# Lake Livingston vacation



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

The 2nd day of vacation was pretty nice. A friend of Lee's, Bryan, came to fish with us.
We managed to avoid the stripers by carefully casting like crazy, then moving away to find white bass right before they went on a little feeding spree. Some days you get it right and some days you don't!
The day before, the 1st day of vacation, we did okay and caught four keeper stripers, but they had to be coerced. 
Today when we went to find white bass they obliged by coming to the top and going nuts for over an an hour.
Thanks guys that made it real easy to find ya!

Several boats got in on the frenzy and they just keep up going after it.
We stopped keeping them at 35 and most of the fish were of a much better size than we have been catching. About 13" on the average.


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## JD slayer (Jul 9, 2013)

I guess I should have stayed longer today,well maybe next time. It was nice to have met you today.


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## RAYSOR (Apr 26, 2007)

Great second vacation, always good to see you out!


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Nice to meet you J D Slayer, those fish came up about 20 minuets after you were out of site. They were had to get to bite however, they must have been feeding on new hatch shad. I found the ticket was to have the reel engaged and be reeling when the crank bait hit the top and it was automatic!
Yeah, this 2nd vacation is not near as expensive as the 1st one. And I am having fun, which we know ain't cheap!


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## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

shadslinger said:


> Yeah, this 2nd vacation is not near as expensive as the 1st one. And I am having fun, which we know ain't cheap!


Fun cost money! How much fun do you want to have?

(Modified version of sign in race car parts store that said: Speed cost money! How fast do you want to go?)


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## JD slayer (Jul 9, 2013)

Hey like you said sometime you miss it. Thanks for the report.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I stayed just right today and the stripers were willing. Five real fast then back home for breakfast.


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## RAYSOR (Apr 26, 2007)

When you fish everyday and catch fish everyday does your vacation just seem like one big blurrrrr! haha


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## Jwsops (Mar 7, 2013)

nice FISH!!


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## JD slayer (Jul 9, 2013)

Nice! I wish I could have been there.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Day 4. Exciting morning, the fish were revved up and blowing the bait several feet in the air several times before getting hooked up. Sometimes jumping over the bait and trying to crash down on it in the shallow water.
Several did and they would slam the bait against the bottom and drag it until it ripped out. Only to come back the next cast and whack it again.
Vacation is fun! Back home before 8:00.
I caught all but one on long casts and with the light weight spinning tackle these 25"+ fish were a hoot to fight and tough to get in the boat.


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## FishNJeremy (Jan 1, 2012)

nice catch. I really like how the action and setup you and lee was using last saturday. If you dont mind me asking, what's the specs on the spinning rod? Do you use braided line with it?


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

The ultra to light spinning rods and reels loaded with 20# braid make it easy to get good action. My favorite is a Lew's speed spool spinning rod/reel combo. Got a deep spool and 6'6" rod that gets good distance. I make the bait do the "crazy shad" dance when they are not hitting the usual "walk the dog" stroke.
I get this action by palming the spool down to take the arc out of the cast so that the line is flat when the bait hits the water. I am already reeling and twitching as soon as the lure contacts the water, trying to make the bait swap ends as it dances across the water in a way that makes it look like a shad that is being pursued,....hard.
Between it and walking the dog with strong steady strokes i can usually get bit.
I think the spinning tackle does a better job of holding on to them and hook ups than the bait caster type tackle when casting tops.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Day 5
BBJim, Zach, AKA famous 2cooler" Lester More", and I went in the Horizon.
BBJim has a bucket list item of catching a striper on his homemade buggy whip of a spinning rod. Made from a steelhead fly rod. He had one briefly on, but lost him and had several follows, maybe next time.
I landed one and one took my top water lure away after a brief, but intense fight! 
We had a couple more hooked briefly and a lot of teases, plus Zach had one on trolling the light crank bait, but he got OFT!!

We circled the casters, man it felt good fishing like a week end troller, :rotfl: LOL!! Sorry to Danmanfish and his friend, and Matt who were both out and doing well casting. So it was easy to pot lick going back and forth between them :mpd:!
Being old geezers we decided to troll. and put a quick 40 fair white bass in the live well before going in.


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## Gofish2day (May 9, 2006)

Sounds like a great week of vacation to me!!!!


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

Loy, Do you know this fellow?


