This morning I fished with Jimmy and Josh B. This is the first time I’d had them out on the boat, but I suspect it won’t be the last! They really enjoyed the variety versus the bank fishing they normally do.

Josh (L) and Jimmy (R) with our four best white bass of the trip today.

Jimmy and Josh work together daily as a father and son team offering services such as lawn maintenance, tree trimming, and the like, so it was only natural that they would decide to fish together, too.

We had a light N. wind today which is uncommon for summertime in Texas, and I wasn’t sure if that was going to impact the fishing or not. We never saw a stitch of topwater action, but, the suspended fish bite was solid.



As Jimmy met me at the boat, he commented how clean the park and the shoreline were. He’s been accustomed to fishing at the Cedar Gap area on the upper end of the lake where floods have deposited tons of timber and where the groundskeeping efforts seem to be less thorough. He was excited just to be in such an ideal outdoor environment.

As we got underway I explained how summertime fishing typically involves the pursuit of suspended fish holding just above the thermocline and how we would go about consistently presenting our lures to fish in that horizontal band of water, primarily by using downriggers. They both grasped the concept of what we were doing and why we were doing it, so, off we went to put theory into practice.

These fellows are used to working with their hands, so, they caught on pretty quickly concerning how to rig up the downriggers and get them properly set. Once we eliminated some unproductive water over the first 15-20 minutes, we hit paydirt and stayed in the fish for the remainder of our trip, rarely going more than a few minutes without boating fish.

We began our day over a stretch of water near Area 041/658. We found loosely schooled white bass within 3-4 feet of the bottom over a 27-32 foot bottom and used tandem rigs equipped with modified Pet Spoons to do the dirty work. We boated 19 fish in the first 90 minutes of effort before this area played out.

We then moved on to Area 1117. This area was a bit shallower at 24-26 feet deep, and we found fish holding a bit closer to the bottom here and also schooled together a bit more densely. For this reason, I chose to try using slab spoons (TNT180’s in 3/4 oz.) in a chrome/white color to tempt these fish. We boated 6 fish in short order, then moved a few yards very slowly while closely watching sonar then hovered over the fish we’d found and picked up 4 more fish here, again, using the slabs both vertically and horizontally.

After these fish lost interest and slowed down, we returned to downrigging and stuck with it until right around 11:20. Over this period of time we worked over Area 1122/1123 and put a final mess of 20 fish in the boat, including an unheard of 5 sets of doubles (two fish caught on one rod at the same time), including a “multi-species double” boated by Josh, consisting of a white bass and a largemouth bass hitting the tandem rig at the same time.

Over the course of the entire trip, the boys boated at least 10 sets of doubles. As we move into the hottest part of the summer and the size of the schools of fish tends to increase (that is, the number of fish in a school) the likelihood of such multiple hookups increases, as well.

We ended the day with a total of 49 fish, including 45 white bass, 2 largemouth bass, and 2 freshwater drum. The best part of the trip to me was the consistency of the bite. We caught fish nearly at the same rate from start to finish and kept it engaging the whole trip.

TALLY = 49 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:25a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.4F

Wind: N5-7.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.

This morning I fished with Steve R. of Killeen and his 13 year old daughter, Victoria.

Steve and Victoria with one of the 69 fish we boated today. This hybrid hit a large gizzard shad fished on a downline and was suspended over a 40′ bottom.

Steve recently returned from a 1 year tour in Afghanistan and has been enjoying 30 days of leave which will be coming to a close soon, after which his unit will “reset”. I had the pleasure of taking Victoria on a free SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip over the winter while Steve was serving in harm’s way.

Today we were fortunate enough to see a continuation of the strong topwater action that Belton has offered all week. A little wrinkle in the weather last night brought some late afternoon thunderstorms in, and there was an easterly component to the wind this morning, so, I expected to topwater to be less than what is has been, and it was just that. We had about 40 minutes of action this morning compared to 2 hours’ worth back on Monday, and, there were not near as many fish feeding on the top during this time, but, we stayed up with what fish were there and, by, 7:20, had already boated 43 fish from the vicinity of Area 811/133. A good start!!

The fishing never did get really strong the rest of the morning, so, we had to “peck” here and there to put together the rest of our catch.

