Thom, I’m Going to Need a Nap After This! — 72 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow, 02 June 2012






This morning I met long-time client Mr. Thom G. and his two boys, Garrett and Carson, and family friends, Mr. Brad M. and his son, Miles, for a kids’ fishing trip on Stillhouse in celebration of Garrett’s birthday.


This shot was taken at our last stop over open water where some light topwater led us to much more action going on beneath the surface. We boated a nice mix of 13 white bass and largemouth here. (L to R – Miles, Garrett, and Carson).

We had ideal weather conditions today — dry, stable weather with manageable winds from just W. of S.

We began our day up shallow at Area 200 where a nice mix of rock, weed, and wood come together to form great habitat for sunfish. We fished with poles and slipfloats using maggots and did very well. The boys landed exactly 50 fish between the 3 of them before the sunfish wised up to our tricks. We caught quite a variety of sunfish here including bluegill, longear, green (officially); then, unofficially, we also boated dumbfish (those that hit a hook with no bait), headachefish (those that glanced the side of the boat as they were lifted out of the water), wahoo (those with coloration resembling that saltwater species), and more. That was fun!

Next, it was off to the white bass grounds to add some variety to our trip in terms of technique, size of fish, and species of fish. We headed to Area 1085/822 and downrigged at 25-27 feet over scattered white bass in this area. We picked up 9 fish (3 per boy) on the ‘riggers using doctored Pet Spoons. We put 7 white bass and 2 largemouth in the boat here. Thom put a $1 bounty on the head of the first fish caught and on the largest fish caught. As we began downrigging, a 13 5/8 inch white bass took large fish credit, but was quickly bumped by a 15.5 inch largemouth.

Act III began as we left the tapering white bass action behind and headed out to open water to fish for largemouth with live bait. We looked over a hump, a saddle, and a hydrilla-covered breakline before we hit paydirt. As we sat on the breakline, I saw a school of topwater-feeding fish disturb the surface about 80 yards away. We brought our lines in and headed over to the ruckus and hovered over the action for about an hour at Area 1096.

Now, here’s where things got interesting. I’ve got 3 young elementary-aged kids on board. The fishing has been good up until now, but we’ve just struck out at 3 consecutive spots, so the whole impatience and short attention span thing is kicking in. Kids have a way of compensating — such as by reliving old memories by re-catching the fish already in the livewell, such as by assigning pet names to the fish in the livewell, such as by creatively snacking with sun-melted chocolate covered donuts, and the list goes on. It was at this time that the fish decided to cooperate again. It was all we could do to keep 3 rods baited and another couple of slabbing rods working the active fish to pick up a few bonuses. Despite what appeared to be a floating carnival taking place above the water complete with music (the constant slamming of the livewell lid), fish actually continued to feed below the surface and, in the end, we put an additional 13 fish in the boat (and probably missed at least that many more as can happen when you mix kids and live bait on circle hooks).

As the fish began to settle down and the tempo on the boat began to ease back, I looked at Thom and informed him I would definitely need a nap this afternoon!

We really had a good time; the boys did great; they were rewarded for their efforts and, I do believe each went home with at least one pet sunfish in a cut-off Gatorade bottle.

Thom informed me that Garrett, when asked what he wanted for his birthday, told him he wanted to come out fishing with me every year on his birthday until he turned 19, at which time he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese instead!

I’m looking forward to next year’s carnival!! We may even get little sister Peyton in the mix by then.


TALLY = 72 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:35a

End Time: 11:30p

Air Temp: 73F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 77F

Wind: Winds were SSW8-10.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.