The following blog entry appears in the form of a report to those who support the Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (S.K.I.F.F.) program which serves to put the children of deployed or deceased soldiers on the water at no charge to their families…

This largemouth bass was Darby’s largest fish of the trip, tipping the certified scales at 3 3/8 pounds.

This pair of white bass was one of 6 pairs of doubles that Darby boated today. By the end of the trip he was telling me whether he had one fish or two on the line!

12 July 2012

Dear Friends of SKIFF,

If it seems it has been a while since you’ve heard from me, it is with good reason — the vast majority of Fort Hood’s troops are home safe and sound now with our nation’s chapter on Iraq closed, and no major Ft. Hood units involved in Afghanistan for the time being. Unfortunately, it won’t be that way for long, but, we’ll be glad they’re home while we’ve got them!

Today I fished with Darby Cox, the son of LTC Christoper and Michelle Cox of Harker Heights, TX. LTC Cox is on an individual deployment to Afghanistan where he is doing work in biometrics (like retinal scanning, etc.). He’s on a year-long deployment leaving Darby without his fishing buddy.

Darby is a very articulate and well mannered kid and mature for his age (10 years old). He’s recently gone to a sailing school held on Canyon Lake and loves to watch River Monsters (so we immediately had something in common!).

We hit Stillhouse today in a dense fog following some welcome rain the day before. We lucked out and found suspended white bass ready to put on the feedbag at the second spot we searched. As is often the case in the summer, these fish were right above the thermocline in about 26 feet of water. We used two tandem rigs both geared up with Pet Spoons (that’s 4 baits in the water at one time) on our two downriggers to get the job done.

The best action of the day took place in the first 2 hours of the trip, but, even after that peak time the fish bit steadily enough to keep me busy reading sonar and steering the boat and Darby busy watching the rods and taking care of the rigging. A few times I asked Darby if he’d like to try a little something different thinking that working just one tactic for several hours might cause him to lose interest, but he stayed keenly interested in the downrigging the entire time. We focused our efforts between Area 482 and Area 40 today.

Just once we broke from the downrigging tactic to cast bladebaits parallel to the contour in 28 feet of water after spotting multiple small schools of white bass holding on or near bottom over a 30 yard stretch. Darby put 4 white bass in the boat from off of Area 482 before this action dissipated.

For our efforts today, we boated 3 largemouth bass (including our big fish of the day at 3 3/8 pounds), 3 drum, and 38 white bass. Only 2 of our white bass were under the 10″ “keeper” size limit, with the rest being at least 2 year classes ahead, at about 13.5 inches.

I’m thankful for all the work you have put into fundraising and otherwise providing for the SKIFF program. When the floodgate of troops opens once again, we’ll be more ready than ever to support them and their families. Thank you!

TALLY = 44 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: 85F

Wind: WNW5.

Skies: Moderate fog clearing to hazy by 7:30am, then skies slowly cleared to ~65% cloudy.

This morning I fished with (Grandpa) Steve K. and (Grandma) Rose K. of Killeen, TX, and their 12 year old granddaughter, Madison, of Bryan, TX.

The white bass “window” was open for about 90 minutes this morning … we made hay while the sun shone!!.

This hefty largemouth bass was our largest fish of the trip, tipping the scales at 3 1/8 pounds.

I first met Steve and Rose over at Belton Lake during the shad spawn back in April as we were pulling our boats out about the same time. We struck up a conversation and, long story short, got to fish with them and their granddaughter today as a result of that encounter.

Madison was a bit bleary-eyed this morning as her flight in from a summer trip to the East Coast was delayed and she didn’t arrive in Central Texas until after 3 AM this morning. Undaunted, she was ready to roll for our 6:30 AM meeting at the courtesy dock.

We started off making sure she could cast a spinning rig accurately enough to take advantage of any topwater we encountered (which was not to be today).

As we headed out, the residual clouds from rain overnight kept the light level very low, so, we hung some bait for largemouth to wait for the skies to brighten and to see what the winds were going to do. No takers on the bait this morning.

