I fished a morning “Kids Fish, Too!” trip today with Hannah (10 years old) and Logan J. (6 years old) and their mom and dad, Earl and Kristi, all from Claremore, Oklahoma. They were down visiting family and decided to make a family fishing trip part of their summer.

From L to R: Hannah, Earl, Kristi, and Logan with a nice string of white bass.

Hannah’s 15 1/8 inch white bass earned her a Texas Parks and Wildlife Big Fish Award!!

As always in the summer when the winds are manageable, I did a short listening stop looking for the possibility of some topwater action. Lately, only 1 in 4 or 5 trips has offered any topwater, and we found none today.

So, we headed to open water and used sonar to identify several areas holding both baitfish and gamefish, and began to put together a downrigging regimen that worked.

As the summer goes on, the baitfish grow — as a result, I tend to use larger and larger baits as the warmwater season progresses. Today was the first trip of the season in which the White Willow (a mid-sized presentation that I make myself) outperformed the smallest Pet Spoon.

Our first success came along a circuit extending from Area 196 through Areas 39 and 41 to Area 40. The kids got the lines stripped out to the correct distance behind the boat and set the lines to the correct depth (23-24 foot worked well today) and we went to work. We put 4 whites in the boat right off the bat, then, Hannah’s rod went up indicating that a larger fish had struck her presentation and snatched the line out of the release clip under its own power. We brought the fish to net and found it was a big white bass measuring 15 1/8 inches, thus earning her a TPWD Big Fish certificate for eclipsing the 15 inch mark on that species.

We continued working over this area for 6 more fish and gradually ran out of fish in this location.

I brought some baitfish to put on downlines for largemouth, but found no largemouth on some of the traditional structures they hang around this time of year and so decided to look elsewhere when, lo and behold, Logan announced that nature was calling. So, we headed back to civilization and I rigged up some quill floats while waiting on shore and had the kids all ready to do some sunfishing at Area 239 when they returned to the boat. Both kids did well at observing the float and had good hook-set timing, thus allowing them to boat 7 sunfish in under 15 minutes.

Well, little Logan got tired of that pretty quickly and by now Hannah had those hard-pulling white bass in her blood, so, we returned to the main lake and gave downrigging another try. This time we hit a circuit from Area 457 to 458 as the wind was coming in on this feature real well. We boated 8 more fish here and missed a jumping largemouth. Logan earned the nickname “Little Drummer Boy” as he landed not one, but three drum, the last two coming as a double (2 fish caught at the same time on the same rod) as one drum inhaled a Lunker Licker, and a schoolmate went for the Pet Spoon trailing behind.

By 10:30 the action softened very quickly. I did spot a tight school of white bass at a breakline going from 20 to 27 feet and buoyed them, but, when we set up over them using bladebaits, we only got one follow in 10+ minutes of effort. Things got really quiet after this and it was apparent the morning feed was done.

As we arrived back at dockside, young Logan took great pleasure in releasing my bait fish back into the wilderness.

This was just a great trip with a great family — we enjoyed one another’s company and some good Texas summertime fishing while it lasted.

TALLY = 27 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:35a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.6F

Wind: Winds were S at 6 before sunup and increased to S10-12 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were clear and dry.

I fished a morning “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with 8 year old twins Gabriel and Alex B. and their dad, Steven, all of Austin. I’ve had literally hundreds of kids aboard my boat over the years, but never a set of twins. These boys were very helpful to one another and displayed a great sense of teamwork that helped up put together a good catch on a tough day!

Gabriel stands by with Alex holding this trip’s lunker — a largemouth going just shy of 3 pounds.

The Brown Boys with our best 4 white bass.

The night before the trip I spent some time on the phone with Steven to understand the boys’ past experience and ability level, etc. I came prepared to introduce them to spinning equipment, but also prepared to fall back on closed-faced equipment if need be. The boys did well casting both, but, with the strong winds, we never really used either.

After casting lessons, we headed out to Area 061 and did a listening stop, but nothing was afoot (or “afin”).

We then started looking deep over Area 481 to Area 517 and marked both bait and gamefish and pulled our first two fish of the day here. Things thinned out over the next 25 minutes or so, so we headed to Area 205 to 444 and failed to find much in the way of bait or gamefish here.

