14 | April | 2018 | Fishing Report

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday morning I fished with David Burke of Belton, TX, and his friend, Glen Wagoner, of DeSoto, TX, near Dallas. The two have been friends for about 14 years. David first came out fishing with me solo during peak hybrid season last year and, this year, wanted to bring a friend along. The hybrid haven’t really turned on with any degree of consistency yet thanks to still-cool water and unstable weather, but, the white bass sure did cooperate for us – to the tune of 107 fish during our 4-hour trip.

Glen Wagoner holds up a 4.00 pound largemouth with his friend, David Burke, landed on a large shad fished directly beneath the boat. The bass looked like he’d been in a scrape with a gar or a big catfish.

We found very cooperative white bass with both sonar and by observing feeding gulls. We wrapped up our trip with exactly 107 fish boated. The white bass took vertically presented slabs and horizontally presented bladebaits equally well. Despite being on oxygen, David didn’t let that minor inconvenience keep him indoors, nor from catching a mess of fish!

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip in which we fished early on with live bait, then switched over to fishing for white bass with artificials in the latter part of the trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday morning, 13 April 2018

HOW WE FISHED: For the second morning in a row, under dark, murky skies and with a stiff S. breeze blowing, the hybrid bite was slow in the early hours of the morning following sunrise. We tried a few areas using live shad for hybrid striper, but the bite just wasn’t on during this window. By around 8:45a we switched over to targeting white bass with both vertical and horizontal retrieves and loaded the boat with a total of 107 fish that took both a 3/8 oz. slab and a 3/4 oz. Binsky blade.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) Once again, no spawning shad after seeing the first spawning activity last Monday, 02 April. 2) Hybrid activity has been spotty and unpredictable. 3) Another more mild, dry cold front is due in overnight tonight. We’ll see come Monday whether that triggers these hybrid into some consistent feeding, or not.

TALLY: 107 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temp: 64.4 to 65F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW11-14 (much less than forecast)

Sky Conditions: <100% cloud cover

Water Level: 2.01 feet low and slowly falling

GT = 30

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