By 7:15, we had thinning cloud cover and the SE winds had gone all but flat with a light and variable S. breeze just barely puffing now.

We checked out Area 041/480 and found abundant suspended white bass with a bit of baitfish thrown in. We got ‘riggers down and immediately began putting fish in the boat. The first 90 minutes of the day was by far the strongest action. We boated 24 fish within that time at this one area, and had 6 sets of doubles come up wherein two fish were caught at a time while using a tandem rig (Madison boated every one of these 12 fish).

The next hour was a bit slower, giving up only 8 more fish, primarily at Area 197, again on the tandem rig fished 22-26 feet deep depending on where fish appeared on sonar as we passed overhead.

Steve, who typically fishes by trolling crankbaits, was really intrigued by the downrigging setup we were using. The beauty of the downriggers is that, when used in combination with quality sonar, you can see the gamefish you are after, you can see your downrigger ball relative to the position of those fish, and, if the right lure is selected, you can know right where your lure will pass relative to the fishes’ position. In simply using crankbaits, Hell-Pet rigs, divers, or dipseys, there are so many more variables that you wind up never really knowing where your bait is, at least not with the “down to the inch” precision that you do with downriggers.

I half-jokingly told my wife after I got home from the trip that I thought Steve might stop by at Academy before even going to the house following today’s trip, given his excitement about downrigging.

By around 10 AM, we all knew the gamefish were about done for the morning, so, we turned our focus to the shallows and the sunfish they hold. I never know how older kids are going to react when we go from catching larger white bass to catching smaller sunfish. Today, however, I knew right away that all was well!! As we got to our first cove (Area 200), the moment her float went under and a lively sunfish came over the side, Madison said, “Now THIS is some SERIOUS fishing!!” and she proceeded to put the lion’s share of 39 more fish over the side of the boat from off of this area and Area 1111, as well.

By quarter to twelve the hot sun, long flight, and fading fish action all added up to a good reason to hang up our rods for another day, and we headed back to the dock.

TALLY = 71 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83.3F

Wind: SE3 early and until 7:30, then going slack for ~1.25 hours, then picking up out of the SW7-8 for the remainder of the trip.

Skies: Skies were hazy and ~35% cloudy.

This morning I fished with brothers Matthew (age 16) and Andrew S.(age 12) of Pearland, TX. For many years now the boys have traveled with their parents to Belton Lake to spend the holiday in the same lake cottage near Arrowhead Point.

Matthew and Andrew were fast learners and good listeners when it came to fishing techique, and it paid off in spades today with 22 keeper hybrid boated by just the two of them in just a few hours’ time.

Chumming with Cheerios!! Keep reading for details!



The boys’ mom, Allison, contacted me over the 4th of July last year only to find me booked, so, this year she started about 8 weeks in advance and we were able to make it happen in a big way.

I picked the boys up and right off the bat we began searching for topwater, but found none (can I get an “Amen!” that we are long overdue for some good surface action???).

Undaunted, we continued our search with sonar and, with a bit of help from some friendly-neighborhood herons, found some solid hybrid striped bass fishing action almost immediately. I decided to go with 4 shad-baited downlines and before we could get our 4th rod in the water we had a fish on. The action was very steady for the first 2 hours during which time we put 28 fish in the boat including 3 white bass, 1 channel cat, 1 blue cat, and 23 hybrid striped bass, of which 19 were “keepers” going 18+ inches. 6 of these keepers yanked the certified scale I have onboard down to the 4.25 pound mark. The bigger the bait the faster it drew strikes, with gizzard shad outperforming threadfin by a long shot.

