Jerry and Daniel, spurring one another on with some good-natured competition, both stay focused on their technique and reaped good results for their efforts.

A 3.25 pound largemouth thrown in for variety’s sake never hurts!

This morning, Friday, 15 Feb., I fished with Jerry W., owner of the Jerry Worley Insurance Agency of Harker Heights, and one of the young men, Daniel K., that Jerry has worked with through his years as a lay leader in youth/young adult ministry at Memorial Baptist in Killeen. Daniel is a student at Central Texas College.

I had high hopes for today’s trip after we postponed this same trip last week due to cold front conditions. Today’s forecast was for mild weather in advance of a late-morning, mild cold front’s passage. If the timing worked out, that meant we’d enjoy both pre-frontal fishing and fishing as the winds ramped up with the cold front’s passage. Timing is always questionable on these Texas weather events, but, the National Weather Service and the Air Force’s 3rd Weather Squadron on Ft. Hood both hit a homerun on this one.

As we began our day we had some helpful bird activity point the way to fish over top of Areas 1167, 334, and 556. In each case these fish were just off the old river channel by a few yards and were in distinct groups. We’d catch 10-12 fish, then bump a few yards over to get our slabs in front of some “fresh” fish, catch 8-10 more, and so on. All of these fish came on 3/4 oz. white slabs. By 9:45am we’d boated 61 fish. It was at this point that the lead edge of the front rolled in with winds from the NE immediately increasing to ~16mph. Almost instantly the bird action ended and we struggled for about 45 minutes until the fish settled back down and began to feed, albeit much more sluggishly than before.

To help overcome the impact of the front, we fished deeper now. Our first spot of luck came at Area 1166. It was at this same time yesterday while on the water with a client helping to get his sonar adjusted that some light bird action allowed us to fine-tune his unit to show fish, the rise and fall of a slab, etc. I pulled in here at nearly the same time 24 hours later and sonar revealed fish close to the channel lip in ~35 feet of water. We really worked for the fish we caught here and wound up boating 18 more white bass before things went soft here after about 40 minutes of fishing.

We made our last stop over top of Area 074. As we idled over this area sonar just lit up with fish showing in a very strong feeding posture about 1-2 feet off bottom and in quite a large school covering several yards horizontally. We got right to work and actually caught our first 6 fish out of this school by slowly “smoking” our slabs through the school. As often happens under the influence of cold front conditions, though, this bite cooled really fast. I told the fellows this was the “beginning of the end” and, indeed, by noon or so, despite seeing plenty of fish laying belly-to-the-bottom and having our slabs dancing and pausing before them, it was like pulling teeth. By 12:15 we called it a day with 92 fish boated including 3 largemouth, 1 drum, and 88 white bass.

TALLY = 92 Fish

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp: 47F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 56.8F

Wind: NNE7-8 prefrontal; NE14-16 as front came in.

Skies: Fair skies prefrontal, with increasing high, thin clouds following the front’s passage.

I’ll be presenting a seminar on sonar use and interpretation at the Cabela’s store in Buda, TX, this coming weekend. Hope to see you there!

That thumbs-up means “My sonar is a fine-tuned piece of fishing machinery!”.

I’ve been receiving an increasing number of calls lately from fellows who have purchased excellent sonar equipment, but who are having trouble getting the most out of it. In addition to trips totally dedicated to fishing, I also offer trips totally dedicated to sonar setup and interpretation, as well as trips that offer a combination of the two, all at my standard rates.

Such was today’s trip with Mr. Reese M. of Belton. Reese is a U.S. Navy veteran of the 1950’s and served as an electrician in the Seabee’s.

Some time ago he bought a Lowrance Elite 5x sonar unit, which is a great, feature-packed unit in a small package and with a good price. Trouble is, all the button-pushing and menu options were confusing. Reese said he’s more of a visual learner than a nose-in-the-book kind of guy, so, we dedicated today trip to getting his sonar fine tuned.

I started with the basics of transducer inspection, then powered up and went through all the common menus to give him the best chart views and sonar views the unit was capable of providing. Once everything was just right, we went riding looking for shad, timber, dropoffs, roadbeds, etc. so he could see what these things look like.