We continued the search and finally got into some good bait and gamefish over 30-40 feet of water in a 180 degree, 400 foot arc to the east of Area 644. We worked this area over very thoroughly and in two-plus hours’ time boated exactly 20 fish including 2 drum, 4 largemouth, and 14 white bass. We lost 4 other fish. Our largest fish was a largemouth just shy of the 3 pound mark that Alex tangled with about mid-way into the trip. We fished today with a solo Pet on one rod and a Pet/Licker on the other rod. Not a single fish hit the Licker, and both rods caught evenly on the Pets.

By 10:45, with our 20 fish in the boat, the boys perked up at the mention of doing a little bobber fishing (something they’d done a bit of on earlier excursions). We headed to Area 239, used quill rigs to present small baits to bluegill, and boated 3 fish a piece in about 10 minutes. The boys both tried their hand at removing the hook from the fish using the “OK” method, and did really well. By 11:05, it was getting warm, and the boys were ready to call it a day.

They both shook my hand and thanked me for a nice trip, and summarized for me all they’d learned in our morning spent together.

TALLY = 26 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 11:05a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.6F

Wind: Winds were SSE at 10 before sunup and increased to SSE17 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were murky and grey until around 9:30 and then began to clear to 50% cloudy with fair skies between.

I fished a half-day morning trip today with Shari A. of Leander, and her friend, John, of Little River. This trip was a birthday surprise for John, and, I must say, Shari did a great job in pulling it all off.

Shari and John with our largest fish of the day, a 21 3/8 inch hybrid falling just shy of the 5 pound mark taken on a Pet Spoon in deep water.

Shari, originally from Canada, had some good tales to tell “about” her dad taking her fishing up north after we caught this one. Nice smallmouth, eh?

As we got underway, I was hoping that on the heels of this past Wednesday’s awesome topwater display, that we’d encounter at least a bit of topwater, but that was not to be. Two days of tropical depression-driven rains, an unstable atmosphere and weekend boat pressure put the lid on topwater today.

We looked over several areas both visually and with sonar, and finally wetted a line at Area 651. In this area, I saw a bit of bait (less than I’d like, but okay) but a lot of sonar signatures of hybrid striped bass. We put downrigger balls down to 27 feet over a bottom that varied from 30 to 40 feet, and just set up a trolling grid over this area until we saw some consistency in results. We boated 2 hybrid right away and then things calmed down a bit. I noted the wind had let up and the murky skies had cleared a bit, so, with action kind of slow, we went looking once again for some topwate action, but none was to be found, so, we returned to Area 651 and spent the entirety of the trip right there.

Upon our return, we began boating fish more regularly with the improved sky and wind conditions. I also noted that the fish showed a definite preference for the single Pet Spoon versus one used in combination behind a Lunker Licker. By the time the fishing began to wane and the heat began to kick in pretty good at 11:45 or so, we’d boated a total of 24 keeper hybrid (and no shorts!), 4 white bass, and 1 smallmouth bass. We lost ~4 other hybrid over the course of the morning, as well.

TALLY = 29 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 6:25a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.4F

Wind: Winds varied from SSE to SSW up to 10 mph this morning

Skies: Skies were murky and grey until around 9:30 and then began to clear to 20% high white clouds.

As this morning’s trip came to a close, I returned to the ramp, grabbed some groceries out of the truck and returned to the water to do some scouting for fish and bait in advance of the 4:45pm start time for my evening trip. Fishing was really slow during this time from noon to 4pm. I did a lot more looking than fishing, and caught 5 white bass and 1 short hybrid during my efforts. The final white bass however came right at 4:00pm and came from a deep school of scattered fish — a scenario that lends itself well to downrigging.

So, armed with “fresh” success, I picked up Mike, Doug, Michael Paul, and Aaron M. at the courtesy dock right at 4:45p and we shot over to the very same spot where I’d seen these white bass. As is typical of summer afternoons, the fishing was a bit slow, but we managed to boat 9 whites and a freshwater drum in about 75 minutes of fishing, all between Areas 305 and 354, and all on small Pet Spoons set right above the depth the suspended fish were frequenting.

Cousins Michael Paul (L) and Aaron M. (R) show off the twin hybrid they landed on downrigged Pet Spoons this afternoon.

