This morning I welcomed back Shane M., his 14 year old daughter, Grace, as well as Shayne O., and his 18 year old son Jayce. All are a part of Rockpointe Church in Leander where Shayne serves as senior pastor.

Jayce (who stands 6’7″ and weighs 260) hold his trophy 36.5″ yellow catfish estimated at 32-37 pounds

The whole Rockpointe Church crew scored big today with a nice mix of quality and quantity.





Well, we truly saved the best for last today. After 6+ hours on the water I was tidying up the boat a bit while a short but strong midday white bass bite was winding down. We had just managed to boat 61 white bass in under 45 minutes at what would be our last stop of the day. The bites were now coming few and far between and at least 2 people’s minds were on Johnny’s BBQ. Then it happened. Jayce felt a bite, set the hook, and instead of raising the fish upward a few feet on the hookset as had been the case for our 152 white bass boated today, this fish jerked his rod down to the water — hard. An 8 1/2+ minute battle (that’s long for freshwater) ensured during which Jayce’s hand muscles cramped and we all peered over the side of the boat just waiting for a glimpse of whatever had inhaled Jayce’s slab. We brought to net a 36.5″ yellow catfish, which, according to catch and release formulas, would typically weight in at 32-37 pounds. We handled the fish minimally, took some good photos and released the fish in excellent condition, high-fiving as it swam away with powerful tail strokes. Very exciting!! This all transpired right on top of Area 036.

Now, let’s back up. As we got on the water, we did a flatline trolling pass at Area 116, picking up 1 nice white bass, but, before we could finish a full circuit, some helpful birds began to work and so we got quickly to them and worked beneath them. We found active white bass pursuing shad to the surface in ~20 feet of water at Area 324/106. We used blade baits worked near bottom to boat 18 fish before this action died, along with the day’s strongest bird activity — pretty short and sweet.

From about 8:30 to 10:45, we enjoyed consistent albeit moderately-paced action in ~24-27 feet of water at both the vicinity of Area 1167 as well as all over Area 556. Most of these were on the small side, and every last one came on a 3/4 oz. slab. Mixed in with our catch of 58 white bass taken off these two areas, were 4 freshwater drum and 1 crappie.

Things got very tough between 10:45 and 12:00 as the wind nearly died and the skies continued to brighten under the climbing sun. By 12:30, we’d boated 81 fish and felt that with everyone now well-acquainted with vertical jigging, we could break the 100 fish mark if we found just one concentration of even fairly lethargic fish. We made 3-4 stops, adding only 4 more small white bass to our tally. Finally, I moved to Area 036 and we found what we were looking for. There were tightly bunched white bass here on a breakline, and a few were even up off bottom in a feeding posture. We got right down to business and, in our last 45 minutes, put exactly 61 fish in the boat, blowing our 100 fish goal out of the water, adding some nice 13+ inch white bass to our catch, and allowing us to end the day on a great note, then made even greater by Jayce’s goliath catfish described earlier.

TALLY = 153 fish, all caught and released

back to home page

Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 1:45p

Air Temp: 43F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~62-63F

Wind: Winds were NNW at 13, tapering down to NNW6 by 10:30a.

Cloud Cover:We were under light grey skies at sunrise, with skies quickly clearing to bright and cloudless by 9:30.

This morning I welcomed Ted D. and Andy M. aboard. These two men are partners in ministry from Hill Country Bible Church in Austin and decided to fish for fish today as a little respite from fishing for men.

Good wind, good cloud cover, and rising water temperatures equated to non-stop fishing today for white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.





Ted serves as a pastor on staff at Hill Country Bible Church, leading their small groups effort, and Andy is a layman who leads a small group along with his wife, Amy. Since Ted serves in the same capacity at his church as I do in mine, we really hit it off and had a lot to talk about in between fish.

We experienced a second consecutive day of heavy overcast and strong southerly winds, having a net warming effect on the water temperatures.

As we began the hunt for fish, we immediately came upon a helpful flock of about 14 Bonaparte Gulls that helped point the way to fish for us for a full 2.5 hours.

