WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning I fished with Dave K. and his family from Round Rock, TX, including his wife, his 6-year-old daughter, and his twin 3-year-old sons. Dave requested I not post photos/last names, so, instead of the normal family photos I typically illustrate these posts with, I’ve included some sonar screen shots, instead.
Topwater action generated by schoolie-sized largemouth led us to find white bass feeding on the same bait in the same general area on a deep flat. Downriggers were very effective at presenting multiple baits which imitated the forage size well. Multiple baits yielded multiple hookups. This DownScan screenshot taken from my Lowrance HDS16 Carbon shows just a small patch of the bottom which was blanketed with hundreds of white bass.
This screen shot was also taken off of my Lowrance HDS16 Carbon with the FishReveal technology turned on, thus placing colored sonar images overtop of the DownScan screen. All the fish are shown by the DownScan in light blue, and those fish directly under the boat showed in shades ranging from green (most intense echo) to yellow, then red, then purple-blue (in order of decreasing return-echo strength).
After the bite died and I dropped my clients off at the end of their trip, I returned to the area where we had found our white bass. I found that the fish moved off the flat they were feeding on and were holding, suspended, over the river channel totally disinterested in feeding.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on sunfish and white bass
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday morning, 01 August 2018
HOW WE FISHED: We fished for the first 2 of 3 hours in three distinct locations for sunfish, catching a total of 40 sunfish of 3 different species: redear, bluegill, and longear. In our third and final hour I spotted largemouth bass herding bait to the surface over open water. I moved into these fish, found white bass in the lower third of the water column feeding on the same small shad the largemouth were pushing around and deployed twin downriggers with 3-armed umbrella rigs set to present just a few feet above the white bass. We landed 28 white bass in right at an hour’s time as they came in as multiple singles, multiple doubles, and multiple triples.
OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:
TALLY: 68 fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:30a
End Time: 9:30a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F
Water Surface Temp: 82.9F
Wind Speed & Direction: Calm through 8:15am, then starting NNW building to 7mph
Sky Conditions: 0% cloud cover
Water Level: 7.18 feet low
GT = 0
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 201, 888, 420 – sunfishing for the first 2 hours or so under low light, and while waiting for wind to build; 40 sunfish
**Area vic 1512 to 1951 – very aggressive, schooled, suspended white bass holding in lower third of the water column beneath schoolie-sized largemouth; caught 2 largemouth and 26 white bass coming in singles, multiple doubles, and multiple triples
Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail: Bob@HoldingelleTheLineGuideService.com
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