Our first run of average success came at Area 833/214 where we consistently caught white bass and hybrid stripers on downriggers running modified Pet Spoons targeting suspended fish in this area. We boated 11 fish here.

Our next run of average success came at Area 1120 where we boated 3 fish on live bait (2 keeper hybrid and a blue cat). Steve just loved to hear that bait-clicker go off!!

Our last bit of success came when we returned to Area 214 after seeing some brief topwater churning there. We boated 1 keeper hybrid and a channel cat there.

As we finished up our day, we put in a final 20 minutes or so showing Steve and Victoria how to bait up for sunfish so that they could do some fishing and expect success from the bank. We broke out the slipfloat rigs, baited up with maggots and put a mixed bag of 10 fish on the counter in no time, including bluegill, green sunfish, and black-tail shiners.

We ended the day with a tally of 69 fish.

TALLY = 69 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 10:40a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.7F

Wind: SSE7 at sunrise, changing to SSW5 by 9:00a and until trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair and ~40% cloudy.

This morning I fished with returning guest Nate H. and his fishing buddy, Sean. Both men are combat veterans stationed at Ft. Hood; Nate serves in the Signal Corps and Sean in Transportation Corps.

Sean tagged this double on a tandem rig set up with doctored Pet Spoons as we downrigged after the topwater bite died.

Nate holds the largest of the hybrid we took on topwater this morning.

Nate has really come a long way as a fisherman since I first went out with him in February of 2011. I attribute this to several things: 1) he is eager to learn, 2) he is willing to listen, 3) he asks the right questions (for instance: “Why did you look for fish here?” and NOT “What lure did you use?”), and 4) he puts in the time on the water and has gained a lot of experience as a result of it.

Much of his focus has been on largemouth bass, even giving club tournament fishing a try. Today, his focus was on expanding his horizons to be able to target white bass and hybrid striped bass.

As we got underway, a gentle south breeze began to ripple the surface making things just right for topwater action to occur — and occur it did!! From 6:40am to 8:45am we experienced a very strong topwater bite with fish present on the surface the entire time. As we boated fish we noticed most fish were gorging themselves on young of the year shad only ~1 1/8″ long. Other fishermen who approached and used traditional baits did not catch near the quantities we did as their large offerings often got ignored. We used a “Cork Rig” to present our “match the hatch” baits and did very well. In two hours’ time we put exactly 143 fish in the boat including a 70/30% mix of white bass and hybrid striped bass. Every white bass we caught was of legal size, with some going as long as 12.75″. All but 1 of the hybrid were short, with most going 14 1/2″. We experienced this action in the vicinity of Area 010/812 .

After the topwater died and the few boats in the area with us departed, we used a “lift-drop” technique with TNT180 slabs in silver/white to continue to boat fish that were settling towards bottom at the conclusion of the heavy topwater feed. We added 9 more fish to our count employing this technique before the action died here once and for all.

Now the real work began … finding concentrations of still-active fish using sonar. We hit a bit of a down time from 9:00 to 9:30, then sighted a pod of white bass feeding on bait over open water near Area 1084. We pulled up into these fish and broke out the Cork Rigs once again and put another 11 fish in the boat here, taking our tally up to 164. As this action waned, a tip from a fellow fisherman led us to some sub-surface hybrid action in the vicinity of Area 1119.

At this location, we graphed loosely schooled hybrid down between 22-30 feet over a deeper bottom. We put live baits down and immediately had 3 fish on, and landed 2 of them. We noted that the first two fish boated on bait were larger than any of the 164 fish we’d taken up to that point, primarily on topwater; this is a very typical scenario — big fish just don’t spend much time swimming hard in pursuit of small, fast bait.

We closed out the trip searching with downriggers and exploiting what we found using both slabs in a lift-drop scenario and concentrating our downrigger pattern over top of previously located fish in the vicinity of Area 1106/1118. This accounted for our last “run” of 12 fish including a few just legal hybrid, a few short hybrid, a few white bass and 1 small largemouth.

By 11:45 things were slowing down so we called it a day and headed on back in. For their time spent on the water Nate and Sean got to experience one of the best days of topwater action this year, as well as the methodologies we employed after the fish slowed down and we were forced to “go looking”.

TALLY = 178 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.7F

Wind: S3-5.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.