After I showed him all these things, it was his turn. We turned the unit off, and I threw different scenarios at him, allowing him to think through what button-pushes to use. He passed these pop-quizzes with flying colors.

Just as we were about to wrap up, an unusual but helpful event occurred (I call these blessings!). On a calm, bright, sunny late morning, about 5 terns began to feed about 200 yards from our location. We motored over there and found a school of small white bass feeding on shad in about 33 feet of water. This was the perfect opportunity to show all the unit could do. We stopped the boat dead still and I dropped a 3/4 oz. slab down to the fish near bottom. We watched the slab fall, watched it rise and fall, and then get struck by a white bass. We then watched that fish get reeled in, all on Reese’s sonar. We did this 3 times over before the school moved on.

By the time he rolled out of the parking lot, Reese was both confident and competent in the use of the sonar he’s spent his hard-earned money on. Thumbs-up!

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Can you tell Joseph REALLY liked today’s fishing trip?

Jasmine was the picture of concentration today. She stayed focused on feeling the hit and watching her rod tip and caught a bunch of fish.

Mike was a “late-bloomer”, but, once he figured out how to get his slab set just right, there was no holding him back!

This morning we awoke to heavy grey skies, and a cool drizzle driven by a SE wind. I knew it’d be a day for lots of fish and few fishermen!

I met Mike, Jasmine, and Joseph at 7:15a, did a little safety briefing and an introduction to the techniques we’d use today and we were off to hunt fish.

We were met with immediate success at our first stop at Area 108/143. In this area we found small, separated schools of 12-20 fish each holding tightly to the bottom in 20-22 feet of water. Due to the still low light level, these fish were not very aggressive, so we went to work with the downriggers to move baits past a lot of inactive fish to get our baits looked at by the few just-getting-active fish among them. This worked very well for us as we used Pet Spoons in white and silver to tempt a total of 28 fish including one “double” for each person (that’s 2 fish caught on one rod at the same time).

If we’d ended the trip right then and there I think this family would have gone home ecstatic about what they had caught, as they we really enjoying the entire experience, but, there was much more to come!!

By 9:30 this shallow action had died, forcing us to look deeper and to look elsewhere.

We found light action between Areas 344/566 in 27 feet of water, and jigged for 3 fish before heading elsewhere. For jigging today, we used the TNT 180 in white, 3/4 oz.

Next, we gave Area 719 a try and picked up 17 more fish here by jigging.

Our last, and most productive, area was Area 074. We sat in one spot and boated exactly 42 fish in our last 80 minutes on the water. Mike really got the hang of the importance of adjusting your slab to an appropriate depth and working it very carefully. He must have said a dozen times (concerning his previous attempts at fishing), “Man, I have been doing this all wrong!!”. Well, he did it right at this last spot and added more than his fair share to our total.

When everything was said and done, we had boated exactly 90 fish, every single one of which was a white bass today.

TALLY = 90 Fish

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp: 53F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 57-58F

Wind: SE8-10.

Skies: Soupy grey and heavily overcast to the point of drizzle.

Charlotte (L) and Sheri (R) vertical jigged slabs today for a total of 87 fish despite the tough, post-frontal conditions.

This is afternoon I fished with Sheri W. of Killeen and Charlotte M. of Harker Heights. Sheri’s husband, Marty, also joined us as our videographer. I wanted to put together a video very intentionally showing ladies fishing and being successful so as to encourage more women to get on the water and let them know it is okay to call up a guide and book a trip.

We elected to fish this afternoon which helped us avoid what would have been an uncomfortably cold morning for the ladies, as well as avoid the tough fishing that normally accompanies winter cold fronts with winds due north as we had at 14 mph this morning.

I actually got out on the water in advance of my party’s arrival in order to take some sonar shots for a seminar I’m doing at the Cabela’s store in Buda, TX, on Saturday, 16 Feb. Once I finished that chore, I had about 20 minutes to spare, so, I probed around and was able to find some fish, so, I marked them hoping to return soon to allow Sheri and Charlotte to take advantage of the fishing.

Everyone arrived punctually and, after a little class on technique at dockside, we were off. We went straight back to Area 1164 and found the fish right where I’d left them. We only picked up 8 fish as the ladies got the hang of things, and those fish were smallish and sluggish, so, we moved on.