As we were fishing, a funny thing happened. I took one of our dead shad out of the bait tank and tore it up and tossed it over the side. Andrew asked why I did that. I told him the shad was dead, and that by throwing dead bait over the side, fish can become attracted to the area we’re fishing over. I explained this was called chumming. Well, Andrew had a big ZipLok bag full of Cheerios he was snacking on. He decided to toss a few Cheerios in the water, and, the instant his first handful hit the water, his rod bent double under the strain of a hybrid. Now that young man was convinced that his (still floating) Cheerios had something to do with his rod getting bit. From that point on, he ceased snacking and used his Cheerios as chum, convinced he was on to something!! Isn’t that just like a fisherman?

By around 8:30 the bait bite slowed as the fish pushed away from shore and began to scatter horizontally, still around the 25′ mark. We ran sonar and I saw enough density to lead me to believe downrigging would be a solid option, not to mention a change of pace for the boys. We rigged up with a modified Pet Spoon tandem rig and a big Rapala. We got hit almost instantly and stayed in fish for about 75 minutes boating another 7 fish including 2 more keeper hybrid, a short hybrid, and 4 white bass, including a double landed by Andrew.

Since the boys enjoy fishing and have access to kayaks at their rental place, I wrapped up our trip showing them a few techniques for smaller sunfish “close to home” so they could fish on their own just a short paddle’s distance away. We quickly boated 2 sunfish and 2 blacktail shiners — enough to get the boys to get the hang of it, and I then left it to them to pursue that from there.

By 10:45 mom and dad were waiting at lakeside for their boys to return, only to begin making plans for another trip this time next year.

Our tally was 39 fish today, with 22 of these being legal hybrid striper. I thought it no coincidence that this very solid catch came on the first day to include a westerly component to the wind in a very long while, despite the full moon.

TALLY = 39 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83.4F

Wind: S6-7 early, then increasing to SSW9 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair and ~20% cloudy.

This morning I fished with father and son Larry and Adam H. Larry came out with me once before on a cold November day in 2010. Low temperatures were not a concern today!!

This hybrid landed by Adam was our largest of the trip. It fell for a hefty 7.5 inch gizzard shad.

Larry works in the oil business out of Houston and Adam is in construction in Dallas. The two linked up and had a pleasant overnight stay at the Hilton Garden Inn near Scott and White Hospital in Temple and then shot down FM2305 this morning where I picked them up at Temple Lake Park.

The fishing was a bit sluggish starting out this morning. Once again we found no topwater action at first light and beyond sunrise.

We gave Areas 1104, 1105, and 1106 a try right off the bat as they have been steady producers in the early mornings of late, but, this morning they only produced 2 blue cats and a missed keeper hybrid that pulled the hook out at boatside.

We searched several more areas, found some fish, and got all but ignored as we presented live shad in these locations.

Around 9:10a, our luck began to change for the better. As we approached Area 475/688 with downriggers down in search mode, we popped 2 white bass back-to-back, then boated a nice hybrid as we got even closer. As we got nearly on top of Area 475, we began to see eruptions on the surface, then a few more, then the entire area began to boil with aggressively feeding fish. This school consisted of large white bass (13-14″) and short hybrid (16-18″) and they were pushing hard after large threadfin shad going 4.5+ inches. We stowed the downriggers quickly and broke out Cork Rigs and Spooks and began consistently putting fish in the boat. We encountered a lot of missed fish at first, but a few refinements to technique eliminated a lot of that.

This action went strong for about 40 minutes, then geared down and went for another 15 minutes before falling off altogether by around 10:40 or so. During this spree we boated a total of 20 more fish on both topwater and on several live bait rods I managed to keep down in between unhooking fish that the fellows caught on topwater.

We experienced a lull until around 11:00 when we made one final move to Area 1106. There is a subtle breakline here and fish were loosely holding along and above it. We got live baits down to the fish at 25′ and got our final two hybrid (both solid keeper fish) here on gizzard shad.

