This past Saturday morning I fished with Don Hardison, and his friend from church, Chris Hindal, both now residing in the Cedar Park area, northwest of Austin.
Retired pastor Chris Hindal put the morning’s first hybrid in the boat. We landed four hybrid in our first hour, then had a 2 hour gap before landing our last half-dozen, thanks to bright, calm conditions.
Don Hardison picked up his personal best largemouth today as we fished large threadfin shad near manmade cover strewn about on the bottom over which we were searching for hybrid. This fish went just a shade over 4.5 pounds on a certified scale.
Don spent most of his working life developing software tools for the intelligence community up in the D.C. area, and Chris is a retired Baptist pastor. Chris pastored three churches in his career, one in northeastern Pennsylvania, one in Iowa, and the one he retired from in Fort Myers, Florida. He remains active in international mission work to this day.
We were due to see the northwesterly winds of the past three days turn around and go southerly overnight, but this did not happen. Instead, we had the lightest of northwesterly breezes for about 1.5 hours, then the winds went slack for another hour, then we finally got a southerly breeze that went right up to 8 to 10 mph and the water finally got moving. I began our day where I had begun my last three days’ worth of trips successfully and where I ended last night’s trip successfully. Although we did get a few white bass and four hybrid stripers here, the action was nothing like what it had been the past several days.
Our best action of the day came between 10 AM and noon. From 10a to 11a we fished our live baits at 37 feet over a 42 foot bottom and slowly took hybrid, landing about as many as we missed. By the time this bite died we had landed a total of 20 fish, of which 10 were keeper hybrid.
From 11 to just after noon we decided to chase white bass for a change of pace. Using light spinning gear and white, three-quarter ounce slabs, we vertical jigged in 38 to 45 feet of water and put exactly 39 more fish in the boat. Most of these were well-proportioned three-year-old white bass going right at 12.75 to 13.25 inches.
We wrapped up our day with a total of 59 caught, and ended on a strong note with those white bass coming on the slabs.
TOTAL = 59 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:15a
End Time: 12:00 noon
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F
Water Surface Temp: 72.8F
Wind Speed & Direction: Light NW ripple as sunrise, then going slack until 10a, then picking up at S7-8 for the remainder of the trip
Sky Conditions: Fair and cloudless
Water Level: 0.65 feet above full pool and falling; 1592 cfs release at Belton Dam
GT = 25
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 1935 – 4 hybrid, white bass, largemouth on shad
**Area 1659 – 1 largemouth
**Area vic 1676 – 2 largemouth
**Area 152 – 6 hybrid landed with as many missed
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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