At first they worked up shallow in the vicinity of Area 089/054/1054 during which time we threw bladebaits horizontally.

Next, the birds transitioned to near the river channel in the vicinity of Area 419 during which time we began to vertically jig with TNT180 slabs. These fish were tight to the bottom here and for many yards to the N. and S. of this area.

Finally, the birds moved off and worked near a broad, mid-depth flat in about 27 feet of water near Area 566, with action extended well S. of here, all the way to Area 1195. We made a number of “short hops” in this area to keep up with the birds and fish, and stayed in the fish right up until just after 11am.

Since we were catching many small fish, I left this area altogether and spent about 30 minutes quickly searching elsewhere for some better sized fish, but found little and so returned to spend the remainder of our time fishing for the fish we’d located earlier.

Just to experiment, we also ran some crankbaits in the vicinity of Area 116 and found some larger white bass scattered throughout this area.

By far the most aggressive action came at sunrise and for about 30 minutes thereafter during which time we saw some light topwater feeding in shallow water.

Fish ran on the smallish side today. Given the way these fish looked and acted, I’d dare say these were some of the first, early-season male spawners that have now returned to the main lake, and they’ve returned very hungry. Add to that good wind, good cloud cover, and rising water temperatures, and the mix was just right for a very fishy day today. A cold front due in tomorrow will stifle this to some degree, but, spring fishing usually bounces back very quickly. We’ll see!!

TALLY = 84 fish, all caught and released

back to home page

Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~64.4F

Wind: Winds were S to SSE at 14, gusting regularly to 20mph.

Cloud Cover: 100% grey skies with the orb of the sun visible through the clouds at most times.

This morning I welcomed Nick E., the birthday boy, aboard, along with 3 friends — brothers Andrew and Christian W. of Killeen, and Sam(antha) of Kempner, all in celebration of Nick’s 18th birthday.

Everyone caught plenty of fish this morning on all 4 methods we employed — trolling, casting, jigging, and downrigging. From L to R: Andrew, Sam, Nick, and Christian.

Andrew was the anchorman today. He boated this nice 3.00 pound largemouth from out of 18′ of water casting a bladebait on a shallow flat.

First, kudos to Nick’s parents, Joey and Laura. Of all the things a kid could want to do, and of all the places a kid could want to be on their 18th birthday, to be spending it in pursuit of fish on a boat amongst friends speaks well of how that kid was raised. That is a blessing from the Lord!

Nick has been long-time friends with Andrew and Christian through their church, Memorial Baptist, in Killeen, and Nick knows Sam through a robotics club both of them participate in over in the Copperas Cove/Kempner area.

Everyone arrived on time, bright-eyed, and eager to both learn and to catch fish. We covered a few safety basics followed by a few fishing basics and then headed out to hunt for fish.

We began our day in the vicinity of Area 116 flatline trolling. On the first half of our first pass everyone landed their first fish, 3 of which went 13+ inches. We were literally only 12 minutes into the trip and everyone was already even more excited than when they’d arrived and were anticipating more to follow.

From our vantage point near Area 116, we could see for quite some distance. I spotted 3 herons, an osprey, 6 cormorants, 4 terns and a gull all working over the same small patch of water — something was going on!! We brought our trolling lines in, headed for the action, and cashed in on the very first few minutes of what would be a lengthy, moderate feed which would go for over 2 hours between Areas 556 and 1194. The depth here was 16-19 feet, and so I taught each teen how to cast a spinning rod and we threw bladebaits and worked them along the bottom for the entire time here and caught fish steadily throughout this time. We boated exactly 58 white bass and 1 largemouth bass in this area during this feed.

Around 9:45a the skies began to clear and the wind began to ramp up. The brightening skies brought an end to the shallow bite and it was once again necessary to go hunting for fish.