On these summertime live shad trips targeting hybrid, there can be slow times as you wait to see if a bite will develop once you get baits down to fish seen on sonar. Such times allow for good storytelling. Larry and Adam told me how, back during the Gulf War in 1991, they were living in Saudi Arabia while working in the oil business. As American troops moved in, many amenities were lacking. They told of how they enjoyed taking in U.S. soldiers to allow them to eat, do laundry, and make long distance calls back to the States from their home there and of how Adam (then about 6 years old) and his sister liked to get their photos taken with the troops. A lot of people talk about “supporting the troops”, but not so many really do it. Thanks, Larry!

TALLY = 27 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83.8F

Wind: SE5-6 early, then increasing to SE12-13 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were grey and humid the entire trip.

This morning I fished father and daughter team Bob and Bobbie W. of Killeen. These nice folks came out with me two Novembers ago when Bobbie was home from college in Alabama. This year she gave Bob a Father’s Day fishing gift certificate and today was the day to cash it in.

Our highlight of the trip today was Bobbie’s 32 inch, 14.25 pound blue catfish that fell for her live threadfin shad hose-hooked on a #1 circle hook.

Here Bob and Bobbie pose with a pair of fish that came in over the side just seconds apart as a wolfpack of hybrid crashed into our bait spread at our very first stop of the morning.

In summary, we boated fish with slow consistency at Areas 1104, 1105, and 1106. At each stop along the way, the fish were suspended at around 25 to 28 feet over 35 to 50 feet, making depth adjustment something that had to be monitored closely.

Small blue cat were a bit of a nuisance today, as they frequently tail-grabbed our shad thus crippling or killing them without becoming hooked. I’ve got an experimental approach to countering this which I’ll be trying this upcoming week. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes!

By the time the day was done, we had enjoyed 3 distinct spurts of activity. Our final catch consisted of 1 largemouth bass, 1 channel catfish, 2 white bass (taken via downrigging as we searched for hybrid), 8 hybrid striped bass, and 8 blue catfish.

TALLY = 20 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.4F

Wind: SE2-5 early, then light and variable during mid-morning, then increasing to SSE8 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair with 30% clouds.

This morning I fished Craig M., Temple High School’s head baseball coach and a special needs teacher. I nicknamed him the “fish vacuum” during a June 2008 trip on Stillhouse. Today’s showing proved the moniker was appropriate.

Craig with our largest fish of the morning, a 4.125 pound hybrid, and a nearly identical schoolmate that hit just seconds after his buddy did.

On a day that should have been tougher than it was, Craig single-handedly landed 31 hybrid striped bass and threw in 3 blue cat and a chunky channel cat for good measure.

Our weather has been tough lately with nearly dead calm mornings putting a halt to all topwater action for about a week now. Today was forecast to have a SW breeze beginning around sunrise. That breeze never materialized until much later, so, after looking briefly for some easy topwater, we began to grind it out reading sonar for hybrid.

Craig’s intent was to focus just on hybrid. I was upfront letting him know that summertime hybrid fishing can involve long waits between brief spurts of action, but that the action will yield quality fish. He was just fine with that, so, after the hybrid we went.

I chose to go with live shad today even though they are getting tougher and tougher to catch, just as a hedge against the calm weather.

In summary, we boated fish with consistency at Areas 1104, 1105, and 1106. At each area the fish were suspended at around 25 to 28 feet over as much as 52 feet, making depth adjustment absolutely critical.

On a number of occasions we had 2 and 3 (one time all 4!) rods get pulled down at the same time. That’s exciting stuff when a hungry wolfpack of hybrids comes and crashes into your bait spread!!

Given the high water temperatures, we handled all of our fish minimally and returned them to the water quickly. I’ve got all rods outfitted with circle hooks which, 80 to 90% of the time will hook the fish in the corner of the mouth, or through the upper lip to facilitate a quick release. For those hooked more deeply, I keep a pair of diagonal cutting pliers handy and, without tugging or causing any undue trauma, cut the line or hook and leave it in place and release those fish as promptly as possible.

Along the way we got to talk Wildcat baseball, 7-on-7 football, food, hounds, life on a barge, and all about Craig and Susan’s baby boy who is on the way!!

