I was joined again today by Chris and 11 year old Cooper K. on their 2nd annual Fathers’ Day outing together with me. Chris operates the Georgetown “Catfish Parlour” which is closed on Mondays, so it gave him a great opportunity to enjoy a bit of summer vacation with his son while avoiding the noise and traffic of the weekend lake scene.

Father and son with our best 4 white bass of the day, all taken around 24 feet on Pet Spoons.

Cooper set out lures, lowered the ‘rigger balls, adjusted depth, and more all to get our presentations just right. Then came the payoff!

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 12:15p

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

Water Surface Temp: ~84.1F

Wind: Winds were SSE4 at sunrise, slowly swinging and tapering up to SSW12 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

Before launching out, as we got familiar with all the gear at dockside, Cooper used a slipfloat to target a few sunfish he spotted in the water, and wound up catching 5 sunfish and a black-tailed shiner in no time flat.

Once we pushed off, things really started slowly for us today when, despite pretty decent conditions for topwater action, we saw only 2 decent schools of bass appear topside around Area 061, and then only for a few seconds. Following that, the winds went slack for a good while which always makes things tough. We checked 4 different areas looking for fish and bait until we came across the right combination on sonar between Areas 444 and 644 . Even so, with the wind near calm, we passed over a lot of inactive fish to comb out a few takers. In this area, we saw spare, small schools of white with a predominance of solo drum hanging out at mid-depths. They responded well once the winds came up a bit and remained blowing in a sustained fashion. For our efforts here we boated 1 white bass and 7 drum bringing our tally up to 14 fish.

We considered some livebait fishing, but I didn’t find any significant largemouth presence on some reliable breaklines, so we pressed on.

We headed to Area 646 and found some scattered whites, but no bait.

We again moved, this time to between Areas 056 and 649. As we motored in here things started looking really good with ample bait showing in a threatened posture, and schooled white bass mixed right in with the bait. For the next 2 hours we worked these fish over at between 22 and 25 feet over a 25 to 32 foot bottom. The fish stayed willing to bite this entire time, allowing us to boat 23 white bass, a drum, and the day’s only largemouth bass, all in this general vicinity. Twice we had father-son doubles on, and, to end the trip, Cooper successfully landed a tandem (two fish on one rod) on the Pet/Licker combo.

As we eased back next to the courtesy dock, Cooper asked if he could harass the sunfish a little bit more. I obliged as I got the truck backed down and the boat cleaned up. He wound up landing two more lively black-tails in no time flat. At that point we called it a day and agreed that “better a slow start and a strong finish than vice versa”.

TALLY = 41 FISH

I fished a morning “Kids Fish, Too!” trip today with Ethan R. and his grandfather, Butch. Butch traveled in from Fall River, MA, to visit his family here and surprised 11 year old Ethan with this fishing trip.

The fish were a bit sluggish today, and once again we encountered some pretty tough winds, but, by the time all was said and done we put together a pretty good bag for our efforts.

Grandpa Butch and Ethan with one of our larger white bass taken by downrigging today.

Ethan and his first fish of the day taken on topwater.

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 12:00 Noon

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

Water Surface Temp: ~84.5F

Wind: Winds were SSE8 at sunrise, slowly tapering up to S19 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were ~30% cloudy and fair in the breaks.

We started out today looking and listening around Area 061 for any topwater action we could find. Right around 6:45, we began to see largemouth in small wolfpacks of 3-6 fish each popping up over open water. We got Ethan positioned on the casting deck and, with some dockside practice fresh under his belt, got him in range of some action. He hooked up with a small largemouth with a big attitude on just his second (very accurate!) cast. I thought this was going to be a good deal — surface feeding fish and a kid who could cast well — but, it wasn’t to be. The surface feeding just shut down after a sparse 10 minutes or so and never redeveloped before the winds started pushing whitecaps.

We then looked over a few areas looking for schooled white bass to jig for. As Ethan got the hang of “slabbing” he landed a drum at Area 205 and lost one other fish at Area 463, but, all in all, the slab bite was pretty soft today.

We then began targeting the suspended, scattered fish we’d seen in two different areas, and found some willing fish at Area 645. With balls set at 23-25 feet we combed this area very thoroughly and put 9 fish in the boat — all white bass — including two sets of doubles on the Pet/Licker tandem rig. Once this played out we ran the same program from Area 148 to Area 648 and put 3 more fish in the boat here by around 11am. Ethan was a huge help in maximizing our “lures in the water” time as he rigged the lines and dropped the balls down for me after very quickly getting the hang of those skills.