We were fortunate to find fish at the very first mid-depth spot we searched — Area 334. At this location, just a few yards back off the channel lip, I found tightly bunched white bass holding tight to the bottom. We hovered over top of these fish and began to vertical jig for them. This was a new technique, and it was difficult to learn from a moving boat being buffeted by the wind as badly as we were, but, the kids got the hang of things pretty quickly and we wound up boating 13 fish here including 12 white bass and 1 drum before the wind continued to increase and made line control nearly impossible for my boatload of beginners. We then changed over to downrigging to access these same fish, but to do it on the move. We boated another 6 fish here via downrigging, including 4 white bass and a double catch of short largemouth bass for Sam (two fish caught simultaneously on one rod). By the time 11:10 rolled around, the sky had nearly entirely cleared and the winds were reaching a peak near 20 mph. The fishing shut down pretty quickly thereafter and we called it a great morning and headed on in.

TALLY = 82 fish, all caught and released

back to home page

Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 53F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~62.2F

Wind: Winds were SSE at 7 at trip’s start, quickly ramping up to SSE18 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were 80% cloudy with diffuse light coming through.

This afternoon I met up with Curtis W. and his neighbor and friend from church, Devin H., both from the Austin area for some white bass fishing on Stillhouse.

Curtis and Devin, both originally from Utah, have adapted well to Texas species and methods. They boated 109 fish this afternoon.

Curtis has been fishing with me for 3 years now, ever since his wife first bought him a fishing gift certificate for Christmas; his usual fishing partner (his son, Josh) was sick this week and couldn’t make it. Devin is a salesman in the water-softener business, has 2 young children, and was invited along in Josh’s place.

After the clouds broke yesterday around 5:30pm, ending a cold, wet spell of about 3 days’ duration, I got out on the water to try to pin down the locations of both fish and bait. Spring cold fronts tend to move the fish around, although, due to the generally upward trend in the water temperatures, they don’t tend to turn the fish off very long. I was able to find fish consistently and so felt very confident going into this evening’s trip that we’d do well, especially given the favorable wind and weather conditions.

The bite began slowly (which is very typical for afternoon trips) and peaked just before sunset. We found significant populations of fish at 5 distinct areas this evening.

First, we found smallish, schooled fish at 25-28 feet right on the breakline at Area 103/995 and jigged for these fish right on bottom with 3/4 oz. TNT180’s in white. We left here with a tally of 16 fish.

Next, we moved a few yards to the west and further up onto the 20-22′ flat near Area 702 and saw fish strung all along the bottom for several yards. This dictated the use of bladebaits, so we threw bladebaits for a while and caught plenty of fish, but, they too were smallish. We took our tally up to 38 while at this location. I’m not one to leave fish to find fish, but, we’d hoped to find some better quality fish, so, this figured into the equation and we decided to move on as the fishing was tapering off.

Our next stop came in about 33′ of water at Area 1192. This was our most productive spot of the evening. We vertical jigged here and quickly boated a total 61 fish, including a number of fish surpassing the 12+ inch mark. When our first batch of fish here moved off, I did a short-hop up slope and we again contacted fish up in 27-28 feet of water.

As the sun was setting this bite died and we headed to shallower, more well-illuminated water. We hit Area 807/810, put 4 fish in the boat really quickly, but decided to keep moving shallower as it was clear there was not a bunch of aggressive fish here as indicated by the lack of “follows” by schoolmates showing on sonar behind our hooked fish.

Our last stop came at Area 1193. We found a small school of fish just about wrapping up their last-light feed in ~18 feet of water here. We slowly “eased” our baits here and picked up a final 6 fish, bringing our grand total to 109 fish, including 108 white bass and 1 small largemouth bass.

Both Curtis and Devin grew up in Utah, so, for Devin who’d never been out with me before, all of the techniques and baits we’d used tonight were new. He enjoyed the exposure to the different “Texas” methods we used and left looking forward to returning with one of his own kids before too long.

TALLY = 109 fish, all caught and released

back to home page

Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 4:15p

End Time: 8:15p

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~62.2F

Wind: Winds were SSE at 7-9.

Skies: Skies were fair with a very high, thin white covering of clouds over top.