This was a very enjoyable trip with a very capable fisherman.

TALLY = 35 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 12:10p

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.7F

Wind: SE2-5 early, then light and variable.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

This morning I fished with Dale and Edie (that’s a gal’s name, pronounced ee-dee) from around Round Rock, Texas.

Dale and Edie on a “fishing date”!!

Dale and Edie weren’t trophy hunting, nor insistent on a particular species or technique. Rather, they just wanted to catch some fish and enjoy being outdoors and with one another while doing it.

Our weather of late has dealt us a tough hand with very hot, bright, windless days (going on 6 in a row now) squelching any topwater action, and making the fishing much more difficult than we’d normally have with normal wind speeds and directions.

Today’s bottomline: if you weren’t downrigging, you weren’t catching fish on Stillhouse, at least not in any consistent quantities.

We discovered early on that the “band of life” around the thermocline was concentrated at around 25-27 feet today. We enjoyed success at just two of several areas we tried, and nearly all success came on a pair of tandem rigs rigged up with modified twin Pet Spoons.

We experienced two distinct “spikes” of activity — one at Area 197/909 which stretched from 7:05 to 8:40, and another lesser spike that occurred at Area 1103 from 10:45 to 11:30. Outside of this it was awful quiet.

During the first spike we began to catch fish on the downriggers including hooking two sets of doubles (two fish on one rig at the same time) — a pair of largemouth (both of which then got away on the jump) and a pair white bass. The downrigging stayed consistent and we even smoked a few from near bottom using TNT180 slabs. When the smoking action died, we went back to downrigging and rode that horse until it died around 8:40.

Like many people I take out, Dale has his own boat but experiences a lack of consistency when fishing Stillhouse, typically only boating a few fish, if that. So, as we went through the day, I was careful to point out things that would help him be more successful on his own wherever he fished, but especially on Stillhouse.

For our efforts on this tough day we still put 25 fish in the boat including 1 drum, 1 largemouth, and 23 white bass, all of which were of legal size, with several hitting the 13.75″ mark.

TALLY = 25 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 12:10p

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.7F

Wind: SE2-5 early, then light and variable.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

This morning I fished Steve “Baboo” N., his adult son, Andrew, and Andrew’s not-quite-five year old daughter, Evelyn. Andrew and his family are visiting his parents in Temple from the Chicago area.

Andrew landed our big fish today, a 2 7/8 pound largemouth that nailed his TNT 180 slab as we worked in and around a big school of white bass.

Steve shows one of the FIVE pairs of doubles we hooked today. This was the only pair of largemouth — the rest were white bass. The second bass hit well after the first one was already hooked and had already jumped out of the water once.



I was VERY concerned about this trip. We had nearly slack winds called for (for a fourth day straight) and a young child on board. This can be an express ticket to boredom and a bad trip for all concerned, but, we got a reprieve. I had already postponed this trip from last Friday due to poor conditions, but, Andrew was due to fly back tomorrow, so, it was now or never.

Our first 75 minutes passed without a single hit and nothing much on sonar but “relaxed” shad holding down around 25-27 feet, giving a “blanket-like” signature versus the classic “bait ball” signature of threatened fish.

Then it happened … as we moved very intentionally along between Areas 1101 and 1102, keeping our downriggers set at 24 feet, we got our first strike and landed a solo largemouth on one of the two doctored Pet Spoons on one of our two tandem rigs. Another pass, another fish; this time a white bass. Another pass, two fish — this time a double (our first of FIVE doubles today) as Steve and Evelyn worked together to haul in a 1.75 and a 2.06 pound largemouth. And so it went until we’d boated 11 fish and the fun began to wear off as the sun bore down on Miss Evelyn.

To cater to her shorter attention span, we changed things up and went after sunfish in the shallows. We hit two areas (Area 231, then Area 1098) and, using maggots under a slip float, boated a total of 23 sunfish including bluegill and green sunfish. After Evelyn’s interest in that endeavor waned she turned her attention on the livewell full of sunfish we’d just caught and, with the help of some snack and cooling beverages, gave dad and grand-dad the okay to catch some fish on their own.