This morning I fished with Doug L. of Salado, TX, and his college-aged twin children, Alex and Ashley.

Persistence paid off today. We went into the trip’s 5th hour with just 14 fish caught, and ended that hour with a tally of 68 fish after finding an aggressive, bottom-hugging school ready to do business.

I first met Doug through a mutual friend, Dick C. of Harker Heights, when Dick invited me to a morning Bible study that he and Doug attended at The Kettle restaurant in Killeen. That was several years ago. Later, after Dick has several good experiences out on the water with me, Doug thought he’d give it a try and do so while his younger two kids were home from college. Today was the day. Alex is heading into his junior year at Texas A&M majoring in chemical engineering, and Ashley heads into her junior year at the University of Texas, majoring in industrial design.

Once again under the influence of a bright full moon which shone along with the sun, we struggled a bit today until around 10:55 when things finally started going our way.

We started the day well with 7 fish boated in the first 30 minutes (5 white bass, 1 drum, 1 largemouth), including a double for Ashley, all coming on the downriggers using a pair of tandem rigs outfitted with doctored Pet Spoons. These fish all came from 23-26 feet, suspended over a bottom just a bit deeper, in the vicinity of Area 1112/658. After this action died, we failed to find fish at two other locations.

We re-established contact at Area 644/444, but, of the 7 fish we boated here, 3 were yearlings. I typically move when such small fish are present because 1) there a typically a lot of them and they’ll beat the larger fish to a bait, 2) because they can be hooked and go undetected, thus reducing the chances of catching another fish on the second bait, and 3) because undetected fish can be drowned as they are pulled through the water too forcibly for them to keep their gills working. So, we moved on with 14 fish on the “clicker” at this point.

I left the downrigging behind and began searching some humps and breaklines and came up clean (not even largemouth or shad on most areas) until checking on Area 1117. At the 25-26 foot mark here, the colored sonar and downscan sonar both began to light up real well revealing a lot of fish holding on or near the bottom. This was looking good. I got us positioned in a “hover” over top of the fish and we broke out the “smoking” rods to allow us to work 3/4 oz. TNT180’s in white/silver in and around these fish. We had excellent results right off the bat as Alex stuck a fish before his slab even hit the bottom on his first drop. For the next 40 minutes we continued to catch fish immediately beneath the boat and out and around the perimeter as we used a “smoking” tactic and a “lift-drop” tactic. Every one of these fish was in the same year group (I estimate 3 years old) and was right at 13″ +/- 1/2″. We boated a total of 54 fish here, 53 of which were white bass, along with 1 largemouth.

Just as quickly as the fish turned on, they turned back off again, and, by 11:45 sonar showed a clean bottom and the fish had simply vanished again.

TALLY = 68 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.7F

Wind: SSW8-13.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.

This morning I fished with father and son team John and Matthew M. of Temple out on their 6th trip with me.

Young Matthew chose Belton over Stillhouse today just for a shot at some hybrid, and his “calculated risk” paid off.

Matthew’s “downriggered” double!!

Under a clear sky and a beaming full moon we launched out just prior to sunrise and began the hunt for fish. We initially kept our eyes peeled for topwater action, but found none.

We then went in pursuit of hybrid striped bass using live shad on downlines. We found a few fish at Area 1107, put 3 in the boat and then things got pretty quiet. I spotted some distant topwater action, so, we hurriedly packed up our baitfishing operation and headed to the fray, but, the fray was over by the time the cavalry arrived and so we returned to Area 1107 only to put one more white bass and 2 blue cat in the boat.

Off we went again searching unsuccessfully at several areas before finding scattered, suspended fish with a bit of bait holding nearby in the vicinity of Area 844/846. We made a few passes here with the downriggers deployed after our first pass resulted in a nice “double” for Matthew when a pair of just-legal hybrid hit his tandem-rigged Pet Spoons. Subsequent passes gave up a few white bass and we had to go looking again.