This morning I fished with Nolan E., a Montanan now living in Copperas Cove, and serving in the U.S. Army Transportation Corps as a logistician.

We had to work for every fish we caught today, but, by the time we came off the water we’d secured Nolan a legal limit of hybrid striped bass (5 fish, each 18+ inches), all caught and released. Nolan saved the best for last, catching this 3 3/8 pound hybrid just minutes before we wrapped up.

First off, Nolan is a genuinely nice fellow. He comes from a family of ranchers in central Montana and is a soft-spoken, very likeable young man. In fact, that is the very reason he and I fished together today. A few weeks back, Nolan found a used fishing boat on Craig’s List, and went to the Austin area to buy the boat from an older gentleman by the name of Mr. Jessie J. Jessie was so impressed with Nolan, his service to our country (multiple tours to Iraq), and his demeanor, that, unbeknownst to Nolan, he called me up after selling the boat and paid for a fishing trip for Nolan so he’d have some idea of how and where to use his new purchase. Who does that these days?!?

Nolan, a staff sergeant, met his wife (also in the U.S. Army) while in Iraq. Her family is originally from the Dominican Republic and now lives in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, which is just a few miles away from where I attended 5th – 10th grade, so, we had some things in common which made for fun conversation despite the slow bite today.

So, anyway, today was the day of that trip courtesy of Mr. Jessie J. I guess the National Weather Service wanted to pull and April Fools’ joke on all of us fishermen, and forecast an 8-9 mph NE wind with 30% cloud cover beginning before sunrise. What we got was a bright sky, and calm winds with no clouds until around 10am, and what breeze did finally blow blew light and variably from 2-4 mph from the N to the E. If you follow this blog, you’ll see time and time again for Belton and Stillhouse that calm, bright conditions are to be avoided as they always add up to tough fishing. Today was no exception.

So, we got dealt a bad hand on the weather, but we were persistent and methodically searched out small, lethargic groups of fish holding very tightly to the bottom using sonar while idling very slowly over large expanses of water, and we found fish. We put a lot of bait and a lot of chum in the water to stimulate the fish we found, and, in the end, put together a respectable catch of hybrid striped bass.

I’d given Nolan the option of fishing Stillhouse strictly for white bass with artificials, or using live shad on Belton for hybrid and he chose the quality over the quantity, so, our sights were set today on the hybrid.

We enjoyed limited success at several areas including: Area 473 (bait and slabs — white bass only), Area 815 (bait and slabs — white bass only), Area 187/954 (bait and slabs — white bass and hybrid on both), and Area 677 (bait only – whites bass, hybrid, and crappie).

Again, bait size seemed to make no difference, although the smaller baits seems to result in a greater strike:land ratio.

TALLY = 23 fish, all caught and released

back to home page

Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:20a

End Time: 1:15p

Air Temp: 53F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~65-66F

Wind: Winds were light and variable 2-4 from N through E.

Skies: Skies were bright and clear until around 10a, with 30% cloud cover developing thereafter.

This morning I fished with newlyweds, Marcus and Samantha, recently moved to Ft. Hood from Indiana.

We enjoyed a strong, albeit fairly brief, bite on slabs fished “smoking”-style this morning in ~22 feet of water.

This couple is from the same hometown in Indiana and neither had fished much since childhood. They were married back in September and moved to Fort Hood that same month. Fort Hood is now Marcus’ first duty station where he serves as a tanker with the First Cavalry Division, and Samantha works in Killeen as a waitress. Samantha’s dad, Frank, called me a few weeks ago and arranged this trip for the two of them. Fishing is something Frank loves and so he wanted to do something nice for his daughter and son-in-law in this arena.

After a nice run of “fishy” days with light overcast and good winds, things went downhill today as the clouds were so thick as to make it murky, and the weather was more turbulent with windspeeds varying constantly.

As I met them at the boat ramp, we started with the basics of casting spinning gear and how to vertically jig with a slab, then, it was off to hunt for fish.