For whatever reason, Evelyn had in her mind to use her foot as a gauge for the “bigness” of a fish. For example, if a fish were longer than her foot (which was about 6 inches long, shoe and all), than she considered it “big”. Likewise, if a fish were smaller than her foot, she considered it “small”. That just kind of tickled me — a “kiddie-cubit” of sorts, just for fishing applications!!

Anyways, we headed back to the several areas where we’d found bait holding this morning to see if the gamefish had become (or remained) turned on in the light and variable breeze conditions.

We checked Area 039/041 — no dice. We check Area 1101 — nada. We headed to Area 1102 and bingo!! Between 1102 and Area 042, we picked up 5 fish on the downriggers, including 2 pairs of doubles and then we happened over a very large school of white bass hanging tight to a 25-32 foot breakline, and just up off bottom. We got our “smoking rods” out and, armed with TNT180 3/4oz. slabs, began working these fish over. This is very much a “make hay while the sun shines” affair because these very aggressive fish are very prone to moving away in pursuit of shad. We broke and regained contact with these fish 3 different times, and each time Steve and Andrew went to town at times catching the fish faster then I could get them unhooked. I got an occasional line in the water and handed my hooked fish off to Evelyn.

By the time this 35 minute long frenzy was over we’d boated another 33 fish using this technique. The sun was now at least as hot as Hades and Miss Evelyn had gone as long as she could (which was a good hour more than any of us though she would) and we called it a day right there and then.

In all we boated 23 sunfish, 1 drum, and 48 gamefish including 6 largemouth bass and 42 white bass. Not a single white bass went less than 12 inches today.

TALLY = 72 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: 84.3F

Wind: Calm until ~7:45, then light and variable.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

This morning I fished Mr. & Mrs. Raymond S. of Belton, and one of their five children, Logan, age 11. This trip was a gift from Amy to Raymond (for Father’s Day) and to Logan (for his birthday).

Logan (R) and his mom, Amy (L) each lip a nice pair of 13+ white bass that we (really!) worked for today.

Logan holds a pair of largemouth in the foreground while his dad, Raymond, holds a pair of white bass that were landed in tandem on one Pet Spoon rig fished around 29 feet.

If you’ve spent much time reading this blog, you’ll know that Belton and Stillhouse are very tough to fish in dead calm conditions, with Belton being the tougher of the two. For this reason, seeing a windless forecast for this morning, I chose Stillhouse. Additionally, in talking with Amy concerning what she thought would interest Logan the most, we agreed that Stillhouse quantity (white bass and sunfish) over Belton quality (hybrid) would probably be best.

We did find fish today in two distinct areas, but, even when they showed on sonar, and even with bait present, the fish were very reluctant to bite. We had to have the downrigger ball within a foot of the fish to get bit. We had a short “rally” right as the wind finally began to blow around 10:45a, but, it was a case of too little too late to really perk the fish up.

Our first success came shortly after sunrise working double tandem rigs in the vicinity of Area 041/039 with doctored Pet Spoons over white bass at ~27 feet. Our first hookup was a tandem (2 fish on one rig) landed by Logan, and several more fish followed here. Despite a great quantity of bait present, the bait was “blanketed” instead of “balled”, indicating predator fish were not threatening them. We wound up with 7 fish here before things went softer than they already were.

We took a little break from the downrigging for variety’s sake and to allow the breeze of the boatride to cool us off a bit, and wound up doing a bit of sunfishing at Area 1098. With 3 poles going and everyone getting the hang of this technique very quickly, we put 28 sunfish in the boat in under 30 minutes and held some for use as bait in case the opportunity arose later.

Next, it was back to what was working — the downriggers. We hit Area 039/041 again and picked up 4 more white bass and a largemouth over a very small patch of water which we “strained” for all it was worth. After these fish were thinned out, we started looking again.

