Today I had two trips on Lake Travis, one full day trip at 6AM and another half day trip at 4pm. So I was able to get out for both the morning and the evening bite.
Recently the morning bite hasn't been anything special, we've honestly put more fish in the boat once the sun comes up and the wind starts blowing. Pay attention to the wind and find those shorlines and points that its blowing on, that will make a big difference in finding fish.
This morning we headed out at 6AM to try and get on a topwater bite with some schooling fish I know of... that was a waste of time. The fish are still keying in on those tiny little shad. The few that we caught had them in their mouth. They were jumping like I expected, but wouldn't hardly hit a bait. We only had a couple of bites... a very small shallow diving crankbait in a shad pattern did catch a few, and I attribute that to the treble hooks. The small swimbait we were throwing got hit, but none stuck, they were just slapping at it.
Ceasar did catch this nice one off the crank outside a marina to get things started.
The hot bait was the dropshot... I know I sound like a broken record, but it flat out catches them. I've been throwing the ned rig around too since I restocked on lead heads. I don't fish very much when I guide, but occasionally I'll mess around throwing something other than what my clients are throwing in order to see if I can find a bait that's working better. I messed around with the Ned rig today and got bit a few times, but the drop shot was way better.
My advice... find those steep bluffs with wind blowing on them. This was where most of the action came from. Sad fish story of the day was when my client Jacob hooked a 4-5 pound bass... it jumped at the boat and I had it close to the net when the hook pulled. In my haste to get the net I did not realize that when I extended it it did not latch. So when I dove the net deep in the water and pulled back to scoop, half of it came free... it now resides at the bottom of Lake Travis. I plan to go back sometime this week with some goggles... we'll see if I can dive to 20 feet or not. My guess is not haha
We put around 20 fish in the boat not counting the ones that got off at the boat or came off when I picked the line up to lift the fish in. Jack, Jacob, and Nick, if y'all are reading this... I had a blast fishing with yall... but next time we're going to work on not snagging the bottom! haha I think we went through at least 25 drop shot sinkers! Snagging the rocks is inevitable, its the price you pay to fish a drop shot around bluff walls... my advice is to let loose the moment you feel it get snagged. Shake it very softly while lifting high up, if that doesn't work shake it firmly, if that doesn't work pop the rod at the bait, if that doesn't work pull the bait off the snag the opposite way... and if that doesn't work you're shit out of luck... snap it off and re-tie!
Lake Travis PM 1/2 Day Trip
My afternoon trip was a unique one... my client Tony hired me to help him dial in his Lowrance HDS. A lot of guides will tell you they can help you with their electronics, but honestly I am a little doubtful of a few people's abilities to do this and be able to explain it well. Admittedly, I am not the best with the user interface of Garmin's or Raymarine, but I use Humminbird and Lowrance on a daily basis. If you've seen my boat you know I run dual units on the console. Lowrance is what I grew up using and am very familiar with it.
Tony and I spent about an hour in his boat going over the different functions of his graph, how to link the console to the bow unit, how to make them talk to one another and share waypoints, how to make the Point-1 antenna be the GPS source, how to edit the data overlays, and how to adjust the picture to be more clear. Along with this goes explaining what each type of sonar does, when to use it, why to use it, and how to use it.
I actually met Tony at his house in Lakeway and we took his Ranger out from his dock. Before we set out on the lake we ended up waiting about two hours to get on the water. A storm rolled in that was BAD... I'm talking lightening strikes every minute all around us... power outages in Bee Cave and Spicewood... high winds and rain.
Once the rain passed we spent more time graphing the bottom just going over the functions of his graphs, how to interpret what you are seeing, and changes to adjust based on the interference and clutter you will sometimes get.
We did end up actually fishing for an hour and I showed him some nuances to how I fish a drop shot, how I rig it, including the knot I tie, and a few good spots and brush piles worth hitting. We actually got on a good little bite up around the Rough Hollow area. Nothing big, but lots of bites... we only fished for about an hour since the focus of the trip was the graphs and not fishing. I had an awesome time fishing with Tony and chatting with him, hopefully we can get out there again!
If you are considering a fishing trip and would like to hire a fishing guide, I would love to earn your business. I would like to teach you how to fish at a higher level... all the fishing guides in Austin you'll find on Google will put you on fish. I am young and hungry and want to prove myself... I will go the extra mile and work hard to put fish in the boat on tough days but will also make instruction and education the focus of the trip. I make it a point to explain everything I am doing. I never just graph a spot and say "ok they're down there, lets catch them"... I explain what you are looking at on the screen, which baits we are going to throw, and explain why I am using that bait over another.
To be honest though, my absolute favorite trips are ones with children, especially kids who are into the outdoors and want to be out there fishing. I love watching kids get into bass fishing and helping them catch fish on their own.
With that said, my Striper trips have been a blast! I have not posted reports or photos lately since I want to avoid all the "Internet Fishermen"... but shoot me an email or give me a call and I'll send you some photos of our recent catches... the bite is on FYI!!!
Let's get you out on the water!
Tight Lines