We struggled a bit to find fish early, but managed to get on top of a nice bunch of white bass right at Area 103. This moderately active school would provide the majority of our catch today. We stayed on these fish for about 70 minutes as they responded to a slow smoking retrieve for quite some time, then settled down and continued to respond to a vertical jigging retrieve. Samantha (who danced and played a number of sports in high school) really got the hang of the “smoking” technique and caught the majority of our fish while that tactic was attractive to them. Then, when the bite got more tedious and we had to use a vertical jigging approach, it was Marcus’ time to shine. We boated a total of 27 fish at this one area.

After this bite settled down, we moved on and continued searching for fish, with our only success coming at Area 074/1017. We found smaller fish here tight to the bottom and vertically jigged for them, adding 7 more fish to our tally.

By now it was around 11:45, the wind was picking up, and, due to the thick cloud cover, the ambient temperature hadn’t increased much at all. Samantha had dressed a bit lightly and was getting cold, so, we decided to wrap things up at that point.

Neither Marcus or Samantha had been out on Stillhouse before and both commented several times about how peaceful it was out on the water. As I idled over prospective areas studying sonar, they snuggled in, sat back and just enjoyed the downtime spent with one another.

TALLY = 34 fish, all caught and released

back to home page

Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 8:00a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp: 61F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~61-62F

Wind: Winds were S9-12.

Skies: Skies were heavy leaden grey and murky the entire trip with no “squint-factor” of the sun’s brightness coming through.

This afternoon I fished with returning guests Will M. of Salado, and his 10 year old daughter, Amy

Yes, Amy won the big fish contest by a landslide today — this largemouth weighed 3 1/8 pounds on a certified scale.

Larger white bass like these were in short supply this afternoon, but we managed a few photo-worthy rascals.





As with most afternoon trips this time of year, this one got off to a slow start but ended handsomely.

We had to hunt and peck for the first two hours by which time we’d only managed to put 23 fish in the boat. We found fish at two locations between Area 074/1017, then found a few on top of Area 946, then a few more in the vicinity of Area 1181, but each of these areas only gave up 5 or 6 fish each, and even those few were smallish.

Around 6pm, halfway through the trip, Will mentioned to Amy that we may not do as well as during our last trip (May 2012, 52 fish caught primarily via downrigging). I encouraged them not to give up hope yet, as the better half was just about to begin.

It was then that we made our way over to Area 103/549. Right at the upper end of the 20-25 foot breakline the bottom was carpeted with white bass. We made a good buoy throw right on them then circled back and hovered over top of them for over an hour. We made up for some lost time here, more than doubling our catch and pushing past the magic “52 fish from last trip” mark, as well. By the time these fish quit, we had amassed a catch of 58 fish. These fish were very aggressive and fell to both a vertical jigging technique, as well as to a slow-smoking tactic.

For variety’s sake, we decided to head shallow at last light to do some flatline trolling, but, as we geared up to move out, we spotted another patch of bottom blanketed with white bass in the vicinity of Area 702. We stopped and again used a slow-smoking tactic to boat a final 12 fish before the action died for good.

We did give flatline trolling a try just briefly, but, given the heavy cloud cover and the late start we got due to our unexpected find at Area 702, it was too little, too late.

TALLY = 70 fish, all caught and released

back to home page

Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 4:00p

End Time: 8:00p

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~60F

Wind: Winds were SSW11 tapering off to SSW8.

Skies: Skies were leaden grey the entire trip.

This morning I fished with Mr. Steve N. of Temple, and his grandson (and veteran of many trips), Caleb. We shot for quality over quantity today and hit our mark, catching and releasing 26 legal hybrid striped bass (18+ inches).

Steve and Caleb kept the shad going down and the hybrid coming up this morning.

Steve holds one of our better fish of the morning — this one went 22.75 inches.





For a second day in a row our weather conditions were ideal — heavy grey skies with a southerly wind. We only had to make 2 stops today to find all the fish we needed to keep us busy. I came prepared to fish 6 rods, but only needed to put 4 out as the action was very steady for the majority of our morning.

