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We launched Todd’s Stratos first from a deserted South Park at false dawn central daylight time. We were barely ahead of the cool front that we had left behind in Pflugerville. I parked Todd’s truck, jumped aboard and cinched up my hoodie for the run out. Todd is farsighted and his eagle eyes spotted the silhouettes of three blacked out kayaks grouped among the bouys at the mouth of the South Park channel. He idled past them and then put the hammer down.
Todd defers lake choice to me. I didn’t think Todd would have any objections to Bastrop after last weeks skunk at Decker. I had prepped some rods in case we went to Bastrop. By reading the reports posted on this forum, I came up with a plan. I know Hookem uses spinners here and Longhorn slays ‘em with small swimmers everywhere else, so I combined the two ideas for Bastrop. I rigged up a 3.0 speed shad on a 1/4oz fishhead under spin. I also tied on a Megabass squarebill I haven’t used in several years.
Todd came out of the channel on plane and set a direct heading for the dam pocket. Coots scattered from underneath the bow and I ducked under the cowl. Todd never gives quarter for coots. The flock was extra thick this morning, but Todd stayed true to course, obviously determined to fish the dam pocket. Damn the coots, full speed ahead. We got on station, Todd pulling up well before the strike zone, so we could move in silently on battery. You see, the bass is a unique animal, to get close you must ’neek up on them.
In a very gratifying role reversal, I turned the tables on Todd. Todd normally runs away with the fish count by catching the bejeezus out of them with jackhammer, and me the back deck crumb hustler getting a dead stick senko fish if I’m lucky. Today he still ran away with the fish count, but I was the one slaying them with pull baits, alternating underspin and squarebill and catching funfish after funfish.
Todd was slackline fishing, going full send hooksets with t-rig straight tail. He was getting some nice fish in between the standard Bastrop bucks. Some bucks milted with a Herbert the Pervert squeeze. When the sun poked out of the clouds, Todd switched to drop-shot roboworm and sent the count rapidly upwards. We left the clicker behind, so I will guess at the numbers. We worked the same hundred yard stretch of the dam pocket between the eelgrass and the hydrilla the entire morning. On several occasions I told Todd that I wanted to go to another cove only to be interrupted by a fish slamming my rod over. I barely had time to wolf down my PB&J.
What a fantastic start to Spring Break. Todd caught over twenty drop-shot fish, at least a dozen on Texas rig and a McStick jerkbait catch that he made just to prove to me that he would force feed them a hard bait if he wanted to! I caught seven on the Knuckle and eleven with the 3.0 underspin. I also caught fish on t-rig beaver and drop-shot wacky french fry. We caught close to sixty I would guess. We got plenty of short strikes making for an action packed day. Beautiful weather, beautiful lake and lots of pretty Bastrop fish. Life is good. Off at 1:30PM.
![Water Sky Smile Vertebrate Fisherman]()
![Water Sky Vertebrate Lake Fisherman]()
![Water Cloud Sky Smile Fisherman]()
Todd defers lake choice to me. I didn’t think Todd would have any objections to Bastrop after last weeks skunk at Decker. I had prepped some rods in case we went to Bastrop. By reading the reports posted on this forum, I came up with a plan. I know Hookem uses spinners here and Longhorn slays ‘em with small swimmers everywhere else, so I combined the two ideas for Bastrop. I rigged up a 3.0 speed shad on a 1/4oz fishhead under spin. I also tied on a Megabass squarebill I haven’t used in several years.
Todd came out of the channel on plane and set a direct heading for the dam pocket. Coots scattered from underneath the bow and I ducked under the cowl. Todd never gives quarter for coots. The flock was extra thick this morning, but Todd stayed true to course, obviously determined to fish the dam pocket. Damn the coots, full speed ahead. We got on station, Todd pulling up well before the strike zone, so we could move in silently on battery. You see, the bass is a unique animal, to get close you must ’neek up on them.
In a very gratifying role reversal, I turned the tables on Todd. Todd normally runs away with the fish count by catching the bejeezus out of them with jackhammer, and me the back deck crumb hustler getting a dead stick senko fish if I’m lucky. Today he still ran away with the fish count, but I was the one slaying them with pull baits, alternating underspin and squarebill and catching funfish after funfish.
Todd was slackline fishing, going full send hooksets with t-rig straight tail. He was getting some nice fish in between the standard Bastrop bucks. Some bucks milted with a Herbert the Pervert squeeze. When the sun poked out of the clouds, Todd switched to drop-shot roboworm and sent the count rapidly upwards. We left the clicker behind, so I will guess at the numbers. We worked the same hundred yard stretch of the dam pocket between the eelgrass and the hydrilla the entire morning. On several occasions I told Todd that I wanted to go to another cove only to be interrupted by a fish slamming my rod over. I barely had time to wolf down my PB&J.
What a fantastic start to Spring Break. Todd caught over twenty drop-shot fish, at least a dozen on Texas rig and a McStick jerkbait catch that he made just to prove to me that he would force feed them a hard bait if he wanted to! I caught seven on the Knuckle and eleven with the 3.0 underspin. I also caught fish on t-rig beaver and drop-shot wacky french fry. We caught close to sixty I would guess. We got plenty of short strikes making for an action packed day. Beautiful weather, beautiful lake and lots of pretty Bastrop fish. Life is good. Off at 1:30PM.