We next connected at Area 946 in 52 feet of water. Long story short, we caught 67 fish off this one spot without ever moving the boat. The ladies’ technique and hookup percentages improved as they became accustomed to feeling and reacting to biting fish. Once they relaxed and didn’t have to try so hard to maintain their technique, we got to talk about everything from chickens to homeschooling, and from burgers to inspirational one-armed basketball players!! When we began catching only small fish and they got few and far between we left those fish still biting and moved on.

We made one final stop within 20 minutes of sunset at Area 948 in 56 feet of water. Again, the ladies vertically jigged with white slabs (TNT 180’s in white) while I experimented with some “Splinter” spoons sent as samples from Johnson (a Pure Fishing subsidiary). All slabs fished equally well, and we put another even dozen fish in the boat before losing our direct light.

As we closed out the day, our catch stood at 85 white bass and 2 freshwater drum, with our largest white bass (shown in photo) going right at 13.75 to 14.00 inches.

Great job, girls!!

TALLY = 87 Fish

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 2:30p

End Time: 6:30p

Air Temp: 59F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 57.8-60.2F

Wind: ENE7-8.

Skies: Post frontal bluebird skies.

The purpose of our trip was twofold this morning. Besides catching fish, we fine-tuned Claude’s own sonar equipment to provide him with all the fish location potential it is capable of.

Did something a little different this morning … I guided but did so on my guest’s own boat. I teamed up with Claude C. of Ding Dong, TX. He’s fished with me several times and noted how I make use of marine electronics to find and catch fish. As a result, he’s upgraded his own sonar units on his pontoon boat to a Lowrance HDS-5 and a Lowrance HDS-7 with StructureScan capability and asked me to accompany him to get his electronics “zero’ed” in.

We started with the basics of making sure the transducers were mounted properly and level. We then powered the units up and made sure the “sourcing” was correct, meaning that each unit was programmed to receive the intended sonar and StructureScan input being sent to it. Next, we went deep into each unit’s menus and got the units tweaked just right for the conditions we encountered today. Then, it was off to the fishing grounds.

What great white bass weather today! It was cloudy overnight, balmy this morning, overcast, and with a SSW wind — you couldn’t special-order better weather than that!

We found ample bird activity this morning equally divided between fish-induced bird activity and loon/cormorant induced bird activity.

Claude’s trolling motor battery had some troubles bucking the wind, so, we lost some opportunities there but tried to compensate by anchoring where appropriate.

Despite a shortened fishing effort due to the sonar tinkering and low batteries on the troller, by 11:30am we had boated exactly 45 white bass all on horizontally worked blade baits in no more than 27 feet of water and with some coming from as little as 8 feet of water, which wasn’t surprising given that the surface temperatures have climbed to 55-57 F with the mild weather of late.

Our best success came at Areas 054, 595, and 107.

If you find yourself, like Claude, owning quality electronics that you are not sure how to use or adjust, please give me a call and we can plan a trip around getting you to the next step in making the most of your investment.

TALLY = 45 Fish

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30p

Air Temp: 59F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 55-57F

Wind: S to SSW at 9-11.

Skies: Totally greyed over skies with varying levels of indirect light penetration; occasional cloud breaks near trip’s end.

This morning I fished Belton Lake with Robert K. of Harker Heights, TX. Rob’s wife, Priscilla, bought him this trip for their anniversary, so, he got to fish while she worked the weekend shift today at Scott & White. We boated 73 white bass, 1 largemouth, and 1 hybrid striped bass, all via vertical jigging.

Rob, shown here with our largest white bass of the day, is a Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Army Military Police with 16 years of service to the nation.

Today’s trip had a number of “what a small world” moments. Come to find out, Rob spent his childhood in Bridgewater,New Jersey, just miles from where I was born in Plainfield, and even closer to where I spent my 5th-10th grade years, in Middlesex. We frequented the same fishing spots, went to the same sporting goods stores, and ate at some of the same restaurants. It was like a high school reunion, minus the Algebra II.

At first light, before sunrise, plenty of birds were working over open water, but, they were sipping shad off the top that were not driven there by gamefish.

