This morning I fished with husband and wife team Ken and Kris K. of Salado, Texas. Ken runs a brick-and-mortar coin shop in Harker Heights and Kris is enjoying retirement from the U.S. Air Force.

Here’s that double-double — four fish caught all at the same time on a pair of downrigged tandem rigs outfitted with doctored Pet Spoons.

To his credit, Ken clearly understood AND stated his goals for this trip — he wanted exposure to multiple techniques effective on Stillhouse and in this summer season so he could better his own chances as he fishes on his own. I say “to his credit”, because often times folks will have goals or expectations but they go unmet because they are never expressed, or are expressed only at or after the conclusion of the trip.

So, as we began our day, even before pushing off from the dock, I showed both Ken and Kris the “Cork Rig” that I use when topwater fish are present, gave them some pointers on casting and working these rigs, and then we set out to try to find some topwater action. None showed today, but just going through the necessary motions of looking and listening gave the couple an idea of what is necessary to be successful when the fish do cooperate.

Next, it was on to the prime summer tactic of downrigging. Nearly 80%+ of my summer success comes on the downriggers or is downrigger related. By “downrigger related” I mean, for example, that by downrigging, I may find a concentration of fish that could be more efficiently caught using a vertical or horizontal presentation due to how densely schooled they are — but, were it not for downrigging in the first place and moving slowly while observing sonar, I would not have found such fish.

The downrigging was definitely “on” today. We boated 23 fish in less than 2 hours including multiple doubles (two fish caught at one time using a tandem rig). At one point the bite got so aggressive that both Ken and Kris hooked up with a double — that’s a double-double!! We caught white bass, largemouth (small schoolies), and several drum all on the ‘riggers, and all just above the thermocline between Areas 039 and 482.

We could have kept right on catching on the downriggers, but, the goal was not to have a high fish count, the goal was to show effective summertime techniques.

So, off we went to hit some shallow-water sunfish habitat. Where weeds, rock and wood come together in shallow water is always a good bet. So it was at Area 1098. We didn’t stay here long — just enough to show how to catch sunfish reliably, which, by the way, serve as an excellent live bait. After boating 15 sunfish we moved on.

Next, we went looking for largemouth with the intention of using live bait on downlines to catch them. We looked over rock, weed, and breaklines, and for all our efforts only drew 3 strikes, none of which resulted in boated fish. Still, going through all of the motions of setting the boat’s position, hooking the baits properly, adjusting the depth of the bait certain ways in certain circumstances, etc., was all made clear. The fish were icing on the cake.

During the time we were hovering over one of the more open-water areas, a fair school of white bass appeared beneath us. Seeing this opportunity, we broke out the spinning rods and worked our baits “smoking style” through the school. As they often are in the hot summer-time water, these white bass were moving too quickly. By the time our baits reached the lower 1/3 of the water column, these white bass had moved far away.

By 11:30 we decided to call it a day with a multitude of techniques, some successful and some not, all laid out for future use.

A note to those of you considering hiring a guide — do as Ken did… be upfront with your guide about what you want to do, then, listen to his/her response. He may know that what you want to do in a given season or for a given species will simply not be productive and can temper your desires with some hard-earned experience and reality. You can then decide if you want to press on, or you can adjust your strategy, or strike some compromise on how to spend your time on the water. It all starts with communicating your expectations!

TALLY = 38 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:35a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 82.7F

Wind: Winds SSW6 at sunrise, then slowly building to S13.

Skies: Skies were fair with 10% cloudiness.

This morning I fished with father and son Joe and Joey L. of Robinson, Texas, in celebration of Joe’s birthday.

Joe took big fish honors today with this 4.00 pound hybrid striped bass taken on live shad.

Joey learned a lot on this trip, including how to cast with spinning gear and how to fight larger fish and work with the net man to successfully get hooked fish in the boat.

Joe’s wife, Melissa, phoned me about 6 weeks ago and set up this birthday trip for Joe. The family was going to be camping at Cedar Ridge Park on Belton, so, I did a dockside pickup at the ramp near the marina there and off we went at 5:55am. As we got to know each other I learned that Joe sells fasteners and hardware for a living and that Joey has his sights set on attending the U.S. Air Force Academy when his upcoming senior year of high school is behind him.