Before finishing up the trip, we gave shallow water sunfish a try at Area 200 before calling it a day. Ethan used an ultralight spinning rig with a slipfloat and wore out the sunfish pretty thoroughly. In less than 30 minutes he boated 11 sunfish consisting of small bluegill, green sunfish, and longear sunfish.

Ethan finished up today boating 26 fish for his efforts. By the time we got back to the dock he looked ready for some grub, some A/C, and a good ol’ afternoon nap!

TALLY = 26 FISH, all caught and released

I had the pleasure of fishing with returning guests Jack and Jay B. and their dad, David, all of Temple. The boys are now 8 and 10 years old. Last time they came out with me dad and I did a lot of casting, hooking, and handing fish off to the boys. This time, they did it “all by themselves” and they did well. Topwater fishing this time of year requires fast, accurate casting. The boys did well with Cork Rigs used on spinning gear. In all, the 3 of them landed 22 largemouth and missed another 3-4 right at boatside before the surface action came to a halt.

Everybody hooked up today!!

Jack was persistent and got the day’s lunker

Start Time: 6:10a

End Time: 12:00 Noon

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

Water Surface Temp: ~83.4F

Wind: Winds were S6 at sunrise, slowly tapering up to S14 by trip’s end under the influence of high pressure.

Skies: Skies were ~30% cloudy with blue in the breaks under the influence of high pressure.

We finally got some high pressure in along with some fishable wind speeds, and the fish responded well. We enjoyed light topwater action until 9:23am spread from Area 479 thru Area 061, to Area 468 all on Cork Rigs. This accounted for 22 largemouth.

We then downrigged for nearly the remainder of our trip, taking fish at Area 460 to Area 217, and from Area 039 to the north by about 100 yards. During this time we picked up 12 white bass and 2 largemouth. 13 fish came on Pets and 1 came on the Licker in a tandem catch on the tandem rig.

We ended the trip on the east side of Area 777 fishing some protected water for sunfish. We landed 2 longears and 2 bluegills on slipfloats and then called it a day.

TALLY = 40 FISH, all caught and released

I fished a solo scouting trip this morning trying to nail down some decent topwater locations for upcoming trips. The topwater has really been inconsistent, but, then again, so has the weather. The nice high pressure dome that usually sets up over us for a majority of the summer bringing with it very stable, predictable weather conditions just hasn’t taken hold yet.

I was pleased to find solid topwater action kicking off at exactly 7:05 and slowly tapering to a close by 9:15. The action came and went in spurts, but never stopped during this time span. In and around Area 061 I boated 16 fish in a 70/30 largemouth/white bass mix. All fish came on the Cork Rig and all casts had to be fast and accurate to produce.

Once this action ended, I went to take a look at Area 646-647. There has been a consistent south wind blowing into this area, and I’ve seen abundant bait showing on sonar as I’ve passed by on my way to search for topwater on several occasions now. I found abundant bait, in balls, and found gamefish strung along the 23-27 foot mark, all suspended in and around this bait. I got a single downrigger working and was immediately into fish, pulling 5 whites in no time. As I moved S. toward 647, a more dense schooling of fish was seen on sonar, and, given the topography of the bottom here, these fish were closer to the bottom while still being suspended at ~23-24 feet. I hovered with the trolling motor and cast with a bladebait for about 20 minutes, landing 7 solid white bass and missing 2 more, all on a lift-drop retrieve.

Once things got quiet, I made one last stop to run sonar and a downrigger over Area 056. I saw fish but not much bait in here and wound up only landing one juvenile white bass in over 20 minutes worth of effort.

I wrapped it up at that point, confident that Area 061 would eventually produce consistent topwater action once the weather settles in for the long summer.

TALLY = 29 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:20a

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

Water Surface Temp: ~85.2F

Wind: Winds were around 6SE at sunrise, then slowly turned SSW and built to around 12-14 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were hazy and with about 30% cloud over, with the typical low cloud bank in the E around sunrise.

I fished a half-day morning trip this morning with returning guest Ben W. of Taylor, TX, and his wife, Carrie.

Ben and Carrie with one of several largemouth taken on a fair mixed-bag trip despite high winds and difficult conditions.

As we worked over a school of active white bass, this bait slick popped up on the surface. Note the “slick” round area in the center of the photo versus the rough, windblown surface surrounding it. This “slick” is caused by the body oils of half-eaten baitfish floating to the surface, and indicates the presence of gamefish. Slicks are much more prevalent in saltwater but do appear for shorter spans of time in freshwater, as well. If you’re positioned directly downwind, you’ll often also smell the scent of this oil resembling something between mowed grass and watermelon rind.

