I fished a brief, solo scouting trip this evening mainly looking for birds and bait, and to see what impact the cold front that came in overnight had on the fish.

Start Time: 4:15p

End Time: 6:40p


Air Temp: 43F at sunrise heating up to 60F by afternoon, then falling off rapidly after sunset to 52 by trip’s end.


Water Surface Temp: ~51.1F

Wind: Winds were very light from the NNE at 2-3 mph.

Skies: Clear and bright high pressure conditions.

Not expecting to find much due to the nearly slack winds, I quickly checked 5 areas today with sonar and found fish at only 1 of them. Birds were not a factor today. I only saw one group of terns working over loons, and all other birds resting.

My one and only stop came at Area 352 at around 5pm at the channel drop from 28 to 37+ feet of water. Sonar showed suspended bait and gamefish in abundance here. With only an hour before the sun would set, I got right to work with a 3/8 oz. TNT 180 slab in white.

There was a mix of white bass, crappie and largemouth bass here, with all of them behaving identically. All fish were suspended, tightly bunched in small packs of 2-5 fish, and all barely moving at all. A deadstick presentation was the only presentation these fish would hit. All of the fish hit as crappie usually do — that is, they slowly approached the bait from beneath, and then inhaled it while moving upwards, thus easing the tension felt in the rod tip. An immediate hookset was necessary to catch these light biters.

This scenario played out over and over for a total of 21 fish taken here in ~80 minutes’ time. The sun disappeared below the horizon at exactly 5:59p, and the last fish (a small crappie) hit at 6:20p. The breakdown on the fish caught included 11 white bass, 8 crappie, and 2 largemouth bass. At sunset I switched over from the slab to the green shad colored Jigger Shad after the fish lost interest in the slab — but caught only 2 fish on that presentation.

TALLY = 21 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing