This morning, Saturday, July 22nd, I fished with the Urban family of Tuscon, Arizona. Dave is a member of the Arizona Air Guard, Edilia is on a temporary duty assignment to Fort Hood, and the boys, 17-year-old Ivan and 9-year-old William, are still in school. Dave and the boys drove in for a few days’ visit with Edilia.
Dave Urban landed this personal best 5.125 pound largemouth on a slab in 38 feet of water. My clients routinely catch quality largemouth as a by-catch as we fish for white bass on Stillhouse year ’round, although the incidence rate is much greater in the cold months.
The Urban family of Tuscon, AZ. From left: Ivan, Edilia, William, and Dave. Both Dave and Edilia serve in the military.
As we began this morning’s trip, the productive fishing centered on Area 1960 finally played out. Bait was scarce, only a few small largemouth were popping on topwater, and white bass were hard to come by after multiple searching passes with the downriggers.
I didn’t waste any time getting to “Option 2” which I came upon yesterday morning. In water from 36 to 50 feet deep I found abundant fish and bait within just a few yards of where I’d found them with sonar yesterday. This morning’s topwater bite was definitely less aggressive than yesterday’s, but, thanks to a southerly breeze, the bite held up well through 8:40a, then did a slow taper down to near nothing by 10:30. Even so, we were still able to catch fish by alternating between downrigging (to both catch and find large collections of fish), and vertical jigging (once bottom-hugging concentrations of fish were found). The commotion caused by the thumper and by all 4 anglers’ presentations did a good job of keeping fish in the area and interested in biting.
We stayed inside a 90 yard radius for all but the short time I spent checking out Area 1960, and we put exactly 100 fish in the boat, consisting of 3 drum, 4 largemouth bass, and 93 white bass. A majority of the white bass were 2-year class fish or older. Slabs did well for us until the mid-morning slowdown, then tail-spinners ruled for the balance of the morning.
TALLY: 100 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:25am
End Time: 10:25am
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 82F
Water Surface Temp: 86.2F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW breeze under 8 mph the entire trip
Sky Conditions: No cloud cover.
Water Level: 0.17 feet high and slowly falling with only evaporative losses of ~0.02 feet per day; 0 cfs release at dam
GT = 10
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 1969 – produced all but 2 of our 100 fish as we alternated between downrigging and vertical work with slabs early, then used tail-spinners late.
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
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