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

That's ole Joe, uh, forgot his last name, on Lil' Abner. Nothing ever goers his way with the cloud over his head, LOL!

Day 6

Working on boat, UPS man came with some supplies. Waxed the ole girl, it's hot out now!
More materials to be gathered then Saturday we hit the repair job.
I heard BBJim went fishing with no luck.
I think a deadening high pressure is setting over him, er the lake.


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## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

Well SS, on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, are you just going to tow a fleet behind you for the dawn patrol at Pine Island?


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## Mattsfishin (Aug 23, 2009)

I hope he does. Maybe some of us can fish without the parade. If he got paid by the numbers of POT LICKERS he would be a rich man.:rotfl:


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## danmanfish (Jun 17, 2010)

shadslinger said:


> Day 5
> 
> We circled the casters, man it felt good fishing like a week end troller, :rotfl: LOL!! Sorry to Danmanfish and his friend, and Matt who were both out and doing well casting. So it was easy to pot lick going back and forth between them :mpd:!


Loy, it actually worked out well.. between you guys trolling through and stirring up the bait and us having a decent knowledge working the trolling motor,, we kept out of each others way and everyone caught fish.. we ended up with 40 whites and 1 keeper 22" striper..

Matt tore em up again.. when I get old I want to fish and be lucky like him.. :spineyes::rotfl:


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

It was a good morning and fishing with Jim and my old friend Zach was a lot of fun. The fishing went downhill from there I think, big high pressure or something???
Anyway I am neck deep in this repair job and no turning back now.
I get one more day of fishing with Nick in the morning. He is taking his fly rod and I hope he can nail one.


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## markbrumbaugh (Jul 13, 2010)

Im down to half dozen WB per trip with this high pressure. Sorry I came up and spoilt the fishing. Met a nice fellow, John somebody from onalaska fishing along my shoreline. He limited, but was trolling about 2 knots. I was doing 3.2 same area, bait, etc. out fished me 10/1. Fwiw.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I have noticed they started wanting the lure going real slow lately, 1.8 to 2.4mph.

Took Nick out this morning and things were pretty dead. Got a striper on my first cast, then no more.
Nick and I trolled around for white bass, found some and backed off to cast to them.
They were biting okay so I told Nick to try his fly rod, as they were shallow.
A little later I hear him say " There we go!" and he caught his first white bass on a fly rod.0
Great morning of fishing with my old fishing friend.


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## FISHROADIE (Apr 2, 2010)

Very good vacation SS you guys have really caught some great numbers of fish this year. I bet it was fun for Nick to catch a white bass on his fly rod.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Nick is hard core, I like to fish with him.
He gets outside of the box, but still uses standard techniques. A cool combination.
I don't know how many times in the past when him, his daddy, and I would fish every week end, he would pull out some weird combination of slabs/crappie jigs/ top water, some thing weird and Dbullard and I would say, "Nick put that stuff away man we are trying to fish", and Bam! Nick would pullout fish of the day.

Once it was a dead minnow hooked lips first on a crappie jig suspended halfway down the water column. I'm about to tell him, "Dude you are not going to catch much,...." When. Wham!! Big white crappie, 16".
I'm glad I didn't say anything, lol!


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## CFKBig57 (Apr 18, 2013)

i think im not out of the box yet, just ripped it open! it was fun and glad i could get some of the skunk off my hands. those couple good crappie years have us spoiled. i definitely have had some weird stuff on the line. thanks for taking me out, i enjoyed it. That wasn't a big white but man he fought hard on that 5/6 wt!


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## RAYSOR (Apr 26, 2007)

Shadslinger you are the man! Good job taking Nick out, the world needs more people with good hearts like you in it!


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## SKs Crappie Fishing (Mar 24, 2008)

shadslinger said:


> Nick is hard core, I like to fish with him.
> He gets outside of the box, but still uses standard techniques. A cool combination.
> I don't know how many times in the past when him, his daddy, and I would fish every week end, he would pull out some weird combination of slabs/crappie jigs/ top water, some thing weird and Dbullard and I would say, "Nick put that stuff away man we are trying to fish", and Bam! Nick would pullout fish of the day.
> 
> ...


Hehehehahaha, you just explained my usual trip if I had either of my sons on the boat, they would tear my tackle box up until they found a combination of some crazy colors to catch some good crappie. I learned a long time ago to let them do the work because they would prove me wrong every time. Till this day I still try some of the crazy things they did


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