Our first stop came at Area 1191. We fished on the deeper, 30′ side of a breakline and set our baits at 27 feet deep. Over about 50 minutes’ time we put 5 fish in the boat with a few more missed as we worked the bugs out on bait fishing, which was all new to Caleb. I felt with the great weather conditions we could be doing better, so, we moved on.

Our next and final stop came at Area 1190. Again, we fished the deeper, 34′ side of a breakline and set our baits at 29 feet deep. The fish came in waves and seemed to be patrolling steadily through the area. Although we detected schooled fish on sonar that were suspended primarily between 15-21 feet, we did best on the deeper lines, although I did adjust at least 1 rod upwards when we saw good reason on sonar to do so. We enjoyed a solid 2 hours of hybrid fishing at this location before the bite died around 11am.

For our efforts today, we boated 26 legal (18″ minimum) hybrid striped bass, 4 white bass, and 4 “short” hybrid. The fish showed no preference on bait size. I had everything from 2″ threadfin barely large enough to hook, all the way up to 8″ gizzards. It seemed the larger threadfin (3 to 3 1/8 inches) got hit faster, but the smaller shad resulted in more sure hookups. My jumbo gizzards were just a bit much for these still-cold hybrid. One 6 inch gizzard had 5 different fish hit it before one took it well enough to get hooked. One 8 inch gizzard never even drew a look.

Caleb was a real trooper and it is great to see how he’s progressed in his angling abilities over the years. Our last trip was in November when a screaming cold front put the hybrid into overdrive. He worked a slab rod for 3 hours straight in the cold wind and never whimpered a single time. As Steve and I compared notes on this trip, I told him I thought Caleb could handle the waiting that goes with the reward of fishing for larger hybrid stripers, and he agreed. To his credit, once Steve saw Caleb’s enthusiasm was beginning to wane, he made a good call to wind up the trip a bit earlier than we would have were it just he and I out fishing. That’s the way to make a fishing buddy for life by not wearing a kid out by insisting he or she grind it out to the bitter end when the fishing gets slow. I wished more folks would do like Steve did today.

As the live shad bite gets stronger on Belton, shad are still somewhat difficult to come by, but, that ought to change before too long. Should be a good April!!

TALLY = 34 fish, all caught and released

back to home page

Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 11:30p

Air Temp: 59F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~60F

Wind: Winds were SSE8-10.

Skies: Skies were leaden grey the entire trip.

This morning I fished with Paul T. of Giddings, TX, and his long-time friend, John H. of Austin. We caught a total of 84 fish.

As we fished a ~15′ flat, Paul hooked two fish at the same time on his bladebait!!

These longtime friends put a total of 84 fish in the boat today via downrigging, casting bladebaits, vertical jigging, and easing with a slab.





This was my favorite weather to fish in — grey and breezy with winds from a southerly direction. The fish bit over nearly the entirety of our 5 hour trip today. They started a bit “soft”, but ramped up as the skies brightened through the clouds and stayed solid right up until about 12:20.

Our first success came in the vicinity of Area 571 on either side of the the gentle breakline separating the shallow flat to the west from the deeper flat to the east. The first fish we encountered were up between 12-17 feet, holding tight to the bottom, and were scattered. We used blade baits for these fish, catching most of the fish on the 2nd half of our casts, closer in to the boat. It was at this location that Paul landed two fish on the same lure at the same time. He’d hooked a larger, 12-13 inch white bass and was reeling it in when a smaller white bass tried to steal the “shad” out of its mouth and got hooked, too. After this action settled, we moved a bit deeper. Our count stood at 24 fish.

The next concentration of fish we found were holding on the transition at 22-25 feet deep, also near Area 571. We first encountered these fish as we downrigged over the area we’d just fished bladebaits in in order to cover terrain while still having our baits working for us in the water. We’d already boated 3 fish from small groups of white bass holding on bottom as we came across this larger concentration of fish. We hovered over top of this one area and fished using white TNT180 slabs for our vertical jigging work, then did a “short hop” a few yards away to get our baits in front a a few more “fresh fish” that hadn’t yet seen our baits. By the time the bite died down around 10:40, we’d boated a total of 51 fish.

