Fished a half-day morning trip today on Stillhouse with Ron N. of Round Rock and his 13 year old son, Spencer. This trip was in honor of Spencer’s 13th birthday, but we had a secondary purpose which was to get the two fellows where they could use a downrigger on their own so as to transfer what they learned on their trip to their own boat and on their “home” lakes of Georgetown and Granger.

Sonar screen shot showing tightly schooled, suspended white bass relating to bait with our downrigger ball (horizontal blue line) headed for paydirt

These white bass were so jazzed and aggressive they followed the 10 pound downrigger ball up halfway to the surface thinking they were going to miss a meal!!

Downrigging student Ron N. and birthday boy Spencer N. show 3 of a mixed bag of 49 fish taken under high pressure conditions today.

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.7F

Wind: Winds were SSW the entire time at around 8-9 mph.

Skies: Skies were clear and blue under the influence of strong, continued high pressure that has made for some very stable fishing conditions.

We started this morning’s trip with some casting lessons for Spencer so he could use spinning gear to target any topwater fish we might encounter. Then it was off looking for a little topwater action in the chop of the nice SSW breeze. We found multiple schools of small largemouth bass feeding on topwater on and around Area 479. Ron was very quick and accurate with his casts and very quickly put 3 just-short bass in the boat. Spencer was going through a learning curve with the spinning gear in a pretty demanding situation and never did come up with a fish off topwater, but he was casting smoothly and with good distance by the time we changed tactics.

By around 8:00 or 8:15am it was clear that topwater was going to be short-lived, so we began to focus on downrigging. As Ron really wanted to learn how to do this, I spent extra time explaining in detail what we were doing and why we were doing it. I also tied in observations made on sonar as the downrigger and sonar unit are really an inseparable combination.

We began to pickup some good baitfish readings on sonar in a triangular area defined by Areas 480, 481, and 209. We put ‘riggers down and literally had a fish on in less than a minute. The fish were sandwiched at ~25-26 feet and a well-placed bait got bit just about every time. We had a solo Pet on one rod and a Pet / Licker combo on the other. We caught fish for an hour solid and had landed a total of 33 fish when I noted some bottom-hugging fish relating to bait in 25-28 feet at Area 481. We backed off downwind and fired blades into the fish picking up 4 whites and a black in short order. Once the fish dissipated, we got back in contact with the suspended fish by downrigging once again.

By 10am, this area went soft. We moved to Area 217 and the game was back on, albeit with less intensity. There was a lot of bait here, but the fish weren’t as thick or as active. We put 3 largemouth and a drum in the boat, taking our tally up to 43 fish and decided we’d try one more spot to see if we could break the official family record of 45 fish caught in one trip long ago by Grandpa Leo.

We headed to Area 458 and found a very small, but active, bunch of fish right at 25-26 feet on bottom. We kept our downrigger balls set at 23 and 24 to just skim over these fish without creating a silt plume. We picked up a drum on our first pass (fish #44). We picked up a largemouth on our next pass (fish #45 – now tied for the family record!). The go-ahead fish actually turned into a double as both Ron and Spencer brought in white bass (#’s 46 & 47). With the record broken, we sat on our laurels as we policed up the boat (with baits still in the water) and, just before calling it a day, picked up two more white bass to close out the trip on a great note.

By trip’s end, all I was doing was steering the boat and keeping our downrigger balls from striking bottom. Ron and Spencer were doing the rest as they really picked up on the whole concept of downrigging to the point that they were confident they could do it by themselves — Mission Accomplished!!

TALLY = 49 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