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 1:30pm

Air Temp: 73F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.1F

Wind: Winds were SSE at 10 before sunrise and increased to over 20 by 10:30am.

Skies: Skies were overcast until around 11:45, then some brightening took place.

We’re into the topwater season, and, when conditions are right, there has been some topwater action getting going, but, we just haven’t had many days with the right conditions, and this was one of them. As I got up to prepare for the trip around 4:15am, the wind was already blowing around 10mph, and it only increased from there, going to 20+ by around 10am and beyond.

We started off looking hard at the waves to see if any topwater action was there, but, at this point in the season the fish are feeding topside on young of the year shad and only lightly sip, which is tough to spot even under ideal conditions. Bottom line: we didn’t find any surface action. Failing at that, we headed to between Areas 453 and 452, still looking for topwater, but also keeping an eye on sonar looking for downrigging potential. In this area we found some scattered, small white bass suspended down around 26 feet. We took a crack at these and put 3 whites and 1 largemouth in the boat for our efforts. Although the fish were scattered throughout, all of the fish we caught came from right near Area 452.

We were next successful at Area 193. Right at the breakline, schooled white bass were congregated on and just off bottom on the upwind side of this feature. We began using slabs and the fish responded well, especially to a smoking technique. Both Ben and Carrie worked these fish over, putting an additional 17 fish in the boat including 16 whites on the slab, and 1 largemouth on tightlined bait. The wind increased to the point where boat control was very difficult as the action was waning, so, we headed out for calmer water.

We were next successful at an 800 foot long strip of water located from just S. of Area 118, to just NW of Area 529. Here we spotted both suspended bait and gamefish around 19-25 feet and knew this was ripe for downrigging. We struggled a bit at first, putting baits over a lot of fish before hooking up with any consistency. As the murky, dark skies began to brighten the action picked up with the increasing light. We ran a single Pet on one rod and a Pet/Licker combo on the other and began catching fish with the greatest consistency from 11:45 to 1:15. On this area, we boated a total of 15 fish including 1 small crappie, 1 channel cat, 3 drum, and 10 white bass.

With action slowing and the babysitter’s stint drawing to a close, we wrapped things up around 1:30p and took a “refreshing” boatride back to the dock, complete with kidney-busting waves, cool spray, and 23 mph winds.

TALLY = 36 FISH, all caught and released

I fished an evening “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Duane B. and his son, Dalton, as well as Dalton’s buddy, Sammy, and Sammy’s dad, Sam, all of Eddy, Tx. Both boys were 13 years old.

By luck of the draw, Sammy got his licks in first picking up this white bass with a Swimmin’ Image worked down at 30 feet.

Dalton was very focused and persistent right up to the last minute, and put his share of fish in the boat including this white bass that fell for a Pet Spoon worked at ~25 feet.

After fishing a morning trip this morning and experiencing a weak morning bite, and then an atypical midday bite, I was concerned that things might be tough this evening, and, with the 20+ mph winds eliminating some options, things looked even tougher before we even got on the water.

As we headed out, I checked over a few areas intending to cover some water with baits down while studying sonar to try to zero in on some fish. We spotted scattered whites suspended down at exactly 30 feet out to the east of Areas 214/307 but it was tough getting a bite. As we moved in closer to shore I saw more fish, but little bait, and we did pick up one solid white bass on a Swimmin’ Image. Further passes here were unsuccessful, as were attempts at several other areas.

We tried to fish Area 492, and got 4 sunfish (our intended quarry here) on slipfloats, but the wind peaked at around 24mph at this point and we had to give it up and head for calmer water.

We checked several areas and even put down livebaits at one area, but still came up short.

As we ran from one area to another, I spotted a briefly surfacing school of whites chasing very small shad on the surface just west of Area 447. I got us close and got the boys into the fish where we hooked 2 and landed 1 before the school sounded for good.

About an hour before sunset we made our way in to Area 387/565 and fished to the channel side of a line between the two. Sonar revealed a good mix of white bass and bait, suspended consistently at 25 feet. We ran twin ‘riggers over these fish for an hour plus and slowly but surely picked up white bass on a solo Pet as well as a Pet/Licker combo. Over this time we boated 7 fish here and missed two more. Action died as the sun set (which is a bit earlier than typical), and we had to settle for the hand we’d been dealt.

By trip’s end we’d put 13 fish in the boat. That’s pretty tough fishing for June when, typically, things are about as consistent as they’ll be all year. I suspect that until that seasonal high pressure system sets up over Texas heating us up and drying us out and making one day’s weather nearly identical to the next, that fishing’s going to be a bit hit or miss as it’s been lately.