As we moved from spot to spot, John would kid Matthew that he needed to eat more chips or take a bite out of his sandwich so the fish would begin biting. This referred to a time on Stillhouse when we were flatline trolling and Matthew got a hit just as he stuck a truckload of chips in his mouth. Well, Matthew informed dad and I that he was eating light today. When we asked him why, he said he was saving room for a “Boomstick”. Of course, you have to ask, “What’s a Boomstick?” It seems Matthew and his folks had plans later in the day to head to Ranger Stadium up in Arlington to see Texas stomp the Los Angeles Angels. To fuel his growing teenage body, Matthew planned on ingesting a “Boomstick” (SEE PHOTO BELOW!) which is essentially a hotdog with all the fixin’s which is roughly the length of, and nearly the diameter of, a baseball bat!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, “The Boomstick”!!!

So, Matthew all but refused to eat during our trip (and the fish pretty much mimicked him). We wound up sticking with the downrigging regimen from this point forward as we managed to find only scattered, suspended fish with at most 3-4 fish schooled together. We enjoyed limited success at Areas 475/474 and again at Area 1106/477. We caught an unusual number of blue cat on our downriggers (running around 3mph!) along with some white bass and one “throw back” hybrid in these two areas.

We ended the day with 23 fish and really had to scrub hard to get those. Fortunately, the Rangers had a better day than Bob the Fishing Guide, beating the Angels handsomely 15 to 9!! Rumor has it that Matthew ordered a Pepto Bismol shake from the DQ in Hillsboro on the ride home.

TALLY = 23 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 12:45p

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.3F

Wind: S8-10.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.

This morning I fished with brothers Zach (10 years old) and Jessie (15 years old), the sons of Lindsey and Toby W., recent transplants from Ft. Worth to Belton.

Keeper hybrid were hard to come by today, but, we had some very memorable early morning topwater action and some mid-morning mixed-bag angling to enjoy thereafter.

Zach and his cousin Reese fished with me last Monday on Stillhouse and he just got bit by the fishing bug. He went out on two occasions on his own to Belton with his last trip resulting in just one small catfish, so, he was ready to get back on them and put some fish in the boat. His mom and brother were only too happy to support that cause, and we all had a good time out on the water trying to stay on the fish this morning.

Things got off to a great start as we spotted some light topwater action just before sunrise at Area 016/147. We used some small soft plastics and then transitioned to Spook Jr.’s as the action got more aggressive. None of the the 3 had a lot of experience with spinning gear, so, there were the normal learning curves to go through, but, the practice we did on the dock before starting our trip really paid off and all 3 were able to boat multiple fish before the bright July sun sent them swimming for the depths. We boated 23 fish from this schooling action before things died, all in about the first 45 minutes of our trip.

By comparison, the remainder of our trip would only see 17 more fish come over the side, so, this was our “WOOF” of a start, heading for a bit of a “whimper” of a finish.

After the topwater died, things got a bit quiet as we never did have a good breeze develop to move the water around and stir things up.

We downrigged and consistently put short hybrid and average white bass in the boat using a tandem rig equipped with doctored Pet Spoons. This action took place at both Area 844/846 and nearby Area 838/214, but not in between the two. We landed 4 white bass, 1 keeper hybrid and 2 short hybrid here.

When things went soft we moved over to Area 1106 and charted some scattered, suspended fish here. We got live shad down for the first time of the morning here and immediately got the blue cat stirred up. We wound up landing 1 short hybrid, 1 keeper largemouth, and 3 blue cat here before moving on.

We did some looking and failed to find much at 3-4 different locations, and finally came to rest in the vicinity of Area 154/155 where we once again put live baits down. We boated 3 more blue cat and 2 more white bass here. It was now 11:45 and the sun was letting us know it was a force to be reckoned with. We decided to call it a great day right there with both boys having landed fish larger than they’d ever caught before and mom glad for the time she had to spend with her sons while school and work schedules allowed.

TALLY = 40 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 71F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.3F

Wind: S3-4.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.

This morning I fished with “Grand-Dad” Jack S. of Temple, TX, and his grandson, 11 year old Jackson visiting from Houston.

Jack and Jackson are shown here holding the best 4 of our 41 fish boated on this hot late July morning in Texas!!





I normally start any trip with kids with a bit of an assessment on how the kids can use the various casting and spinning rigs that we may need to employ over the course of the trip. This lets me know how much teaching/coaching is going to be needed, and if lessons need to start at the dock or if we can simply do some “OJT” while on the water. Well, Jackson stepped on the boat, took the spinning rig I pointed out to him, gripped it, flipped the bail, and whipped out a 70 foot cast with a very light lure like it was nothing, and looked up at me as if to say, “Is there anything else I can do for you, Mister?” I knew this was going to be a great trip!!

