EVER CAUGHT A SUNFLOWER FISH?

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, 23 July, I fished with 5-year-old Jed Miller. Ned is the son of Dusty Miller, and grandson of Dirk Miller, all of Miller’s Smokehouse fame in Belton, TX.

Today, Pappy Dirk came along in a support role simply to enjoy and encourage his grandson, and to help me help Jed be successful.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: Dirk Miller and his grandson, Jed Miller, with a pair of the 34 white bass we took under ideal summertime conditions for a low-light topwater bite.
PHOTO CAPTION #2: Jed landed two fish on one lure at the same time on his very first attempt with a topwater after doing some previous damage with an MAL lure retrieved sub-surface.
PHOTO CAPTION #3: Once the sun hit the water and the white bass sounded, it was sunfish time. Jed landed this beautiful longear on live bait fish under a float.

WHEN WE FISHED: 22 July, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Thanks to a gentle SE breeze and thin cloud cover, the environment was just right for some low-light topwater action just before, during, and after sunrise. We essentially drove from the boat ramp directly to fish just beginning to push shad to the surface and then proceeded to catch them non-stop for about 70 minutes.

5-year-olds need variety to keep them focused, and so when I sensed that Jed was getting antsy catching fish on my custom MAL lure, I switched him over to a topwater plug so as to add a visual aspect to the fishing. About the time he was losing interest in that, the fish sounded as the direct sun struck the water, thus allowing us to begin downrigging.

The downrigging produced two sets of doubles which Jed was excited about, then, once the novelty of downrigging wore off, we dove into yet another experience — that of sunfishing, or, as Jed called it, “sunflowerfish fishing”.

By the time we left the white bass behind, Jed had landed 34 of them.

As the heat intensified at the second of two stops we made for sunfish, Dirk and I saw Jed’s interest quickly fading and knew the time to wrap things up had come so as to keep this a memorable and positive experience for Jed.

With our tally now standing at 68 fish, Dirk told Jed he’d take him to lunch if he could land two more fish to make it an even 70 for the morning’s effort. Jed knuckled down and landed a juvenile largemouth for his 69th fish, and, shortly thereafter pulled in a final bluegill sunfish to make it an even 70.

We snapped a few photos to commemorate the trip and then headed to the dock.

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Although the low-light topwater action lasted the longest I’ve seen so far this summer, there was no open water feed thereafter from 8-10AM in the locations such feeding had occurred Mon. – Wed. this week.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:20A

End Time: 9:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation:  1.17′ low, 0.07′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  84.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE 4-7 all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (New moon +3 days)

GT = 85

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 013 to 1792 – low light topwater action

**Area 1792 to 292 – post-topwater downrigging

**Areas B0029G and 492 – sunfish

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

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