This evening I fished with Mr. John Stephenson, former Bell County Commissioner, and his adopted son, Gilbert. Another of John’s friends, Mark, was supposed to join us but had some trouble locating his license, and never did make it on the boat.
L to R: John and Gilbert Stephenson with a few of the white bass we caught by downrigging and fishing lead slabs vertically during the short bite this evening from 5:30 to 6:45pm.
As I got to talk with John and Gilbert, I learned that Gilbert has a very interesting background. He was adopted by John and his wife, Shirley, around age 6 and was born in Saskatchewan, Canada, among the Cherokee Indians there. John and Shirley (both U.S. Army veterans) traveled the world while serving our nation, and have fond memories especially of their time in Panama in the 1970’s.
On the fishing front, we got off to a late start thanks to all the license-hunting, but while we were waiting for Gilbert to arrive I fished with John not too far from the boat ramp we launched from, and we found a very active school of white bass pursuing shad at mid depth in 24 to 28 feet of water over the deeper bottom (38-40 feet). We ran twin downriggers through these fish with a three-arm umbrella rig and in less than 30 minutes time picked up 16 fish.
Unfortunately, by the time Gilbert arrived these fish were settling down, and we managed to pick up just three more white bass before having to go out and search for more fish. We spent the remaining time using a combination of downrigging and vertical jigging to add another 16 fish to our total for a tally of 32 fish caught on this trip.
Although there are certainly exceptions, generally speaking, morning fishing is a bit more productive than evening time fishing. Through the years, given the detailed records that I’ve maintained, I’ve seen a trend emerge that indicates an evening fishing trip will yield about 60% of the catch the that morning trip gave up when conditions are roughly similar between morning and evening. Evening bites tend to be less intense and less lengthy than morning bites, and this evening’s trip followed that trend.
TALLY = 32 FISH
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 5:30p
End Time: 8:30pm
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 96F
Water Surface Temp: 87.8F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW11-13
Sky Conditions: Fair with no cloud cover.
Other: GT=0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1422-1428 Downrigging for 16 suspended white bass, then smoking for 3 more
**Area 196 fishing slabs vertically for 12 white bass
**Area 912 downrigged for one white bass as the bite was dying
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Salado, TX