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Catching is good at Tawakoni: Weather patterns not necessarily affecting ability to pull in fish
BY Luke Clayton, Special to Star Local News
Lake Tawakoni guide Michael Littlejohn eased the throttle back and we slowly motored between columns under the Two Mile Bridge heading south.
"We've been enjoying easy limits of jumbo white bass around the main lake points on the east side of the lake," he said. "We're a little late to get in on the schooling hybrid action this morning, but fish will be stacked up on the main lake points and catching will be fast and furious."
I've fished for a lifetime and thought to myself my new friend was either extremely confident in his fishing skills or possibly a bit over optimistic.
He switched on his side imaging sonar and the unit's screen gave us a crystal clear image of everything subsurface 122 feet either side of the boat.
"They're not here in this shallower water," Littlejohn said. "The water temperature dropped seven degrees with the passing of this cool front. This is strange. We've been catching them at depths of 12-15 feet for the past few months. We will find them, though. They didn't simply vanish. Let's plot this point out into deeper water; we'll get em'."
Littlejohn buried his head in the sonar and studied it closely.
OK, I was thinking "way too confident."
Fish are fish and they often change patterns with subtle changes in the weather. A cool front had blown in from the northwest overnight and, reflecting upon many years of fishing after the passing of fronts, I was becoming a doubting Thomas.
My old school doubts vanished when Littlejohn pointed to a big, white cloud that appeared on his sonar, off to the left side of the boat.
"This is a huge school of white bass holding on the windward side of the point," he said. "We've been catching them on the south side, but with the steady northwest wind, they have moved to the north into water 24 feet deep. I haven't found fish this deep in several months."
Interpreting a myriad of signs from Mother Nature, everything from tips given by gulls and herons to the flash of a baitfish chased to the surface, helps savvy anglers locate fish and I could readily see my personable young guide had learned them all.
Littlejohn moved the side imaging sonar's cursor into the center of the school of fish and saved their location with the click of a button and steered the boat just upwind of the fish, tracking the route via GPS.
A few yards away from the fish, he lowered the trolling motor and allowed the auto pilot to direct the motor to move us to the previously determined position.
"This is it," Littlejohn said. "Look at all those fish holding within a few feet of bottom. We can limit out right here and you will have the makings of a big fish fry."
We were using one-ounce silver slabs and as predicted, as soon as they hit bottom and were raised a couple feet, they were nailed hard by the heavily feeding post-spawn white bass.
Tawakoni is chock full of some of the biggest white bass I've caught anywhere and, being a white bass addict, I've fished for them in a great many places.
Through the years, I've heard anglers brag about all those 2.5- to 3-pound white bass they catch. Granted, white bass do get this big, but catching a 3-pound white bass equates to catching a 12-pound largemouth; it just doesn't occur on every cast.
Littlejohn carries a digital scale in the boat and we weighed several of the fish.
The majority of them weighed 1.5-1.8 pounds, truly magnum-size whites.
We were back at the cleaning table of Kenny's Landing after about 45 minutes of steady catching.
Today's electronics make locating and staying on open water species such as white bass and stripers a lot easier than it was a decade ago, but fishing skills and knowledge still play a big part in consistently locating and catching fish.
My recent trip with Littlejohn perfectly coincided with a major change in weather patterns. The fish moved from where they had been feeding and my guide had the fishing savvy to know where to look. He also had the equipment onboard to pinpoint the fishes' location.
Back in the day these fish may have evaded us.
Littlejohn has an excellent partner in his guide business and catfish tournaments, his lovely wife Teri.
"Teri and I won the Cabela's King Kat tournament at Tawakoni this spring with a total weight of 111.5 pounds," he said. "Teri caught the three biggest blue catfish that tipped the scales at 48 pounds, 39 pounds and 22 pounds. We fish together a lot and she's very competent at locating and catching fish. Not only catfish, but whites, hybrids and crappie."
Littlejohn and his wife are definitely multiple threats when it comes to catching fish.
They live right on the lake and stay current on all species. I'm planning a crappie trip with them next. This time though, when the guide tells me at the beginning of the trip, "We are going to catch them, regardless of weather changes," there will be no doubt on my part.
Contact Littlejohn at: tawakoniguideservice.com or: 903-441-3937.
Fishing hotspots of the week
In Galveston, Captain Mike Williams (galvestonsharkfishing.com) says sharks have moved into the inshore waters and fishing has been good on large pieces of cut bait drifted under balloons.
The better fishing is within a couple miles of the Galveston Beachfront.
At Lake Texoma, guide Larry Sparks (sparkysguideservice.com) reports the striper bite is about as good as it gets.
"We're using live shad in the mid-to-lower lake," he said. "Most of the stripers are holding 25-40 feet below the surface. Our biggest this past week weighed just over 18 pounds."
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