Our first stop was in the vicinity of Area 151 as we stopped to look for some topwater. A very helpful blue heron led us right to the fish and we quickly put 5 fish in the boat before this very brief action died for good, followed by a lull in the action.

We did a lot of looking with sonar and a bit of downrigging once we found something of interest, but, for about 90 minutes worth of effort, we only came up with a short hybrid, two white bass, and a small largemouth, all from out of about 23 feet of water near Area 1019, and all on doctored Pet Spoons.

More looking …

More looking …

Finally! Active fish suspended up off bottom over a break from 35 to 42 feet of water at Area 1099 with abundant bait in the area. This looked good. We carefully e-anchored right over the breakline and baited up with live shad (gizzard and threadfin) on downlines. We were very particular about getting the baits down to the right level — 24 feet was the ticket today. We got lines down, got some chum going, and in came the fish. We stayed on this spot and enjoyed continuous action from about 9:15 to 11:30. Most of our hybrid came during a window of activity from 9:45 to 10:15, with fewer hybrid striper, blue cat, and channel cat coming both before and after that peak.

In all, we boated 36 fish here at least half of which were solid, keeper-sized (18+ inch) hybrid. Our big fish of the trip was the hybrid shown held by Joe above. It came in at exactly 4.00 pounds on a certified scale. I noted that the few large gizzard shad we had in the bait tank all got hit immediately, whereas the threadfins spent a little longer dancing around before they attracted gamefish. Unfortunately, I only had 4 gizzards to my 90+ threadfins, so, this could have just been coincidence — not really enough there to make a statistic out of it.

By 11:35, the winds were lightening, the skies were brightening, and small catfish were moving in on our chum causing a lot of missed strikes, so, we called it a good trip right there and headed back to the campground.

TALLY = 45 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:00a

End Time: 11:35a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83.7F

Wind: Winds SSE8 at sunrise, then slowly building to SSE12.

Skies: Skies were lightly overcast around sunrise, clearing to fair with 30-40% cloudiness.

This morning I fished with Grandpa Lynn H., his son, Clay, and Clay’s two children, August (Auggie, age 6) and Katerina (Kat, age 10). This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip in which only the kids did the fishing.

Kat saved the best for last! Our biggest fish of the trip took Kat’s bait just before we wrapped up today and helped us end on a good note.

The white bass put on a show for us this morning allowing multiple doubles. We boated 20 white bass before the novelty wore off, but could have kept right on catching them.

I first met “Grandpa” Lynn last summer when he brought a buddy out along for the ride and paid for his buddy’s grandkids to fish. This time the summer schedule allowed for his own grandkids to come along, so, we had three generations aboard and plenty of fish to go around for the kiddos.

As I often do with elementary-aged kids, I tried to break this trip down into several “mini-trips” each distinctly different in technique and species sought.

Today, we targeted white bass first. We found abundant, suspended white bass between Areas 209 and 039 for the first time this season. We downrigged this area with doctored Pet Spoons, one set in tandem, and one fished solo. I had the kids take turns and they each boated 10 fish before the novelty wore off and they were ready for something new. Of the 20 fish, 15 were white bass and the balance were school-sized largemouth.

Next, it was off to catch sunfish. With our 13+ foot rise in water level thanks to two significant rains in March and subsequent lighter rains since then, our water level is within 1.5 feet of full pool and the hydrilla is starting to grow again in the shallows. This is where we headed for sunfish, at Area 189 to be exact. It was a pretty simple thing to get the kids on fish and keep them on fish. The only thing that limited our potential was the occasional lost bait or tangled line. In no time the kids had landed 42 fish here including longear sunfish, bluegill sunfish, and a few blacktail shiners thrown in for good measure. We kept a few of these for bait.