The entire clan (from L to R) Michael Paul, Aaron, Doug, and Michael, lip-grip a sampling of the white bass action that came our way this afternoon.

When the whites here had tolerated all of the commotion they could stand, and as the fairly stiff 16 mph SE wind subsided a bit, we headed out and hit Area 651 specifically seeking hybrid. We had baits in the water less than a minute and had our first hybrid on (a keeper), then came a double on keeper hybrid, then a white bass, then a drum, then a channel cat, then things went quiet.

We headed out and worked over Area 473 for 2 white bass, but things were very slow here.

We ended up our trip by heading to between Areas 024 and 147 in the 80 minutes prior to dark. We worked this area over with downriggers and put an additional 7 fish in the boat including 6 whites and another keeper hybrid. We found abundant, active fish here on bottom in ~25 feet of water and tried casting bladebaits at them, but the heavy wave action from boats and the still stiff wind here at this very exposed area made boat control difficult for me, and bait control difficult for everyone else.

By dark the action was over, and we ended up the day with 25 fish for our efforts. This, plus the 6 fish from my scouting, tallied to 31 fish boated this afternoon.

TALLY = 31 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 4:45p

End Time: 8:45p

Air Temp: 92F at trip’s start, then cooling a bit towards dark.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.6F

Wind: Winds were from SSE up to 16 mph this evening

Skies: Skies were clear with ~20% high white clouds.

I fished a half-day morning trip with Dave and Jamie S. of Salado today. Dave is a defense contractor and just returned home from Afghanistan, and Jamie teaches performing arts in our local school district. We were originally scheduled to fish at Stillhouse, but, after doing a scouting trip of just 2 hours on Belton last night, I had a feeling things were going to be good today. This “hunch” was due to the fact that I saw a lot of fish on sonar poised to come shallow and feed right around sunset, but, just about the time the feed should have kicked in, a rainshower hit, dropping over a 1/4 inch of rain over a 25 minutes span and took the winds from calm to around 12 mph from the E. Long story short, the fish went to bed without supper, so to speak, which can make for some great morning fishing.

Jamie landed this nice hybrid on a Pet Spoon worked down at 24 feet over a 40 foot bottom.

Dave with 1 of the the 199 fish we boated today in what was the strongest topwater action I’ve seen on Belton in a long time. This one blasted a bladebait.

We got on the water at 6:20, and headed to Area 012. No sooner did I cut the outboard and drift to a stop, then we sighted the first topwater action of the day about 80 yards to the E. of us. We got into those fish with bladebaits and by the time the last fish sounded Dave and Jamie had boated 31 fish consisting of a mix of white bass and small hybrid. We lift-dropped blades poking around for bottom-oriented and suspended fish, but to no avail.

We next moved to between Areas 487 and 488 and downrigged with one Pet/Licker combo and one solo Pet. Our first hookup came rather quickly — a nice, keeper hybrid displayed by Jamie in the photo above. We landed 3 white bass in this area as well and then continued the hunt. At this point Jamie had to depart, but Dave and I stuck with it as he was anxious to learn and was doing one of the things he’d dreamed about doing while overseas.

We searched a few areas with sonar, but didn’t find much until I caught a glimpse of some topwater action in the distance while scanning with my spotting scope. We zipped over to Area 478 and were pleased to find the fish going nowhere in a hurry. We fished over these topwater feeding fish for just shy of an hour and took our tally from 35 fish to 95 fish over this span of time. By the time the action had ended, it was still, bright, hot, and humid, but Dave was determined that we could boat just 5 more fish to make it an even 100 for the day, so, given it was now only about 10:30, we continued the search.

I took us over to Area 512 and, as we approached, I saw a single, small school of white crop up and then sound very quickly. We hung in the area, as some heavy clouds were now beginning to build in the SE. We waited about 10 minutes, and no sooner did the first cloud obscure the sun, then the fish just went ballistic. There were literally several acres of fish feeding hard on shad ranging from ~1 1/8 inches up to 3+ inches from here over to Area 154. We stayed hard after these fish for a solid hour, and took our tally from 95 fish up to 199 fish. As the clouds began to thicken, it began to sprinkle, then downpour, then a light ESE breeze began. The fish continued feeding as the rain began and after it intensified, but once the breeze began, they were done for good.