TALLY = 13 Fish

I fished a half-day morning “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Justin and Jacob T. and thier buddy, Hunter S., all accompanied by Mr. Carl.

Little Jacob with a nice black bass taken on topwater just as the sun was rising

Justin was “all over ’em” when it came to downrigging the white bass

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 11:00am

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s with clear, calm conditions.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.1F

Wind: Winds were W at 3 at sunrise, then went light from the SSE at 3-4, then went slack after 10am.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

As we pushed off this morning we headed for open water looking for some topwater bass action that should be starting about now. We found some sporadic activity around Area 026 and I did hook and let Jacob land one bass here, but this was not conducive to the casting abilities the boys possessed — these fish were surfacing few and far between and required both fast and accurate casts, so, we passed on these fish and searched elsewhere.

We headed to between Areas 485 and 459 and hit the white bass with downriggers and one skimmer, all rigged up with Pets. We spent about 75 minutes working these fish over until things got real quiet. By that time we’d netted 6 fish for each of the boys (18 total). 16 came on the downlines set at 8-10 and at 18-21, and 2 came on the skimmer.

We next headed to between Areas 207 and 208 and again went with the downriggers and one skimmer. We boated 3 more white bass here and missed 2 more. By now, even with the action moderate, the boys’ attention span was maxing out, so, we went and did something totally different in the way of sunfish fishing in shallow water with slipcorks. Despite a few snags and tangles, each boy managed one sunfish at Area 200, and then it was off to fish for a final big largemouth.

We anchored up at Area 430 and put 3 tightlines down. Long story short, we had 4 solid strikes and landed one fish out of these, a nice 16 inch largemouth that chose Jacob’s rod. With that mission accomplished, we decided to call it a day and get the boys delivered back to dockside for an afternoon jiujitsu tournament (wish I still had that much energy!!).

TALLY = 26 FISH

I fished a half-day morning trip with returning guests Scott and Spencer L. of Temple, on the occasion of Spencer’s 11th birthday. Our summer fishing patterns are beginning to fall into place: possible topwater at first light and beyond, then downrigging for the still-active fish once they sound, then a bit of largemouth bass or sunfish or bait fishing once things get quiet, depending on the clients. Today was no exception. We struggled with very light winds and very bright conditions today, but eventually found some fairly reliable topwater consisting almost entirely of white bass schooling on young of the year shad. Once the white bass were done on top we continued to pick them up downrigging. Once that got quiet we hit some sunfish action, and then tried for some largemouth bass with bait.

Spencer’s “birthday bass” — Happy 11th, Spence!!

Spencer with a beautifully colored bull bluegill taken shallow this morning

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s with clear, calm conditions.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.1F

Wind: Winds were W at 3 at sunrise, then went SE at 1-2 by 9:00am

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

We began our day looking for topwater action between 254 and 555 and saw little, so, I headed right down to Area 007. As we arrived, there was more activity here, but, it was sporadic at best. I knew both fish and bait was present, as we saw plenty of action on sonar, so we stayed in the vicinity of Area 017 just sharpshooting at whatever would hit the surface. Once this proved to be less than productive, we changed over to downriggers, and immediately began bagging fish in the vicinity of Area 204 to 444. Most of these fish were smallish whites bass, but, that’s what was feeding, so, that’s what we fished for. Gradually, as we downrigged and kept an eye on the surface, more and more schools of white bass began to rise to the surface and stay there for up to a minute or more, thus giving us a fair shot at success. We stowed the ‘riggers for a while and threw bladebaits at these surface feeding white bass for about 30 minutes in the vicinity of Area 644. When the action began to fade to “few and far between” we again put the downriggers to work and continued catching fish. Most everything was over by around 9am with 31 white bass and 2 largemouth bass boated.

Spencer wanted to fish for sunfish and then fish for largemouth, so, we went hunting sunfish at Area 195 and Area 189. There were many saucer-shaped sunfish spawning beds located in both areas with fish on the nests that refused to bite, but there were also plenty of non-spawners and immature fish, too. We caught a total of 8 sunfish including longears, bluegills and green sunfish.

Next, it was out to find some largemouth, however, by now it was hot, bright, and glassy calm and I had a feeling we’d be hard pressed to get largemouth to do much at this point in the game. We fished 3 separate areas without a single touch. I hinted to Spencer a couple times that we might need to change our game plan, and, after a while, he agreed. We took the last 30 minutes of the trip and spent them downrigging. As is often the case when a bit shuts down, we saw a lot of fish on sonar, but rare was the fish that would strike. We did manage 2 small whites and a small crappie on the downriggers from between Areas 534, 601, and 643 as we wrapped up the day with a tally of 44 fish for our efforts.