Our last challenge was to land some larger fish on the sunfish we had held onto for bait. By the time we got around to doing this the wind, although from a favorable direction, was up to around 12-13 mph, and had our rods rocking pretty good which is never a helpful thing when using bait. Nonetheless, Aug pulled in a channel cat whose eyes were bigger than its belly as we drifted through Area 204, and, to close us out, Kat put a nice largemouth bass over the side on a sunfish at Area 458 before we headed back in and called it a day.

TALLY = 64 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 81.2F

Wind: Winds SSW8 at sunrise, then slowly building to SSW12.

Skies: Skies were fair with 30% cloudiness.

This morning I fished with Mark C., his teenaged son, Colby, and Mark’s brother-in-law, Tim. These fellows live out west of here between Hamilton and Hico, Texas.

(L to R) Tim, Colby, and Mark boated these 3 fish simultaneously as we fished over a 32 foot bottom with live shad today.

After finding white fuzzy mold growing on his newly purchased beef jerky, young Colby went in search of alternative menu items. This was by far the most creative use I’ve seen for those leftover shad at the end of a trip … Shad in a Blanket!!

This was a great trip with a bunch of fellows who obviously enjoyed one another’s company. The whole family decided to make the Live Oak Ridge park on Belton their destination for an RV-reunion of sorts. No reunion on the lake would be complete without a fishing trip, so, that’s where I came in.

As we got going this morning we were blessed to encounter the most aggressive topwater action I’ve seen so far this season. Between 6:20am and 7:22am these three fellows boated exactly 69 fish on topwater. I had all three rigged up with a Cork Rig and the fish just came over the side non-stop. Most fish were average white bass around 11″, or short hybrid around 13″. This topwater action involved multiple moderately sized school feeding simultaneously over a span of water stretching from Area 811 to Area 959. These fish were feeding on both newly hatched shad and smallish adult shad. We were fortunate to have some thick cloud cover to keep the bright sun off the water, but, once that sun shone through, those fish left the surface not to return again. By 7:25 the surface was calm and there was no evidence of the frenzy that had just taken place.

We then turned to downrigger fishing to try to locate some suspended, active fish. We found little after searching several areas and moved on after catching just one hybrid and one small white bass in about 45 minutes of effort.

After doing a little more hunting, sonar revealed some solid action in the lower fourth of the water column in 32 feet of water in the vicinity of Area 1097. We got 4 rods down baited up with live shad and went to work.

Over the next two hours the action was moderate and consistent. We managed to boat 21 more fish including a mix of keeper hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, freshwater drum, channel catfish and blue catfish. We fished primarily from an e-anchored position with a little drifting thrown in at the last 30 minutes of the trip just to cover some territory as the bite began to flatten for good.

Along the way we got to share tales of Algeria, dysentery, nurse cows, Hick-O, high-end cheese, the Lord’s favor, FFA, and much, much more. Thanks fellows. It was good to get to know you!

TALLY = 92 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 81.2F

Wind: Winds SSW8 at sunrise, then slacking off to SSW5-6 for remainder of trip.

Skies: Skies were overcast and bright grey.

This morning I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Christian and Lexi, the children of Sergeant Major Tray S. who is currently home on R&R from Afghanistan.

Christian hold two of our four largest white bass boated this morning.

Yes, Lexi is grinning, but I was never sure if it was because she was fishing, or because she got to be with her daddy.

As we headed out this morning our first order of business was to look for topwater action. We idled slowly in the vicinity of some likely locations and even did a few listening stops, but to no avail, so, on we went in search of suspended white bass.

We first caught up with the white bass at the very first location we searched, generally from Area 1085, through Area 453, and on to Area 822. As we worked over a large area to zero in on the best action, we quickly discovered the fish had a definite preference for the larger #12 Pet Spoon (doctored) versus the smaller one we had on one rod. Once we changed both downrigging rods over to the larger lure we had consistent action on both rods for about 90 minutes. During this time we put 13 white bass and 2 largemouth in the boat, and missed 2 others that were hooked, played, but escaped near boatside.