It was now even brighter, although still no direct sun was striking the water. So, we moved deeper, out to 35-40 feet, and continued searching for fish with sonar.

We first encountered fish at Area 074/1017 and picked up 13 fish here adjacent to the Lampasas River channel before the school dissipated. These fish all came on TNT180 slabs worked vertically.

We searched a few other areas without success before heading to Area 074. Right on top of this area we found a very densely packed bunch of white bass right on the “shoulder” where the flat rolls off into the old river channel. We used a combination of vertical jigging and easing here, both using TNT180’s, to boat our final 20 fish of the trip.

By the time all was said and done, we’d landed 83 white bass, and 1 largemouth bass. John treated Paul and I to a collection of great childhood adventure stories, war stories, and stories of his joy in seeing people of all sorts just get along.

TALLY = 84 fish, all caught and released

back to home page

Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:30p

Air Temp: 54F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~60-61F

Wind: Winds were SSE9-13.

Skies: Skies were leaden grey the entire trip.

This morning I fished with Rob O. of Gatesville, his 19 year old son, Nick (a college student at Tarleton State), and Goncalo, a 16 year old foreign exchange student from Chile, now living with Rob and his family and attending Gatesville High.

Despite cold hands, damp breezes, (and spilled coffee!), everyone boated both good quantities and quality of fish this morning.

Goncalo came up with this largemouth on a crankbait fished in 12 feet of water. It was the first fish of his life!!





We’re at that magic time of year where rising fish metabolism trumps all else including foul weather. Despite a damp, mild cold front pushing in overnight (which usually negatively impacts the fishery), the fish were on a solid feed up shallow for the first 90 minutes of light this morning, and never quit feeding completely until both the wind stopped and the sun began to shine brightly after noon.

I met up with Rob, Nick, and Goncalo and, thanks to a handful of helpful gulls, we were able to drive from the boat ramp to the fish and began bringing fish in on our first series of casts. We first contacted fish in 6-12 feet of water near Area 742/089. We knew the white bass were pushing baitfish to the surface, and, as I idled into the area, I saw even more fish lying tight to the bottom, so, we went with a horizontal approach casting blade baits. This scored a total of 22 fish before the feed eased up, and the fish pushed deeper, scattered a bit, and got a bit sluggish.

At this point, we worked over Area 089/1159 with flatlined crank baits and targeted fish holding on bottom in 12-16 feet of water. We picked up 15 fish, including white bass, largemouth bass, drum and crappie, catching steadily for about 45 minutes until that success began to erode and we decided to search deeper.

We headed out to search the 30-45 foot range and found both fish and shad in abundance along the old Lampasas River channel in several places. We first contacted these deeper fish at Area 1189, boating an additional 7 white bass, then made a “short hop” in the same general vicinity and picked up 10 more before these fish moved off.

We again found fish adjacent to the river channel at Area 074/1017 and had a field day here, taking our tally from 54 fish to a final tally of 94 fish in our final 30 minutes on the water. These fish were tightly bunched and occasionally rose up off the bottom to strike our slabs as they fell downwards.

Rob, Nick, and Goncalo were a fun bunch of fellows to be with; Goncalo was an excellent ambassador and represented Chile well.

I asked Goncalo what he felt his greatest misconception of America or Americans was, now that he’s able to look back and consider his preconceived notions versus the reality he’s now experienced. He said he thought Americans would be very different than he actually found them to be. He said, “Really, Americans are just like the people in my country, except they speak English.”

TALLY = 94 fish, all caught and released

back to home page

Get my fishing reports sent to your Facebook page

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 8:00a

End Time: 12:50p

Air Temp: 49F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~63-64F

Wind: Winds were NNE13 slowly tapering to calm by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were leaden grey until 10:30, then the overcast slowly began to thin through trip’s end at which time the sun shone directly for the first time all day.