Fished a half-day evening “Kids Fish, Too!” trip on Stillhouse with best friends Joseph H. and Tyanna E. of Killeen.
TYANNA WITH A BIG OL’ CHANNEL CAT
CAN YOU TELL JOSEPH WAS EXCITED ABOUT THIS WHOLE THING?
Start Time: 5:30p
End Time: 9:00p
Air Temp: 90F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: ~81.3F
Wind: Winds were from the SE at around 12 at the start of the trip, slowly tapering off to around SE at 9 by trip’s end.
Skies: Skies were fair entire trip, with a bank of grey clouds obscuring the sun’s setting for the last 45 minutes of the day.
After mom dropped Joseph and Tyanna off with me, I spoke with each of them about thier fishing experiences, what they thought our trip would be like, and what kind of equipment they were already familiar with. Tyanna had no fishing experience and had never caught a fish before. Joseph absorbs all he can about the sport through books, movies, fishing shows, and magazines, but has had little opportunity to practice what he’s learned.
We began the trip using bream poles and bait. As we did so, the kids learned the importance of being stealthy in their approach to fish, about how fish use cover to ambush from, and about how to match tackle to quarry size. After about 40 minutes we’d covered about 200 yards of shoreline from Area 455 to Area 456, and each landed 3 sunfish. I offered that we could pursue some larger fish and the kids snapped at the chance to do that, so we headed out to some deeper waters and in no time sonar revealed that bait and gamefish were sandwiched at 22-27 feet to the E. of a line from Area 118 to Area 145. We ran downriggers over these fish and steadily caught white bass, largemouth, and even a crappie. Before long both kids were able to raise and lower the ball, set the ball to the correct depth, and correctly rig the release clip. They worked well as a team with one reeling in the downrigger ball as the other landed a fish so the rigs could be quickly set out again to enhance our chances of another hookup. After boating 8 fish here, the fishing quieted down so we moved.
We once again successfully located fish near Area 056, and in a “box” about 150 yds. x 150 yds. to the S. of it. These fish were also suspended in a band, this time from 18-24 feet. The same Pet Spoon and Lunker Licker combination did the trick for our final 5 fish of the evening including 3 white bass and 1 average largemouth, and the big ol’ channel cat that Tyanna is proudly displaying above.
This was a really nice trip. These two kids got along really well, they both wanted to succeed and were willing to listen the the instructions necessary for that to happen. As is typical of Stillhouse, the evening bite was a bit weaker than the morning bite today, but we made the best of it and put a total of 19 fish in the boat tonight.
TALLY = 19 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