After the white bass action died down (as the skies brightened around 9:15am), we headed to Area 1098 and focused on sunfish, both for the fun of catching sunfish, and to retain some of these as bait for largemouth for the final hour of the trip. We boated exactly 25 sunfish here over a mix of wood and rock with a bit of aquatic vegetation mixed in.

Our last hour or so was spent looking for largemouth. We tried weedbeds, standing timber, and rocky areas and didn’t get a single strike. Conditions were getting tough with an increasing wind velocity at this time, but, I still thought the conditions were suitable to bag a few fish. Obviously, the fish disagreed.

So, we called it a good day around 11:30 and headed on in … but, the day was just beginning for this bunch! Next, a planned stop at Subway for at least one meatball marinara sub was in order, as was a nap, followed by a visit to the movies to check out “Avengers”.

Thank you, Tray, for investing some of your valuable leave time on the water with me. From the kids’ reaction to our fishing success, you hit a home run!

TALLY = 40 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:35a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 82.1F

Wind: Winds SSW10 at sunrise, then picked up to around SSW13 by 10:30am

Skies: Skies were overcast and bright grey.

This morning I fished with father and son Ray and Carlos W. of Harker Heights, TX.

This was one of 5 pairs of hybrid Ray and Carlos brought on board. It seemed every time one of our rods went down, another would accompany it, allowing for lots of “doubles” today.

We met at the recent Harker Heights Memorial Day Parade where I had a small booth set up as a part of the Farmers’ Market to advertise the free trips I offer to deployed soldiers’ kids.

When Ray and I first spoke and coordinated this trip, his goal was to improve his own fishing efforts by seeing how I went about locating and fishing for fish on Belton. Ray, who is an active duty NCO, keeps his boat at the BLORA marina, but has had a string of poor luck on trips of his own.

Starting off today, we had very calm, bright conditions (never good on Belton). We encountered a bit of topwater action at between Areas 014 and 010. The fish moved from east to west as the skies brightened. We boated 18 fish from this fairly aggressive topwater action before boat pressure and the intense sun put the fish down. The fish we caught responded well to Cork Rigs.

Next, we searched far and wide for signs of suspended fish now that the thermocline is definitely setting up around 31 feet. We managed 1 hybrid from above the thermocline in open water, but saw little bait in this particular area, and so moved on.

We found solid gamefish and baitfish marks on sonar in the vicinity of Area 844, down around 24 feet. We began working these fish over with downriggers. We found small Pet Spoons did the best job of imitating the very small, young of the year shad that the fish we caught were regurgitating. I initially had one Pet Spoon and 1 umbrella rig on, but we went with tandem Pets and did well once we made the adjustment. We boated a total of 9 fish here before the loose school dissipated. When this happened, and given the surface was still calm and the sun was still bright, we switched over to live bait and slowed down to match the mood of the fish.

We picked up 3 hybrid right on Area 844 before that, too, slowed down.

We ended our trip with a bang, finding a very active school of hybrid near a breakline at Area 1097 in 28 feet of water, and at a time when the wind began to blow. These fish were in feeding posture — grouped together, and about 18″ off bottom. We got in a hover over top of the fish, and before we could get the 2nd of our 4 bait rods down, the first rod went down very powerfully. Long story short, over the next hour, we boated a total of 18 fish here including 15 hybrid, 2 largemouth, and 1 drum.

We had more bait on board and I was ready to keep fishing, but, a previous engagement meant the fellows had to be back on the dock at noon, so, we called it a day at high noon with 48 fish to show for our efforts. Ray was very appreciative of the time we spent going over how the sonar and downrigger system works together, and how all the “details” of the lure selection, downrigger release clip setup, setback distance, etc., etc. all work together to allow for consistent success.

TALLY = 48 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 82.1F

Wind: Winds were calm at sunrise, then picked up from the ENE at 7-8 around 10:30am

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless as our low pressure moved to the east.

This morning I fished our monthly trip with John M. and his son, Matthew. These trips have served as an incentive for Matthew to keep his grades and attitude up, and have provided an opportunity for others to join in on the fishing fun, too. Today’s lucky guest was Matthew’s cousin, Bennie, from Rogers, TX.

