For anyone who cares, here’s how we troll for white bass at Lake Somerville. I went today and took some pics. We caught 5-6 fish in an hour or so. I think it’s still a little early in the year for trolling but it should pick up soon. Trolling is a lot of fun and a pretty laid-back way to fish.

Essential Items:

Boat


Any boat will do as long as it floats and has a motor. There’s a pretty decent place to troll not far from a ramp so you won’t have to run far if you don’t want to. This is my Dad’s boat but it might as well be mine. It’s an ideal situation really. He bought it, pays for all the registration, upkeep, keeps it in his garage, and I take it out whenever I want.


Lake


Lake Somerville today – it was almost glass calm


Rods/Reels


I like to use a pretty hefty 7’ medium-action rod with fairly heavy line (14 lb or better) Most any rod will do as long as it’s not too limber.


Hellbender Downrigger


This is what gets your spoon down to where the fish are. These can be bought for around $4 or so at Academy. Some have hooks and some don’t. I use the ones without hooks.


Tony Accetta Pet Spon


This is what trails the hellbender and has the hook. ($2 or so at Academy) They come in silver, gold, and have either white or yellow feathers. I like the silver spoon with white feathers.


Optional but desirable items


Fish Finder


Useful for, well, finding fish.


Marker Bouy


These are great for marking spots where the fish might be concentrated. (Once you find the spot of course)

Female Fishing Buddy In a Swimsuit (Very desirable)



How to troll.

I do most of my trolling on the “humps” near Rocky Creek Park. (This is where the fish finder comes in handy.) The bottom varies from 12-20 feet and it’s a good place to troll. Sometimes you’ll find the fish in the troughs between the humps and sometimes on the drop-offs, it varies. The humps are 500 yards or so right out from the Rocky Creek boat ramp, it’s not hard to find. You’ll probably see other boats trolling around in the area and some anchored up chunking slabs or live bait.

Our typical trolling rig looks something like this.




The line from the rod ties to the wire thingy (I have no clue what it’s called) above the lip of the hellbender. From the bottom of the hellbender run a two or three-foot piece of line and tie the spoon on the other end. Snap swivels are optional.

Once you’re all rigged up, check your drag (in case you hang up on a log, remember you will be moving along), drop the rig off the side of the boat and get the boat moving forward at an idle (or a little faster depending on what works for you).



Let the line free spool off the reel until the hellbender/spoon combination is around 30 or so yards behind the boat. Once the rig is sufficiently behind the boat, engage the reel. You’ll feel the hellbender dig into the water and start working its way down. Hang on tight and don’t be surprised when the rod bends while you troll along. I like to hold the rod out to the side of the boat and let it bend back, I’ve seen other people hold the rod straight up or put them in rod holders. I’d say do whatever makes you happy.



As you troll along you’ll feel the hellbender/spoon as it bounces around and sometimes hits the bottom. It’ll probably take a while to be able to recognize a fish strike but you’ll get the hang of it. I don’t know how many times I thought I had a fish and reeled in to find nothing there. It takes time to get a feel for it.

Once you feel a bite and a fish tugging, put the engine in neutral and reel in.






If you catch a couple of fish in the same area, toss out a buoy and keep trolling around that spot. You’ll often find fish stacked in a small area and can catch one or two on every pass.



This concludes today’s lesson. Give it a whirl if you are so inclined.

I'd love to go fishing.

Wow, Mrs. Bait is a hottie!

Dang, picture of the hottie shows up as a red X.

Nice work otherwise.

I have a subscription to Bait's website, so I get to see the premium material

Nice Calcutta

I'd suspect those fish cost $500 each considering all the equipment bait had to use.

Didn't you read that the boat is free?

yeah, I want to go fishing, too.

I'll start the bidding at one six pack of beer if I can be included on the fishing trip.

Wait, I better up that to a case, since I'd drink the six pack by myself

You might also try just using a deep diving crankbait and hit some of the deeper areas - like along the dam close to the discharge.

Should be able to pick up some hybrids. Not as good eating, but more fun to catch on the size tackle you're using.