We ended our trip — my most productive trip of the year thus far — with 199 fish, all of which were white bass and hybrid striped bass.

TALLY = 199 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 6:25a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s.

Water Surface Temp: ~83.5F

Wind: Winds were light and variable the entire trip, until rainshower induced light E. winds began around 11:20.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright with clouds slowly building in the south, but which never reached our area until after the trip concluded.

It’s now official; the largemouth bass landed by young Mason Celum during our outing on June 3rd has been qualified as the new Stillhouse Hollow Jr. Angler Catch and Release record for this species!

Mason caught this fish on an evening trip taken with his grandpa Cliff, and two of his cousins, Tyler and Zach.

On this rare night, our largest 9 largemouth totaled just over 45 pounds. All were very well cared for and were released in very healthy condition.

Good job, Mason!!

The TPWD record information is found here: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/action/waterecords.php?WB_code=0696

Mason’s record bass measured 24.25″ and weighed 7.75 pounds

I fished a morning “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Mr. Allan E. and his 4 boys, 12 year old Josh, 10 year old Chris, 8 year old Merrill, and 4 year old “Little O.” I generally don’t take more than 3 kids at a time, but, with a little proactive discussion with the boys dad, we agreed that I’d look after the older 3 while dad did some 1-on-1 with Little O., and that worked out very well for us.

From L to R: Josh, Chris, Merrill, Allan, and Little O. with the best of the bunch of the white bass we landed this morning.

One of the first 5 fish we landed regurgitated this small “combo platter” consisting of a young shad (center) and a freshwater shrimp (bottom). The Pet Spoon (top) is a nearly dead-on imitation for the young of the year forage size.

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start, heading towards the high-90’s.

Water Surface Temp: ~86.0F

Wind: Winds were calm to 2 or 3 mph from the S and SW.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright with clouds slowly building in the south, but which never reached our area until after the trip concluded.

The name of the game today was downrigging. We got on the water shortly after sunrise and thanks to the flat calm conditions, there wasn’t a single fish breaking water anywhere to be seen.

We scanned a few areas very quickly with sonar looking for congregations of bait, and found a bit of bait and some gamefish in 24-27 feet of water over a 30-40 foot bottom from Area 040 to Area 517. I coached the boys on their roles to keep our operation efficient (meaning lines nearly constantly in the water) and to keep each young man engaged. One would peel out the right amount of line behind the boat, another would lower the downrigger ball, and another would adjust the “skimmer rod” for surface-oriented fish. Once we had “fish on”, one boy would fight the fish, one would raise the downrigger ball and get ready to reset, and one would clear the skimmer to avoid any tangles. The boys took turns bringing in the fish so everyone shared equally in the success. We landed 9 fish (8 white bass and 1 drum) here including a tandem (two fish on one rod) for Little O., but eventually the fish and bait disappeared.

We headed to between Area 484 and 205 and caught 12 more fish here including 2 drum and 10 white bass. When things went soft here we moved on.

We headed to between Area 444 and 644 and picked up 2 white bass when I spotted a dense school of fish on bottom in about 24 feet of water. I knew we could cast to these fish and catch them more efficiently than via downrigging, so, we set up to cast with the boat in a hover. I demonstrated the lift drop technique to the boys and caught a white bass while doing so, then they followed my example and landed 2 whites and a small largemouth before the school moved on. We returned to downrigging and put a final 14 fish in the boat by 10:15am, including 2 more drum, 1 more largemouth (keeper sized) and 11 white bass, including our second tandem of the day. By now the novelty was wearing off and the boys’ attention span had about played out, plus the building heat and lack of breeze made it pretty warm, especially with them wearing life jackets.

Dad and I agreed this was a good stopping point, so we brought our lines in and headed back in. As we did, we made a special effort just for Little O. who, because of his age, didn’t get to do all the stuff the big boys did. We rigged up a pole for Little O. with a quill float and worm and hit a small colony of sunfish at Area 239. In less than 15 minutes’ time we landed an additional 13 sunfish, all of which were bluegills. The older boys were good sports to patiently wait on their little brother to do this.

We finished up by snapping a few photos of our 4 largest white bass at dockside and then safely released them, as well.