This hybrid would be our largest fish of the trip, weighing in at 4.25 pounds. The white bass, though dwarfed by the hybrid, was a solid 14″ fish.

This 3 pound blue cat nailed one of our live shad later in our trip. It took the boys approximately 62 attempts to net this fish. Talk about teamwork!?!

Matthew enjoyed catching different species today. This smallmouth also came on a live shad fished over a rocky bottom.

I knew from the forecast that we were in for a tough go of it today — not impossible, but tough. We had a high pressure system (with some great fishing) break down and be replaced by low pressure and characteristic damp winds from the north.

Fish, when they feed under low pressure conditions, always seem to feed in short spurts, and those spurts never seem to be very enthusiastic.

So it was today … we experienced two distinct periods of activity. First, at Area 788, we tried downrigging so we could have baits in the water as I looked the area over with sonar. There was a ton of bait in the area, and gamefish, too, but nothing was interested in moving fast enough to hit a downrigged lure. I came prepared with live bait as a safeguard after seeing the forecast prior to our trip. We got live bait down and working and began to pull fish. We boated white bass, a few hybrid, a few catfish, and a few largemouth, all on shad and all just off bottom in about 25′. As we sat over top of these fish, we saw several short eruptions of schooling activity by white bass forcing shad to the surface. Some were within casting distance, so we picked off a few white bass as we maintained our position while fishing the bait. Rarely did the fish stay up long enough to allow for more than 1 or 2 to be caught. We boated a total of 18 fish here.

Now, this is where the “statistician” part comes in. Matthew is a baseball stats nut. He has taken to running numbers in his head about other things he enjoys, too, including fishing. So, after our first hour had gone by, we’d boated 7 fish. He was planning on a 4 hour trip, and so confidently reported to all of us that we were on track for a “definite double-digit 28 fish day”. I had to chuckle at that one. Despite their pea-sized brain, fish are often not such linear thinkers…

After this area played out, we struggled a bit doing more sonar searching than fishing until, finally, we located a suspended, loosely congregated bunch of fish hanging at mid-depth along with baitfish at around 27-29 feet at Area 365/192. We first downrigged for these fish with doctored Pet Spoons and got our first fish of the day using this tactic. This told me we were dealing with more active fish than we’d encountered up to this point. We worked these fish over with pass after pass of the downrigger, picking up a fish each time. We found suspended largemouth, hybrid, and white bass here. After the downriggers failed to produce, but while fish still showed on sonar, we immediately slowed down and switched over to live bait to try to tempt the fish as they got increasingly disinterested. By 1:00pm, we’d managed to work our way slowly but surely up to a tally of 40 fish thanks to the live bait action.

I really enjoyed fishing with these young men. They were both respectful, considerate of one another, and appreciative of the opportunity that John was providing for them. John and Matthew have now fished with me in all seasons and have seen most all of the techniques I commonly employ. We’ve had great days and not so great days. This one was somewhere in the middle! Thanks, fellows!



TALLY = 40 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 1:00p

Air Temp: 71F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 81F

Wind: Winds were NNW5-8

Skies: Skies were heavily overcast following a night of rainfall due to a low pressure system sitting over Central Texas.

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…

(L to R) Ivan, Jason, and Robbie (and their moms!) braved the sprinkles and cashed in on a mixed bag catch this evening!!

07 June 2012

Dear Friends of S.K.I.F.F.,

This evening I welcomed aboard Jason (10 yrs.) and Ivan (6 yrs.) Venne, accompanied by their mom, Olga; and Robbie (6 yrs.) Rodriguez, accompanied by his mom, Teri. These ladies’ husbands, Major Jason Venne and Lieutenant Colonel Rob Rodriquez, are deployed together in Kuwait with 2-8 Cavalry. They were (literally) the last Americans out of Iraq and still have not made it back to the U.S. as they wrap up all the loose ends.

Mrs. Venne with her son, Jason Jr.

Mrs. Rodriguez with her son, Robbie.

