Fishing is awesome. It has pulled off all that water and has concentrated the fish in a smaller amount of water. That is common.

Where the effect comes in droughts is the low water levels coming off the spawn. All the water is pulled off the cover the baby bass are hiding in. They can't hide and this hurts recruitment. But it is something fishermen might not notice for three or four years.

In cross-examination, as in fishing, nothing is more ungainly than a fisherman pulled into the water by his catch

We thought there would be open water when we got here. Last year, the (ice-fishing demo) was canceled because it was so cold. The year before we had 7 inches of ice and talked to over 200 people.

How far the white bass run up the Sabine is dependent on the river flow. It is not going to keep them from spawning. A lot of people may not know that they will spawn in the lake on wind-blown points. It is going to impact angler success.

The 60s are magic. That's when things start to happen. When the temperature gets into the upper 50s, the males start looking for spawning sites. Anglers who start catching the males know that's when the spawn is about to happen.