TALLY = 54 FISH, all caught and released

I fished a “Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun” (SKIFF) trip today. Below is the note I sent to the program sponsors …

Dear Austin Fly Fishers,

On Saturday, June 26th, I welcomed 10 year old Joel Crowley, his 8 year old sister, Hannah, and their mom, Sharon, for our sixth S.K.I.F.F. trip of the year. We chose Stillhouse Hollow at the destination for this excursion.

Joel (10) and Hannah (8) with four white bass jigged from a deep school

A screenshot of a portion of the large school of white bass we found in 47 feet of water at mid-morning; 43 fish are visible in the black and white image, and many more fish existed outside the transducer’s reach

I recently met with Chaplain Bill Shelnutt, the Religious Education Coordinator for all of Ft. Hood, concerning offering trips to those families he ministers to whose mom or dad is deployed. The Crowley’s are the first family I’ve had the privilege of fishing with as a result of that meeting. Husband and dad, Bob Crowley is a chaplain (rank of major) with the Third Armored Corps now stationed in Baghdad, Iraq, until approx. January of 2011.

We began our trip at 6:15am with the customary safety briefing and then headed out to look for fish just as the sun began to rise. Lately, I’ve encountered some fair topwater action on school-sized largemouth bass pursuing young-of-the-year-shad early in the morning. We did a “listening halt” over an expanse of water where some topwater action had been occurring earlier in the week, but, we didn’t find much and so headed to search out fish in deeper water using downrigging equipment.

We found fish with the downriggers consistently holding at around 24 feet from Area 484 to Area 206 and caught them consistently from 7:00am through 8:40am. During this time, we used a tandem rig with a Lunker Licker spoon up front and a Pet Spoon behind to catch 21 fish including white bass, freshwater drum, and largemouth bass. At one point, Miss Hannah caught two fish at the same time — one on each spoon!! She would appreciate me letting you know she also caught a “yellow hat fish” (which blew off her head at 30 mph) and a “brown weed fish”.

When this action got soft, I moved us and found heavy concentrations of white bass in the bottom 3-4 feet of the water column along the bottom of an old creek bed in 47 feet of water (Area 650). This school of fish was spread over a 30 yard area, so, we put the trolling motor down and hovered over these fish and used a “smoking” technique to catch fish after fish on jigging spoons before the school drifted off. During this frenzy we put an additional 17 fish in the boat — all fat, healthy 13+ inch long white bass.

It was now around 9:30 and the kids literally had sore, red palms from reeling in the white bass. We decided to change things up a bit and close out the trip with some sunfishing in a quiet cove (Area 231) to get out of the wind which was now ramping up to around 16 mph or so. In about 40 minutes’ time, using simple slip cork rigs and worms, the kids landed 8 sunfish which included bluegill, longear sunfish, and green sunfish.

Around 10:30 we snapped a few photos of our largest 4 white bass and returned them to the water, then headed back to the dock. I presented the kids each with a SKIFF tacklebox, a SKIFF ballcap, and a SKIFF t-shirt and bid them farewell. Our total catch this trip was 46 fish.

Mrs. Crowley was very appreciative to all of us for offering this to her family. She’s asked me for your mailing address so she can send a note to all of you.

I’ll keep you posted when we get trip #7 lined up. Until then, thank you for your support and for making this opportunity available to our Ft. Hood kids!

P.S. I’ve included 2 photos, one of the kids with their 4 largest white bass of the day, and one of a portion of the big school of whites we found on sonar.

Sincerely,

–Bob Maindelle

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start, heading towards the high-90’s.

Water Surface Temp: ~86.5F

Wind: Winds were S4 at sunrise, slowly swinging and tapering up to SSW14-16 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright with 25% cloud cover.

I fished a half-day morning trip with returning guests Jim and Shena S. of the Austin area. We experienced typical summertime fare today including some topwater action, some action from deepwater white bass, and some action from suspended gamefish on downriggers.

After everyone was aboard, we situated ourselves on the front deck and practiced a few scenarios to make sure both Jim and Shena understood the importance of quick, accurate casting, and to give them an idea of their own casting range with the rigs we were using. With that accomplished, we headed out to search for topwater action and found very little happening despite fairly favorable conditions. Then, like someone turned on a switch, at 7:45am, schools of largemouth just appeared on the surface and began feeding with abandon.