I met Mrs. Venne at the Harker Heights Farmers Market over the Memorial Day Weekend when, instead of battling hordes of recreational boaters, I set up a booth to advertise SKIFF during the Memorial Day Parade.

Our weather was quirky today. An early June low pressure system brought 3/4″ of rainfall overnight along with a NNW breeze, heavy cloud cover, and light rain during our trip. The boys were so excited about this trip, however, that a monsoon would not have deterred them.

All 3 boys had little or no prior fishing experience, so, we started off simply, and increased the level of complexity (and patience) required as we worked our way through the trip.

We began by targeting sunfish in shallow water. At Area 200 we found abundant, willing sunfish in less than 4 feet of water and used poles (without reels) to fish for these fish. We boated exactly 35 fish here before the novelty began to wear off.

Next, we “took it to the next level” and downrigged for larger fish. We used Pet Spoons set down around 22-24 feet at Area 820, just above the thermocline, to boat 15 more fish, including a mix of white bass, largemouth bass, and an unusual number of drum which, based on the fact that we saw eggs oozing out of the females, must have been congregated heavily in this area for spawning.

Our final attempt at “really big fish” came as we used live bait to tempt largemouth bass. We began working over top of some open water hydrilla at Area 057 and landed one largemouth almost immediately, but then things quickly quieted down (beneath the boat, that is, as with 3 young boys it was never quiet on the boat). We shifted to rock at Area 042/433 instead of weeds and, in the last 15 minutes of the trip caught 4 additional fish per boy as a very nice way to end our day with a total of 55 fish boated for our efforts.

The majority of our Fort Hood men and women in uniform have, thankfully, been in a bit of a down cycle as far as deployments are concerned so far in 2012, but, it looks like the Fall will see the deployment of a significant force from here.

Thanks to all of you, we’ll be ready to lend some aid to their kids and spouses when duty calls. Thank you for your ongoing support!!

Sincerely,

–Bob Maindelle

_________________________________

TALLY = 55 FISH all caught and released

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Start Time: 4:45p

End Time: 9:05p

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 81F.

Wind: Winds were NNW7 entire trip.

Skies: Skies were 100% cloudy due to a low pressure system which moved directly over us bringing 0.75″ rain overnight.

This morning I met husband and wife Kirby and Eryn Logan on Belton Lake for some “shoulder to shoulder” time away from the kiddos.

Kirby and Eryn landed these hybrid out of the same school at the same time. One fell to an umbrella rig targeting hybrid and the other to a Pet Spoon intended for white bass and hybrid.

Kirby and Eryn are married with two boys, 6 and 2. Eryn works for Dell Computers and Kirby is a full-time farmer working the land to raise maize and cotton on their farm near the Little River. Kirby had done a good bit of fishing and Eryn very little. Eryn and I worked on some quick casting lessons at dockside so we could take advantage of any topwater action that cropped up, and crop up it did.

We had nice weather conditions today — manageable S. winds, some cloud cover, and a high pressure beginning to break down.

We began our day chasing topwater white bass with some juvenile hybrid mixed in. The action was spotty and moderate, but enough to keep us busy and in the fish for a little more than an hour. We used a Cork Rig and boated 24 fish (21 keeper white bass and 3 short hybrid) during this feed in the vicinity of Area 210/483.

After the topwater died, we continued fishing in the same area and boated 3 more white bass on downriggers before some more distant “popcorn” surface action led us elsewhere. By “popcorn”, I mean action that erupts and then immediately sounds (just enough to get your blood pumping, and then disappoint you!). In the vicinity of Area 506/846, we found mostly 17-19 inch hybrid stripers hanging just above the thermocline beginning to set up around 31 feet. We fished our downrigged baits (umbrella rigs and Pet Spoons) at 25-27 feet and caught at least one fish on each circuitous pass we made over the course of just shy of 2 hours, boating 11 more fish (9 hybrid and 2 white bass).

By around 10:15 the action was dying pretty quickly. I looked around for natural “sign” (birds, bait, fish hitting the surface, deer feeding, etc.), but that was scarce. We wound up fishing another 45 minutes or so eventually boating 3 more fish in the vicinity of Area 154. These all came on Pet Spoons after I dropped the umbrella rig out of our setup due to the lack of sonar signatures indicating hybrid in this area.