We checked out a few areas, but, with the winds still calm, it was an uphill battle.

Finally, around 10:45 a light SE breeze kicked in and, at Area 197/042, the fish turned on, albeit briefly. We mangaged 6 more fish here (3 white bass, 1 channel cat, 1 drum, and 1 largemouth) with our balls set around 28-29 feet. After about 40 minutes on location here the bite died.

We wrapped up the trip doing some drifting with live bait but to no avail. The best I’ve been doing on live bait lately has been while using it after topwater action has occurred in an area and then dies. The live bait draws the still active, but suspended, fish out. We never did see any topwater action today, so, we were already pushing our luck as we began.

Logan was a trooper. He did really well, staying enthusiastic and optimistic right to the end of the trip. I let him know as we concluded our trip that this was a slower than average day. With a “glass half full” attitude, he said he was glad that we caught fish that we did managed to find.

TALLY = 46 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 12:30p

Air Temp: 73F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.1F

Wind: Calm until ~10:45, then ESE4-6.

Skies: Skies were hazy and cloudless.

This morning I fished with brother and sister Jaylon W. (10) and Kaylee W. (4) of Ennis, Texas. They were chaperoned by their aunt Stephanie while visiting their Uncle Steven and Aunt Annie in Belton.

Persistence paid off! After many casts fell short or didn’t quite land on target, Jaylon plopped his soft plastic down at the right place and at the right time and plucked this 15.5″ largemouth from out of a school that briefly appeared on topwater.

Here Jaylon and his Aunt Annie pose with Jaylon’s largest white bass taken via downrigging.

We started our day with 4 aboard and ended the day with but 2. No, scurvy nor pirates weren’t the issue, but, rather, a stomach bug that hit Miss Kaylee not long after catching her second fish of the day. I’ve never had someone get seasick in freshwater aboard my boat, but this had all the trappings, if you know what I mean…

So, Aunt Stephanie and Kaylee were returned to the dock, leaving Jaylon and I to battle a lake full of fish without assistance.

First, we looked for topwater action at sunrise, and found little.

Next, we downrigged the Area 039 to Area 041 vicinity thoroughly and did very well, consistently putting quality white bass of 13+ inches in the boat on every pass we made. We used doctored Pet Spoons in a tandem fashion on two ‘riggers, thus putting 4 baits in the water at a given time. On two occasions we landed two fish at a time on the tandem. We left this area with 21 fish boated.

As the downrigging action slowed a bit, we noticed two blue herons making patrol flights out over open water and so we drove over for a closer look and saw what they were interested in … schoolie largemouth pushing shad to the surface. We “matched the hatch” with appropriately sized soft plastics and put 5 keeper largemouth in the boat in about 45 minutes’ time. The potential was there for much more, but, Jaylon is a novice caster and we had to work through that to enable him to catch his own fish, but, after a while and some missed fish and some coaching, he got the hang of it and did just fine.

Once the largemouth sounded, Jaylon was itching to get back and do some more downrigging, so, we returned to the area of our previous success and found the fish had drifted to the west by a few yards, but were still there and hungry. We boated 3 more and then decided, both for variety’s sake and to cool off a bit with the breeze a boat ride would create, to check another location. In the vicinity of Area 823/457 we boated two more fish in our last 15 minutes on the water before Aunt Annie was spotted driving to the pickup point and we knew we had to reel our lines in and scoot.

As we return, we got permission to spend a few more minutes doing one last thing … using a pole (no reel) to catch sunfish. We baited up with maggots and a float over at Area 239 and put 3 fish in the boat very quickly just to whet Jaylon’s appetite for this technique he’d never seen before.

TALLY = 34 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 73F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83.4F

Wind: Winds SE2 at sunrise then barely moving from the SE thereafter.

Skies: Skies were hazy and humid due to multiple light thundershowers yesterday, with 20% cloudiness.