TALLY = 44 FISH

I fished a half day “Kids Fish, Too!” trip this morning with Mr. Paul S. and his sons, Tanner and Ty, of Temple. The boys had some basic fishing skills down before they arrived, and we reviewed the use of both spinning gear and closed-face gear at dockside before starting the day’s hunt for fish. We had storms in the early evening last night that resulted in cooler, overcast conditions this morning with a NW to N breeze puffing at 5-7 mph the entire trip.

Tanner with a nice downrigged white bass taken from a suspended school of fish

Ty with a beautifully colored bull bluegill taken on a slip float rig up shallow

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s with clear, calm conditions.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.1F

Wind: Winds were W at 3 at sunrise, then went SE at 1-2 by 9:00am

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

At sunrise, we searched for topwater action and found only light, briefly appearing schools of white bass in the vicinity of Area 017. To do well in this scenario, quick, accurate casts were a must. The boys did their best and did land a handful of white bass by casting Cork Rigs to these fish, but I saw we were going to be hard-pressed to excel at that, so, we turned to downriggers to help us out. By around 9:35am we’d boated 14 white bass from between Areas 017 to 204 to 205. As the novelty of these two techniques wore off, it was clear that a change of pace would be a good idea.

We headed out in search of some sunfish and found a good supply of them holding at the transition from weed to rock near Area 189. The boys wore these fish out with slip-cork rigs, boating 27 sunfish at this single stop.

We then searched for some congregated deep-water bass to fish for but found little despite 3 immediate strikes upon anchoring at Area 193.

As we reached the end of our trip, the boys requested that we make one more sunfish run. This time we headed to Area 200 and finished off the day with an additional haul of 9 sunfish here.

TALLY = 50 Fish

I fished a half day “Kids Fish, Too!” trip this evening with Mr. Cliff S. and 3 of his grandchildren: Tyler, Zach, and Mason, all cousins to one another. All three boys were under the age of 13 and were some of the most fishing-capable kids I’ve had on my boat. They could handle spinning gear, closed face gear, flipping, casting from muliple positions, taking their own fish off the hook, and more.

Mason with the record-breaking largemouth — a 7.75 pound, 24.25 inch monster!!

Zach with a nice pair of white bass

Tyler with his lunker

Start Time: 4:45p

End Time: 8:45p

Air Temp: 84F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.1F

Wind: Winds were WSW at 7-9 until tapering off to 1-3 at sunset

Skies: Skies were grey, but bright.

After the usual safety talk, we headed to the rocks at Area 642 and used slip corks to fish for sunfish. This let me gauge how the boys could cast, retrieve, stay-tangle free, etc. Nearly immediately Tyler and Zach were fast to fish. Mason, who didn’t have a lot of spinning reel experience got off to a bit slower start, but, with some one-on-one by grandpa, he was holding his own by the end. The boys randomly picked the number 27 at the number of sunfish we should catch before moving on to a new technique, so, catch 27 we did, then packed up and headed elsewhere.

We got onto suspended white bass between Area 534, 601, and 643 and the boys immediately grasped the concept of teamwork when it came to fishing with downriggers by setting the lines out, reeling the balls in once a fish was hooked, and helping one another out. We boated 20 fish via downrigging including 18 white bass and 2 drum. We were fishing a single Pet and a Pet/Licker combo. Of the 20 fish, all 20 came on the Pet. Only one fish hit the Licker, and it was a white bass double, however the lead fish came off.

The boys expressed an interest in shooting for some largemouth, so, with about an hour left before sunset, we slipped over to Area 125. I saw good sonar readings here that looked promising. Again, with excellent teamwork, the boys got the rods unsheathed, dipped bait, and kept good noise discipline over our anchored position. As we began putting our 3 lines down, we immediately got thumped. Little Mason had a titanic struggle with, and eventually prevailed against, a sweet 7.25 pound 22.25 inch largemouth. Then, incredibly, as we continued baiting lines and getting them down, each of the boys landed a bass over 5 pounds. We then took another run through the batting order landing 3 more solid largemouth. We then began our THIRD run through the batting order. Mason was up once again. The rod went down, he went to work, and I netted a 7.75 pound, 24.25 inch largemouth that just left us all slack-jawed — not that it happened, but that it happened twice to the same kid on the same night!!! This fish broke the existing Jr. Angler Catch and Release record for Stillhouse which was set on my boat only a few weeks ago by young Mario P. of Copperas Cove. We gathered all the necessary data and photos and will be submitting it all to Austin this weekend. We finished the night off with one last fish for Zach and called it quits right at dark. Wow!!

TALLY = 55 Fish