We focused our efforts today on bottom-oriented fish in 27-38 feet of water at 4 different areas. The fish at each area behaved in much the same manner. There would be a few fish up off bottom that gave away a larger school’s position. We would set up over these fish and catch 6-8 fish, then the fish would lose interest. We’d then use the trolling motor to search within yards of our initial contact and find another “patch” of fish, and so on. Each time we located fish, we located multiple “patches” of fish within yards of our initial stop. This happened at Areas 1137, 959, 297, 787, and 212-959.

At each stop we used primarily the 3/4 oz. white TNT180 slabs. The easing tactic was particularly effective today, accounting for about 40% of our catch, with the balance falling to a straightforward slabbing tactic.

One of Rob’s main goals was to “get good with electronics”, so I emphasized sonar interpretation and especially the use of the flasher mode which is so helpful in vertical presentations (which is why ice fishermen use that format almost exclusively).

The winds were light but with a southerly and westerly component, so the bite was consistent but weak.

By trip’s end we’d put together a very respectable catch given the so-so conditions we faced.

TALLY = 75 Fish

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:30p

Air Temp: 49F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 53-54F

Wind: Changing steadily from SSE4-5 to SSW4-7 over the course of the trip up until 11:15, then changing abruptly to NNW2-4 at that time.

Skies: Clear skies transitioned to fair over the course of the trip.

I fished with Jonathan O. of Coppperas Cove this morning. We caught a total of 19 white bass and 1 largemouth bass by jigging slab spoons vertically in 27-31 feet of water.

Jonathan caught on very quickly to the vertical jigging technique that puts a majority of the fish in the boat from mid-December through mid-March. This one went 13.75 inches.

We had a forecast for an overnight low of 39 degrees and 15 mph SW winds at sunrise. What we got was an overnight low of 31 degrees and a 5-7 mph WNW breeze — that makes a big difference to fish!! Accordingly we did not boat a single fish until around 9:45a when the winds had shifted SW and the wind speed increased to ~12 mph.

At that time, we found some suspended gamefish amidst a concentration of suspended gar between Areas 1163 and 373. We hung around long enough to boat 1 largemouth and 1 white bass.

Around 10:15 we moved to Area 1164 and graphed white bass holding very tightly to bottom in 27-31 feet of water. Using TNT180 slabs (white, 3/4oz.) we boated 18 fish here steadily over the next 1 3/4 hours. We would hover over an area, begin jigging, catch 2-3 fish only to have the fish lose interest, so, we made short “hops” of just a few yards each time to get our baits in front of “fresh” fish, and this paid off well for the duration of the trip.

As a side note, bird life was plentiful today. We spotted ringbill gulls, terns, loons, white pelicans, coots, blue herons, cormorants, and even one osprey. The cormorants seemed to be driving the train and everything else that ate fish was eating the fish those cormorants were stirring up.

Despite the trip getting off to a slow start, Jonathan said repeatedly that we had truly landed more fish in this one trip than in all his past trips combined. He noted how we were quite intentional in our approach. No tossing out the line and then sipping coffee waiting and hoping for some thing to happen. We actively pursued fish from the time we got on the water until we found them and then enjoyed catching those we’d worked hard to find.

TALLY = 20 Fish

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp: 32F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 56.6F

Wind: Changing steadily from NNW to SW over the course of the trip.

Skies: Clear skies transitioned to fair over the course of the trip.

Trish (L) and Jessie (R) with our first 2 of 34 fish taken. The fish Trish holds is the first fish of her life and won her a Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. “First Fish Award”.

The S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) Program exists to take the children of deployed or deceased soldiers on fishing trips at no charge to the soldiers’ families as a way of showing our support for our troops and providing a respite for their spouses. The following is a note to SKIFF supporters about this most recent outing…

Monday, 28 Jan. 2013

Dear Friends of SKIFF,

This morning I fished on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir with two young ladies– Jessica Casper (age 16) and Trish Reeves (age 11).

Jessica is the daughter of the late Major Mike Casper and Mrs. Susie Casper. Mike, a former Army Kiowa helicopter pilot passed away while on active duty. Carrying on the military tradition, Jessie just won 1st place in the female division of the Physical Training (PT) competition at a big ROTC event up in Dallas this past weekend. The Harker Heights High School team she represented also took 1st place in the team competition there!! Way to go, Jessie and fellow Harker Heights Knights!