And indeed it was! We got out on the fishing grounds this morning, started charting fish on sonar holding at 23-26 feet down (suspended, as usual in the summer) and got our downrigger array set up and working. Jack had a double (2 fish on one rod) on in less than 30 seconds, and no sooner did we release his fish than Jackson got his first fish. We encountered this initial burst of activity right at sunrise, then things slumped for about 30-40 minutes, but then started building up again as the winds got some legs to it and increased to the 8-9mph range and shifted slightly W. The best 75 minutes of fishing occurred from 8:15a to 9:30a and Area 1115 was “ground zero” for this action. After 9:45 or so things started to taper off again as the skies brightened, boat traffic increased, and the wind slacked off. We’d boated 39 fish by this time including 37 white bass, 1 drum, and 1 largemouth bass.

By 10am we changed up a bit and started “lift/dropping” slabs through bottom-oriented fish with precious little to show for it. These summertime fish want that bait going horizontal and little else. We had ample opportunity today to watch a number of boat come in around us and zero by attempting to vertical jig, all to no avail, as we steadily caught fish by moving our baits parallel to the bottom.

By 10:45 or so, after our first fishless spell of the day, we knew we didn’t have much time left if we were going to get one more bite so as to end the day on a good note. So, we worked together to throw a few different looks at a loosely schooled bunch of fish holding just off the breakline at Area 1116. They ignored our ‘rigger spread. Then, they ignored our slabs. So, we went back to the downrigger and used “stealth mode” by letting the baits back further behind the boat and putting them very precisely (vertically) where these fish were holding. We kind of held our breath as we went through this school of fish (for the fourth time!) and finally Jackson’s rod went off under the weight of a just-legal largemouth. We landed it with much celebration (after all, we worked harder for that one than any 10 of our other fish combined) and called it a day right there as the winds began to flatten and the heat started pouring on.

TALLY = 40 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:35a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.7F

Wind: SSW5-8.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.

This morning I fished with cousins Zach (10 years old) and Reese (14 years old), the grandsons of Elaine W. of Fort Worth. She’s RV camping at Belton Lake and was kind enough to treat the boys to this day on the water.

We finished our trip with a bang today with 5+ pounds of fish landed in the last 10 minutes, including Reese’s 3.00 lbs. largemouth (above) and Zach’s 2.50 pound channel cat (below).

The fish were a bit “moody” today for whatever reason. We got on a strong bite right off the bat; it lasted about 40 minutes and then there wasn’t a fish to be found where just minutes prior there was wolfpack after wolfpack of 3-10 fish each just about everywhere we looked.

So, we had to hit several areas today to put together the catch that we did and, although we tried on two separate occasions to exploit some congregated fish near bottom, those fish would have none of it. If we weren’t downrigging, we weren’t getting bit — it was as simple as that.

So, with 4 full hours of practice, the boys both became darn good downrig riggers today, each learning how far back and how far down to set their baits based on sonar readings, how to “clip in”, how to adjust the drag for lowering baits and then how to adjust the drag once the baits were set — pretty technical stuff, actually.

We encountered significant concentrations of fish at Areas 1103, 476, 459, 1113, and 644/1114. A look at the map clearly showed me these fish were all interested in the same kind of bottom topography. This gives me clues as to what to look for elsewhere should I have to go hunting for them again before long on another “moody” day.

This was a trip of superlatives for the boys. They each caught the biggest fish they’d ever caught, and they each caught the most fish they’d ever caught on a trip. Up until this trip most of their efforts have been from the shore off of “Crappie Point” on Navarro Mills lake.

The boys were a pleasure to have on board and, from what I understand, greased the skids for their brothers to be able to go out with me next week!

TALLY = 41 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 87.1F

Wind: SSW7-12.

Skies: Skies were hazy and ~65% cloudy.

This morning I fished with Ed T. of Hutto, TX, and his 5 year old son, Eddie. We were in pursuit of the first fish of Eddie’s life !!

Eddie, very capably assisted by his dad, caught 21 fish today, including the first fish of his life!!

