Bill, Will, and Chris went fishing at Calcasieu -- and did alright for a change! From what I hear, they were catching larger than average trout, in the 25-inch range. I also heard a story about a 70lb black drum, and a big redfish that broke the line. The fall season will be heating up soon - I plan on catching my share of these soon enough.

Its been a long, hot summer. The fishing has been really tough. I have been out a few times recently, but haven't had much success. Its difficult keeping a fishing blog interesting, when you don't have anything to talk about.

Fortunately, this past weekend I tried something new that worked. My friend Jim and I actually managed to boat about 15 fish. Mostly small Spotted and Guadalupe bass, but there were a couple of nice Largemouth in the mix.

I thought that if we got to the lake early, we might catch a few before the sun came up. I had assumed the bight (if we found one at all) would taper off quick as the temperature started to rise. Our plan was to fish for black bass early, then start looking for schooling whites after the morning bite ended. We figured out a pattern that worked, so we managed to fish for black bass until about 11:00am, with pretty decent success.

Early, they were hitting crank baits. I threw a 1/2 oz Luck Craft in a shad pattern, while Jim through his chrome and black rattletrap. The spotted bass were using the rocks to work their way up to the shallows. Wherever there was a line of rock within two feet of the surface, we were getting strikes. At one point, I caught four in a row, including a nice three pound largemouth.

As the sun came up, we switched to Carolina Rigged worms in about twenty feet of water. I was marking fish between fifteen and twenty feet next to an underwater plateau. I positioned the boat on top of the hump, and cast out into the deep water, working the worm up the slope toward the boat.

Before this weekend, I have never really tried Carolina Rigging with much success. I find it difficult to detect a bite behind such a heavy weight. I must have had the magic touch this time around, because I managed to catch several this way. I even had a very decent size four to five pound bass on the line, that wiggled free just as I got it up to the boat. Jim was quick to remind me that we only count fish that actually make it into the boat. Of course, I pulled the same rule on him earlier in the day when he lost a decent bass before landing it. Instant karma's gonna gitcha, right?