41 feet above full pool

GT = 83

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1619/1913 – First stop of the morning; moved on account of white bass

**Area – 150/294 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′; action fairly slow under calm conditions; moved when white bass moved in

**Area 1743 – best producer of the AM; hybrid on live shad in 40-45′; keeper hybrid upon arrival with smaller fish filtering in after we’d fished for a while

**Area 682 – white bass on slab with Hazy Eye Stinger hook

**Area 211 – 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

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