Lake Somerville needs to become more like Lake Havasu, so when I see "Lake Somerville" and "Pictorial" in the title of the thread, I know there will be some good pics in it.

Tag77, I'm up for a trip. Let's give it a few months for the fishing to pick up. I took Duck01/Terminator/Emeril a while back but we didn't catch much.

Hank, I've tried trolling down by the dam but never tried deep diving crank baits. Any idea which ones work best? You're right, hybrids are a lot of fun. Every now and then we'll hang one where we troll.

Cool thread, Bait. I'm jealous. You need to also explore Lake Livingston and the spawning going on there.

Just something that gets down 20+ feet. I've used mainly shad colored. Also try the Rat-L-Traps with the lips on them (blue and chrome is usually good for most types of bass).

As always, water clarity and cloud cover factor in on color choice.

Did you ever try that catfish spot I told you about on Gibbons?

I've never been to Livingston but I've heard a lot about it. I've been to Limestone, Fayette County Lake, and last year I went on a guided white bass trip on Lake Richland Chambers. Between 5 of us we all limited out in a couple of hours. I've still got the guide's business card if anyone is interested. His name is Bob Holmes and he was a lot of fun to fish with. He was very laid back and seemed to be having as much fun as we were.

By the way agz win, did you notice my TAMU wallett on the console? That should at leat bump me to three-percenter status.

Where's a good site near College Station for freshwater fishing from the shore?

Nice work Bait...

I'm not real big on trolling (esp. since I don't have a boat), but another great spot you might try on Somerville is near Welch Park.

Go all the way down to the SW corner of Welch park where it ends against the earth dam (a few hundred yards from the spillway). About 100-150 yards out from shore (depending on water level) there is a sandbar that parallels the shoreline in about 4-6 ft of water. It is extremely easy to find when there is a SW wind.

I have found this spot to be best under a SW wind because the wind seems to stack the bait up on this sandbar. Then the whites & hybrids cruise along this sandbar busting the shad.

A buddy and I would wade out to the sandbar and wade up and down it throwing 1/2 to 3/4oz. silver-shad Rat-L-Traps (w/ blue on the back & a little red on the underside).

It was greatness. I think the only time we got skunked was when a storm blew up, and we ended up leaving inside 30 minutes. One of the best was one time we caught about 40 pounds of hybrid in 5 fish.




You know me, gotta roam. Gotta bird-dog. Gotta cross females and fences, and if you'd all just come along you'd see...

that wallet looks planted!

NFLFAN, Somerville has some pretty decent shore fishing. A lot of white bass have been caught from the Welch Park shoreline. I use to fish off an un-used boat ramp at Yegua park and do pretty good.

Gibbons Creek Reservoir has some bank fishing spots but it's not the best. At Gibbons I'd fish down below the spillway.

[This message has been edited by BaitShack (edited 4/1/2004 9:03a).]

Thanks for the tip.

NFLFAN- the spot I told Bait about in my above post is good shore fishing at Somerville.

Also at Gibbons Creek if you park near the boat ramp and walk around the cove to the right of the ramp there is some flooded timber on a gradual point that has a pretty solid bottom for wading and you can always pick up some nice bass in the 3-5 pound range.



You know me, gotta roam. Gotta bird-dog. Gotta cross females and fences, and if you'd all just come along you'd see...

Trade you a trip to Sabine or Trinity for trout and redfish for a trip out on Somerville for whites...

dang it....I am stuck in the Metroplex.....you're killing me Bait!

We tore 'em up on the Pedernales River last weekend.

Vet- I don't know if you have a boat or not, but a few years ago there was a B.A.S.S. tournament on White Rock Lake, right in the heart of Dallas.

If you truly don't have much time to get away for fishing check out:http://www.gtbc.com/index.htm

It is well worth the membership $$$.




You know me, gotta roam. Gotta bird-dog. Gotta cross females and fences, and if you'd all just come along you'd see...

Bait....that is the exact method I have used for years at Somerville...Hellbenders w/ a pet spoon. In the past things really heat up in late May for fishing the main lake. Here is a limit I pulled out of Yegua last month



and another 3 man limit from last year

Nice haul! I couldn't see the pictures at first but I coudl when I copied the url adress in directly.

thx! ive been fishing somerville since i was about 10 or so and have pulled thousands of whites out over the years. ive got tons of pictures like those

Looking good Bait.

