by John Jefferson
We had a new neighbor move in next door that immediately parked his personality in the driveway.
A Jaguar? A Lamborghini? A helicopter?
No. It was a weathered old Army Jeep with a high rack over the back seat for South Texas deer hunting. I quickly introduced myself to Clyde Smith and welcomed him to the neighborhood.
One day after we had become fast friends and brothers in arms over deer hunting, I had just finished a difficult magazine assignment and wanted a break. I strolled into the front yard and looked longingly at the Jeep. I couldn’t resist it; I climbed up into the high rack’s seat and surveyed the neighborhood as if I were somewhere near Cotulla.
Clyde came home about that time, saw me, and seemed to chuckle. Getting out, with a straight face, he asked, “Seeing anything?”
“Naw,” I answered. “Nothing’s moving. Guess it’s too hot.”
“It’s that,” he said. “Wanna go fishing Saturday?’
Of course, I did. He told me he had a small boat stored somewhere.
It was an early Skeeter Bass Boat — one of the first boats designed particularly for bass fishing. I had always admired them. Their first ones were made in the ‘40s out of molded plywood. Clyde’s boat was a later model constructed out of fiberglass in the ‘50s. It had a flat bottom, two seats, and rode low in the water. With any speed, water splashed inside. And I loved it.
We fished Lake Georgetown that Saturday afternoon. Neither of us had been on the lake before. After unproductively trying several areas, we noticed a splash or two and motored over to check ‘em out. Almost immediately, we began getting strikes. I was casting a silver Cotton Cordell “Super Spot” lure. I don’t remember Clyde’s lure. After catching three or four 15-inch largemouths, the shad dove, and the action waned. Then we noticed splashing again nearby. We moved and began catching bass again.
At one time, the bass chased shad so close to the shore that some baitfish landed on the bank. I had never seen anything that wild! We had plenty of bass and went home to clean them.
What we experienced that afternoon we later reprised on Lake Buchanan, beginning before daylight one magical morning. We had both learned by then that largemouths “school” late every summer on almost every lake in Texas. Mornings are better fishing – and cooler.
Schools are easy to spot. A couple hundred two-to-three-pound bass chasing a thousand or so shad near the surface aren’t very stealthy about it. That’s a feeding frenzy! They’ll let you know where they are.
Bass feed on shad, so ether bait with live shad, minnows, or shad-like lures — a “Shad Rap”, a silver or white “Rat-L-Trap”, a “Tiny Torpedo”, or anything resembling shad.
Schooling usually happens in open water near the dam on most lakes.
Clyde later traded his Skeeter for a larger striper boat and sold his Jeep. I wish I had bought both.
JJ
