Fished a half-day morning trip on Stillhouse in advance of a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip tomorrow.

PENDING STILLHOUSE CATCH & RELEASE LAKE RECORD: WHITE BASS, 15 1/8 INCHES, TAKEN ON REEFRUNNER CICADA BLADEBAIT

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~78.8F

Wind: Winds were light from the NE at around 7 at the start of the trip, slowly increasing to around NE at 13 by late morning, and growing even stronger into the afternoon in advance of a cool front due to pass late this evening .

Skies: Skies were fair the entire morning.

Fishing was very simple this morning. It was just a matter of being at the right place at the right time. The right place was Area 444 and the right time was from 6:40 to about 9:30. Over this time span I saw some of the strongest topwater feeding I’ve seen on Stillhouse in a long while. I attribute this to the lack of hydrilla once again allowing the white bass and small black bass to freely drive shad across expanses of water without anywhere for them to hide, and to an abundance of small shad now in the system due to a very successful spawn which coincided with the 3.5 foot water rise a few weeks ago. Once the sun peeked over the horizon the fish turned on on topwater. At first they were a bit selective on size, as only very small shad were found on the surface. As the sky brightened, multiple sizes of shad began to appear and mix together, and then the fish began to hit anything that moved. During the early bite, a well-placed Cork Rig or a silver blade bait did about equally. Later, the Cork Rig and a Spook Jr. did the trick, and both allowed for long distance casting. By the time the melee ended, I’d boated 75 fish, 100% of which were white bass and 100% of which were legal. All these fish were clean and healthy; 3 fish went 14.5 inches.

After the topwater settled down to just dribs and drabs, I began to focus on concentrated bottom hugging fish. By hovering in place with the troller, I cast out to 23-25 feet of water where sonar indicated white bass were grouped. I then lift-dropped a blade bait back to the boat with a slow, steady retrieve. I stayed in one spot and added exactly 45 more fish to the tally, including 1 largemouth, 4 drum, and 40 white bass. The largest white bass went 15 1/8 inches and 1.25+ pounds and will qualify as a new lake record under the brand new waterbody catch and release category which opened on June 1st.

By 10:00 all had settled down, although “popcorn” schools of whites could still be seen from time to time over open water.

Just out of curiosity, I checked from Area 454 through Area 208 to Area 207 for signs of bait and gamefish on sonar while running downriggers. Over this span, I came up with only one short largemouth on a silver White Willow. Not much was showing for bait here, either. With that run completed, I wrapped it up with 116 fish brought to boat today.

TALLY = 116 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