One of Kirby’s desires on this trip was to learn about downrigging, so, we really focused on that technique so that if he chose to equip his own boat with these very effective devices, he’s have all the basics down and more based on what he learned on the water today.

Thanks for all the tips on good Austin eateries, Eryn!!

TALLY = 41 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:25a

End Time: 11:05a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 77F

Wind: Winds were S8 tapering to SSE4

Skies: Skies were grey and bright with a thin layer of overcast.

This morning I met long-time client Mr. Thom G. and his two boys, Garrett and Carson, and family friends, Mr. Brad M. and his son, Miles, for a kids’ fishing trip on Stillhouse in celebration of Garrett’s birthday.

This shot was taken at our last stop over open water where some light topwater led us to much more action going on beneath the surface. We boated a nice mix of 13 white bass and largemouth here. (L to R – Miles, Garrett, and Carson).

We had ideal weather conditions today — dry, stable weather with manageable winds from just W. of S.

We began our day up shallow at Area 200 where a nice mix of rock, weed, and wood come together to form great habitat for sunfish. We fished with poles and slipfloats using maggots and did very well. The boys landed exactly 50 fish between the 3 of them before the sunfish wised up to our tricks. We caught quite a variety of sunfish here including bluegill, longear, green (officially); then, unofficially, we also boated dumbfish (those that hit a hook with no bait), headachefish (those that glanced the side of the boat as they were lifted out of the water), wahoo (those with coloration resembling that saltwater species), and more. That was fun!

Next, it was off to the white bass grounds to add some variety to our trip in terms of technique, size of fish, and species of fish. We headed to Area 1085/822 and downrigged at 25-27 feet over scattered white bass in this area. We picked up 9 fish (3 per boy) on the ‘riggers using doctored Pet Spoons. We put 7 white bass and 2 largemouth in the boat here. Thom put a $1 bounty on the head of the first fish caught and on the largest fish caught. As we began downrigging, a 13 5/8 inch white bass took large fish credit, but was quickly bumped by a 15.5 inch largemouth.

Act III began as we left the tapering white bass action behind and headed out to open water to fish for largemouth with live bait. We looked over a hump, a saddle, and a hydrilla-covered breakline before we hit paydirt. As we sat on the breakline, I saw a school of topwater-feeding fish disturb the surface about 80 yards away. We brought our lines in and headed over to the ruckus and hovered over the action for about an hour at Area 1096.

Now, here’s where things got interesting. I’ve got 3 young elementary-aged kids on board. The fishing has been good up until now, but we’ve just struck out at 3 consecutive spots, so the whole impatience and short attention span thing is kicking in. Kids have a way of compensating — such as by reliving old memories by re-catching the fish already in the livewell, such as by assigning pet names to the fish in the livewell, such as by creatively snacking with sun-melted chocolate covered donuts, and the list goes on. It was at this time that the fish decided to cooperate again. It was all we could do to keep 3 rods baited and another couple of slabbing rods working the active fish to pick up a few bonuses. Despite what appeared to be a floating carnival taking place above the water complete with music (the constant slamming of the livewell lid), fish actually continued to feed below the surface and, in the end, we put an additional 13 fish in the boat (and probably missed at least that many more as can happen when you mix kids and live bait on circle hooks).

As the fish began to settle down and the tempo on the boat began to ease back, I looked at Thom and informed him I would definitely need a nap this afternoon!

We really had a good time; the boys did great; they were rewarded for their efforts and, I do believe each went home with at least one pet sunfish in a cut-off Gatorade bottle.

Thom informed me that Garrett, when asked what he wanted for his birthday, told him he wanted to come out fishing with me every year on his birthday until he turned 19, at which time he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese instead!

I’m looking forward to next year’s carnival!! We may even get little sister Peyton in the mix by then.

TALLY = 72 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:35a

End Time: 11:30p

Air Temp: 73F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 77F

Wind: Winds were SSW8-10.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.