My father in law does a lot of trolling over on Livingston and he uses the Luher Jenson Jet Divers. They don't get out of tune like the Hellbenders do and end up pulling way right or left. I think they also give you a more consistant depth mostly because when we get onto a group of fish we catch more with the jet divers and I can only think it's because it puts the spons at the same depth every time.

I will probably doing some trolling just like that on Easter weekend.

CT, the Jet Divers look pretty sweet. I may have to order a few. Thanks for the tip.



I had to trash a hellbender yesterday because it was out of tune and kept coming back to the top.

Places and methods I've use to catch a hell of a lot of Sandies around the Dallas area. The list is in order from my most favorite to my almost favorite:

1. Brazos River- To me, the sandbass run on the Brazos is legendary. The sandbass start to "run" about the time the redbud trees start to bud out. We put in or walk from Cedar Bluff (This is a really old boat ramp and camping area. It is hard to find, so get someone to give you directions). From Cedar Bluff go upstream to either the first or second "island." The best thing to do is to sane(sp?) minnows at or before you get to the first island. The best minnows on the Brazos, in my opinion, are the minnows with black spots on their tails (aka "spot tails". Ghost minnows are also good, but die much sooner than the spot tails. Locations all along this part of the river may be "on", so try a variety of fishy spots along the way. Depending on the height of the river, we either wade fish or ancor and fish from the boat. All that is required is a # 10 hook and a split-shot. Cast up river at about 45 degrees and let the current carry the bait down the river. I've also used various roadrunner type jigs to a slightly lesser degree of success. The past few years has been slow, because of the golden algae; however, this year we limited out on some nice size females in about four to five hours. The trip requires so physical work, but you see some pretty scenery. I really recommend the trip for those with young kids.

2. Richland Chambers- The sandbass school throughout the summer. We take a pair of binoculars and watch for diving birds. (Really you can just look for a grouping of boats.) We use a variety of rigs, but here are a few that work for us: a) Hopkins-type slab spoon (They have started selling them at Bass Pro Shops), b) Floating popping cork with about 3-4 feet of leader with a roadrunner tied to the end (similar to the popping cork/shrimp combo used on the coast). When the bass are surfacing- this method allows you to cast a mile, c) Crome Rattletrap, and d) Clear or crome torpedo. The Sandies get bigger the deeper you go, so we usually go with the slab spoon.

3. Lake Whitney- Haven't been in about five years, because we have started fishing Richland Chambers instead. However, back in the day we did pretty much the same thing as we do at RC, above. Whitney has a lot of strippers now, so that may be a the way you want to go. When fishing for strippers we go at night and ancor to avoid the heat. First, at about dusk, we sane minnows on the boat ramp or go into the creeks and throw a casting net for shad. We ancor at the edge of the old river channel and stay there all night (Watch your depth finder to determine the location of the channel.) We rig up with a heavy weight and a decent size hook and let the bait sink to the bottom. Once on the bottom, we reel up every so often (make sure you keep track so you know how deep they are) and just wait for a bite. Be sure to hold on, because the strippers will take the bait and run like hell.

Good luck.

[This message has been edited by KUBIAK (edited 4/1/2004 12:44p).]

Sorry, Bait. You're still at 2% until you provide some ticket stubs.

Is Summerville shoreline still all owned by the State? I haven't been in years and at one time I was searching for property there but no private waterfront was available.

You need to try Livingston. It's an easy 1:10 minutes from College Station straight to and through Huntsville -- it's the same road (Hway 190) that is the bridge over the lake from Pt. Blank to Onalaska.

If you ever decide to go, I highly recommend putting your boat in here. Great folks own/run the place and some of the best burgers around. They put up a wonderful 4th of July fireworks display, too, where you can sit on your boat and watch if you want.

http://www.holidayshoresmarina.com/

So are you gonna confess now that the wallet was planted?



[This message has been edited by agz win (edited 4/1/2004 1:01p).]