Ed contacted me back in March or April this year about introducing his young son to fishing. Although the two of them were ready to go right then and there, I encouraged them to wait until the weather and the water got warmer so we’d be in prime season for downrigging suspended white bass and for fishing for sunfish up in the shallows. This would allow for “instant gratification” which is just what it takes to get and keep young children interested in the sport.

We headed out to the fishing grounds just as the sun was poking above the horizon and got our rigs set just above the suspended fish we found on sonar. Today, that was around 24 feet.

We found fish loosely congregated between Areas 480 and 476 and worked doctored Pet Spoons over these fish using tandem rigs. At 7:58 young Eddie had landed the first fish of his life, thus earning him a Texas Parks and Wildlife “First Fish Award”. By 8:54, he’d boated 18 more fish including a nice largemouth bass and 17 white bass, 6 of which were landed two-at-a-time on the tandem rig.

By 9am or so, a long weekend of fun with cousins followed by some pool time, followed by getting to bed a bit later than planned was beginning to catch up with Eddie and he started “fading fast” as the morning heat began to build and the novelty of catch fish (even two at a time!) began to wear off.

Dad and I talked him into a quick adventure up to the shallows to pluck some sunfish out of the hydrilla near Area 1111, and that resulted in one bluegill and 2 spottail shiners being added to our count. By 9:20, the fun and sun were too much, and we called it a day right there.

To his credit (take note of this dad’s of young boys!!) Ed didn’t insist that Eddie stick with it, thus turning a very enjoyable trip for young Eddie into an endurance test to please dad. Ed realized Eddie had reached the limit of his 5 year old attention span and called it a day right there and then. This little thing is the thing that makes the difference between having your son as a fishing buddy for life, or having a son who says “Thanks, but no thanks” when he’s older based on the memories of what fishing was when he was younger. Good call, Ed!!

As soon as I got back home and got the batteries on charge for the next trip, I got an e-mail out to TPWD requesting Eddie’s “First Fish Award” accompanied by the required photos.

You only catch your first fish one time. It was great to be a part of that with a father and son like Ed and Eddie!!

TALLY = 21 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 9:15a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.6F

Wind: S7.

Skies: Skies were hazy and ~65% cloudy.

This morning I fished with Di A. of Riverside, California, and her nephew, Tommy V. of Indio, California.

Di and Tommy boated 48 white bass today. A favorable SW wind and stable weather kept the fish active for a long feeding window this morning.

Di is an engineer working for the Navy at the naval yards near Los Angeles, and Tommy is on active duty at Fort Hood where he serves as an infantryman with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR). Di is close to retirement and is getting an early start on accumulating some retirement toys including the camping package she drove the 1,300 miles to Texas in as a “test run” to make sure she’s ready for some serious camping once retirement is a done deal!

We got onto a solid white bass bite today on Stillhouse, with the best action of the day coming over the course of the first two hours of sunlight. During this time we primarily downrigged to stay in the midst of the patrolling schools of white bass suspended above the thermocline at the 27-29 foot mark. By the time the best bite was over, we’d boated 38 white bass, with most in the 13″ range. On at least 5 occasions we boated doubles on our tandem rigs equipped with doctored Pet Spoons selected to “match the hatch” given the size of the shad these white bass were feeding on.

After the strong, early bite died down, we began to work more vertically with slabs and bladebaits and continued to catch fish in twos and threes as we encountered them beneath us, using both a lift-drop retrieve and the smoking tactic.

Di has also recently purchased a Porta-Bote (a folding, lightweight boat) and so, after she explained to me the types of waters that were near her in the Los Angeles area, and after the white bass bite had just about tapered to nil, we went up shallow so I could show her how to use a slipfloat rig for sunfish. This is a universally applicable technique for sunfish wherever they occur. Fortunately, Di had some flyfishing experience, so, the roll cast motion often used in that discipline came in handy here. In less than a minute onsite near some shallow cover, she was fast to a sunfish and got the hang of it quickly. She and Tommy took turns just so they’d both have the experience under their belt and, between the two of them, they put 9 sunfish in the boat in just minutes.

By 11:15 it was getting hot and bright, and the morning bite was over for sure. We headed in and bid one another farewell after a few quick photos of our four best white bass of the day — all in the 14 inch range.

TALLY = 57 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86F

Wind: SW6-8.

Skies: Skies were fair and ~15% cloudy.