Pete demonstrated a love for learning new things and quickly got the hang of both sonar interpretation and vertical jigging today with positive results.

Even so, with the light winds, warming temperatures and overcast, the fish fed enough to keep us busy.  Pete was struggling with a touch of gout and wasn’t as mobile as he normally is, so, we stuck with a downrigging/trolling routine for a good while to limit the amount of moving he had to do and put 14 fish in the boat before transitioning to vertical jigging shortly after the winds began to move from the SSE and Pete got to feeling a bit better.

As we trolled flatlined baits and downriggered baits we boated 12 white bass and 2 largemouth on a combination of Storm ThinFins, Reef Runner Ripshad 200’s, and Deep Rattlin’ ThinFins.  As we transitioned to vertical jigging, we began with 3/4oz. slabs but found the fish reluctant to strike these.  We then changed over to smaller 3/8 oz. slabs and got results right away.  We boated 4 more white bass, 1 more largemouth, and a freshwater drum on the slabs before the bite died off by around 12:15pm

Thanks to his service in the Navy and having summers off during his teaching career, Pete has had an opportunity to travel so some very nice places AND fish them … from Alberta, Canada down to El Salvador, he has sampled the fishing both near and far.  I always enjoy hearing other tell tales of fishing in ways and for species I’ve never pursued before.  My favorite this morning was Pete’s story of losing a (very expensive) Russelure to a poorly gaffed king mackeral only to recover the lure and land the fish when that very same fish hit another Russelure only minutes later on another trolling pass. 

L to R: Zoe, Zaylee, Daniel, Zebadiah, and Zachary.

As Daniel and the kids made their way from their vehicle down the boatramp to meet me, I met them half way, and let them know that this was intended to be an “easy-going, kick back and relax kind of deal” and that if we needed to change plans from fishing to nature-walking or to make multiple bathroom breaks or have frequent snack times, that would all be just fine.

As a guide, whenever young kids are on board, you always hope you can provide instant gratification to get the kids’ interest right off the bat, and then hope for steady action to keep that interest up.  We came pretty darn close to that today, despite fairly heavy boat traffic thanks to postcard-perfect wind and weather.

For simplicity’s sake, due to the multiple kids and their ages, and because of where I’ve been finding fish lately, I planned to use a combination of flatline trolling and downrigging to catch our fish today.  As is typical on evening trips in stable weather conditions, things started off a bit slowly and gained momentum, with the last 35 minutes or so providing the best action of the whole trip.

We boated a total of 33 fish this evening, including 1 largemouth bass, 1 drum, 3 crappie, and 28 white bass, of which 25 were of legal size (10+ inches).

Along the way we got to talk about what the Army next has in store for Daniel, the newest “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” movie, yesterday’s big hail storm, the finer points of Oscar Mayer “Lunchables”, and how mom’s flight arrived safely in Colorado. 

Zebadiah caught the first fish of his lifetime on this outing, thus qualifying him for a Texas Parks and Wildlife “First Fish Award”.

With white bass suspended and on the move, flatline trolling was hard to beat as the technique of choice this evening.  The Doherty’s boated 26 white bass and 2 white crappie (L to R: Brian and Robby).

After driving through quite a hail-rain-thunder-and-lightning storm to get to the ramp, we all linked up around 3:45p, and, undeterred by the weather (which was now clearing from west to east), we launched right at our planned start time of 4:00p.

Fishing was best in the first 90-120 minutes as the pressure was climbing following the storm’s passage.  After calm, bright, warm conditions set in, the fishing got very tough until right at sunset when a short, low-light feed took place.

I had planned for a very low-tech approach today by using downriggers and flatlines to troll crankbaits amidst loosely schooled congregations of white bass slowly making their way up the little current now flowing in the Lampasas River.

We used Storm ThinFins on the downriggers, a #5 Rapala ShadRap RS on one flatline, and a 2″ Storm Deep Rattlin’ ThinFin on the other.  As a result, we were fishing with 4 lines down, and covering 4 different depths until trends emerged on what depths were producing the action.  I then changed up baits and downrigger depths to zero in on what worked best.

We boated a total catch of 28 fish this afternoon.

Father and son did equally well this evening, boating exactly 37 white bass, 4 crappie, and 2 freshwater drum.

We split our time between two locations.  We began in 25+ feet of water near a breakline that falls into the old Lampasas River channel and found small bunches of white bass here.  We caught a total of 7 fish using a combination of light slab spoons fished vertically and Cicada bladebaits fished horizontally.

After about 90 minutes, we moved just as the north wind was picking up and the temperature began to fall.  As we were fishing another deepwater location, I observed gulls and terns working tentatively over a patch of water spanning ~60 yards.  We quickly ran to the “scene of the crime” in time to see exactly where these birds were working and run sonar over the area before the birds dispersed. 

Sonar revealed multiple, small schools of white bass holding and moving at 7-12 feet down over a 15-20 foot bottom.  We first attempted to target these fish with Cicada bladebaits used both vertically and horizontally, but, when I saw how mobile these fish were (again, thanks to the increasing water temperature), I decided a trolling regimen would work better.  And it did!!

We put out 4 flatlines with ShadRap RS’s and Rip Shad 200’s and went to work trying to keep these baits above the fish.  Eventually we transitioned to 2 flatlines and 2 downriggers.  On the downrigger lines we ran ThinFins, again, to limit the depth at which our lures ran in an attempt to keep them running over top of the fish.

We stayed on these fish for over 2 hours, putting an additional 36 fish in the boat as they hit everything we trolled by them.

Kyle boated the largest fish of tonight’s outing, an 18.25″, 3 pound hybrid striped bass.

From around 5:15p to sunset, we “spot-hopped” picking up a few fish at each of 4 locations, finally enjoying a “run” of 11 fish caught in short order at our final stop just as sunset gave way to dark.

The Wright boys definitely got it “wright” tonight, racking up an impressive catch of 54 fish consisting mainly of white bass taken on jigging spoons.  From L to R:  Joshua, Dale, and Curtis.

Jim Key (R) and Jim Grier (L) heft a nice catch of mature, spawn-ready white bass taken on bladebaits in 17 feet of water this morning.

Both gentlemen were already accomplished fishermen with a breadth of experience in various water types and for various species, so, my job was made easier as we got to concentrate on catching fish and not so much on the mechanics of how to use the gear, etc. as is the case with those less experienced.

As they have for the past 4 days, the fish fed aggressively for the first 2 hours of the trip up shallow and attracted birds from above thanks to the baitfish these fish forced to the surface.  This made locating the fish and keeping up with them fairly straightforward.  We all used Cicada bladebaits to target these bottom-oriented white bass and caught fish steadily.

The combination of a sensitive graphite rod and braided line allows the angler to literally feel every movement of the bait and, of course, the never-subtle strike of these white bass as they overtake and swipe at the lure.

We boated a total of 24 white bass at our first area fished before we had to move on after the action died.