Trish is the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Dwayne Reeves and Mrs. Nita Reeves. Dwayne is currently stationed at Ft. Belvoir, VA, while his family remains here at Fort Hood. Trish is half-way through her 6th Grade year at Nolan Middle School in Killeen.

The day was humid, and heavily overcast with the lightest of an occasional drizzle falling now and then. A strong S. wind pushed at 13-16 mph all day. The pre-dawn temperatures were an unseasonable 66 degrees, and, due to a lengthy warming trend, our water surface temperatures were at ~56F, up from 50-51 just a week ago.

We got going around 8am and immediately found helpful bird activity that put us on our first 16 fish of the day. We used a flatline trolling technique to find the active fish and then used a vertical approach to take advantage of what we’d found. Trish had been fishing before but had never landed a fish, so, first fish honors went to her when the first white bass smacked one of our crank baits. After that, 15 more were caught on TNT180 slabs in 3/4 oz. white using a slow smoking technique in the vicinity of Area 1054.

After the initial aggressive feed, the rest of our action came using a combination of downrigging for suspended fish holding very definitively at 18-21 feet deep over the old Lampasas River channel in the vicinity of Area 371 to 1163. Based on what we saw fish chasing and regurgitating, the forage size was pretty large in this area, so, I fished with one double rig of Pet Spoons on one downrigger and a single Storm ThinFin on the other. We also found fish on bottom at Area 1162 and 1163 at 25-30 feet and used an easing tactic and a deadstick tactic to attract these fish, again, on the TNT180’s.

By 11:45am things began to play out and by 12:15 the fishing, which got off to a late start due to the cloud cover, came to a close for the morning.

In all, we caught 34 fish, including a “First Fish Award” 14.25″ white bass for Trish.

It is such a pleasure to be able to offer such trips to our Army’s kids!! Thank you for your support of S.K.I.F.F.!!

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 4:20p

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp: 83F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~66.7F

Wind: Winds were stiff from the SE at ~13, increasing to SE16 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair with cloud cover increasing from 10 to 25% over the course of the trip.

I fished with Greg and Meagan Uzee this afternoon. The Uzee’s are a young married couple transplanted to Temple, TX, from Louisiana where they met at Louisiana College.

As often happens in the winter, we caught this largemouth out of a school of white bass. I believe the largemouth “ghost” along with the school and eat smaller fish from out of the school as the white bass wander the lake in search of shad. It’s a fish-eat-fish world out there!

Greg and Meagan are both now working at Scott and White Hospital in Temple. Meagan bought Greg a fishing gift certificate last fall and today was the day to cash it in. We chose the afternoon due to a forecast for fog and N. wind this morning, and that was a good call. We found fish at 3 separate areas today from 55 feet deep early to 29 feet deep late. When all was said and done we’d boated 32 white bass, 2 drum, and 1 largemouth. Despite the fact that Greg had more experience (he was good), Megan, shall we say, more than held her own (she was lucky)! Which is better? I’ll let you decide. Thanks for a great trip, guys!

DETAILS:

We found fish at Area 946 and 947 around 2:30-3:30 in ~55 feet of water and vertical jigged for these fish with 3/4 oz. TNT180 slabs in white. Our conditions today were less than favorable with a N and E component to the wind for much of the trip, and light winds for the duration of the trip. Once we pulled all the fish off of these areas that would go for our offering, I moved us downlake in search of fish but we came up with nothing.

We returned to Area 947 and picked up a few more fish around 4:45p and then headed back uplake.

We definitely encountered more birds uplake but found most of the birds were feeding over the numerous loons now calling the lake home for the winter. We did find one more patch of fish right on Area 572 in 29 feet of water and found them much more interested in an easing technique than in a standard jigging technique.

We fished right until the bite ended a few minutes after sunset and then took some photos, so this photo came out a bit grainy due to the failing light.

TALLY = 35 Fish

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time: 6:10p

Air Temp: 63F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 52F

Wind: Changing steadily from ENE to ESE over the course of the trip.

Skies: Bright grey the entire time with partial clearing around 4:30.