Jim and Shena with a few of the whites taken from a deepwater school on chrome bladebaits — the nickel/silver Cicada.

The surface was glassy calm and the sun was bright by this time, so fooling these bass was no easy task. Jim and Shena kept at it, throwing at all the fish they found within range, and, one by one, the fish began coming over the side of the boat after falling for the Cork Rig. As I worked the trolling motor and observed sonar, I noted a lot more fish suspended than were showing on the surface, so, despite some limited success on top (3 bass landed to this point at Area 481), we changed gears and transitioned to the use of bladebaits fished lift-drop style and were quickly and well-rewarded for our efforts. By the time the feeding spree had ended, we’d boated a total of 22 fish, most of which were very solid 13-14 inch, very thick white bass, from between Areas 517 and 480). Many of the fish we brought in regurgitated small shad as they neared the surface — further evidence of what was going on beneath the surface.

Once the topwater died down and became just sporadic, we switched over to downrigging for the remainder of the trip. Keying on the forage size we observed, we included small Pet Spoons in our spread and lowered the balls to an average of 23 feet over water from 25 to 40 feet deep. We worked an area from Area 205 to 444 up through about 10:40 and landed a nice mixed bag of white bass, freshwater drum, and largemouth when things began to soften. At this time I pointed out to Jim and Shena the rather abrupt change in the forage fishes’ orientation. They had gone from being in tight, suspended balls and clouds, to a relaxed state, nearly blanketing the bottom in the lower 2-4 feet of the water column. This usually signifies the beginning of the end of the feed in the summer months, and, indeed, the action here tapered quickly over the next 15-20 minutes to near nothing.

We made one final move west to see if we could put a two-fish finishing touch on a 48 fish trip. We idled into Area 056 and some gamefish began popping on sonar, again, at 23-24 feet down. The bait was scarce, but what bait there was was still balled up tight — not a bad sign. We got ‘rigger balls down and over a 25 minute span came up with 3 more fish — 2 white bass and a largemouth. I knew we’d reached the point of diminishing returns now, so, with 51 fish boated and the temperature steadily heading for the 90’s, we called it a day and headed back to the dock.

TALLY = 51 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start, heading towards the high-90’s.

Water Surface Temp: ~86.0F

Wind: Winds were around 4SSE at sunrise, then slowly turned SSW and built to around 8 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright with a briefly lingering bank of clouds in the E just post-sunrise.

I fished a half-day morning trip with grandpa Waymon Y. of Copperas Cove, and his 8 year old grandson, Xavier. Neither had done just a whole lot of fishing prior to this excursion, and most of that was limited to bank fishing in the ponds around Central Texas College.

Waymon and Xavier hit it just right today — over 2 hours of topwater action!!

Fortunately, we ran into some fairly intense topwater feeding at and around Area 061 not requiring long casts, although speed and accuracy, as always, enhanced success. Both learned on the fly and were both catching fish consistently as long as the topwater lasted, which, today extended from about 7:15am to 9:20am. During this feed the boys landed 16 fish, all on the Cork Rig. Their catch consisted of a 40/60 split of black bass/white bass.

Once the topwater settled down, I introduced them to downrigging. We focused on a section of lake bounded by Area 485 and Area 206 and stayed on top of the fish an bait for about 45 minutes until that, too, settled down. While these fish were feeding, we caught them very consistently, landing 14 fish in this short span of time, including a mix of white bass and freshwater drum, all on Pet Spoons in a Pet/Licker combination.

In order to finish up the trip on a positive, and engaging note, we decided to head shallow to Area 231 to fish for sunfish with floats and bait here. We found nice bright, calm conditions and the water here in good shape with rock, timber, and aquatic vegetation making a nice haven for sunfish. We baited up and in no time flat boated 11 sunfish including longears, greens, and bluegills. Once the fish here “got smart” and stopped biting, we wrapped it up and headed to the dock.

TALLY = 41 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start, heading towards the high-90’s.

Water Surface Temp: ~86.4F

Wind: Winds were around 6SE at sunrise, then slowly turned SSW and built to around 10-12 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were hazy with the typical low cloud bank in the E around sunrise.