This morning I welcomed Ted D. and Andy M. aboard. These two men are partners in ministry from Hill Country Bible Church in Austin and decided to fish for fish today as a little respite from fishing for men.
Good wind, good cloud cover, and rising water temperatures equated to non-stop fishing today for white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.
Ted serves as a pastor on staff at Hill Country Bible Church, leading their small groups effort, and Andy is a layman who leads a small group along with his wife, Amy. Since Ted serves in the same capacity at his church as I do in mine, we really hit it off and had a lot to talk about in between fish.
We experienced a second consecutive day of heavy overcast and strong southerly winds, having a net warming effect on the water temperatures.
As we began the hunt for fish, we immediately came upon a helpful flock of about 14 Bonaparte Gulls that helped point the way to fish for us for a full 2.5 hours.
At first they worked up shallow in the vicinity of Area 089/054/1054 during which time we threw bladebaits horizontally.
Next, the birds transitioned to near the river channel in the vicinity of Area 419 during which time we began to vertically jig with TNT180 slabs. These fish were tight to the bottom here and for many yards to the N. and S. of this area.
Finally, the birds moved off and worked near a broad, mid-depth flat in about 27 feet of water near Area 566, with action extended well S. of here, all the way to Area 1195. We made a number of “short hops” in this area to keep up with the birds and fish, and stayed in the fish right up until just after 11am.
Since we were catching many small fish, I left this area altogether and spent about 30 minutes quickly searching elsewhere for some better sized fish, but found little and so returned to spend the remainder of our time fishing for the fish we’d located earlier.
Just to experiment, we also ran some crankbaits in the vicinity of Area 116 and found some larger white bass scattered throughout this area.
By far the most aggressive action came at sunrise and for about 30 minutes thereafter during which time we saw some light topwater feeding in shallow water.
Fish ran on the smallish side today. Given the way these fish looked and acted, I’d dare say these were some of the first, early-season male spawners that have now returned to the main lake, and they’ve returned very hungry. Add to that good wind, good cloud cover, and rising water temperatures, and the mix was just right for a very fishy day today. A cold front due in tomorrow will stifle this to some degree, but, spring fishing usually bounces back very quickly. We’ll see!!
TALLY = 84 fish, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 7:15a
End Time: 11:15a
Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start
Water Surface Temp: ~64.4F
Wind: Winds were S to SSE at 14, gusting regularly to 20mph.
Cloud Cover: 100% grey skies with the orb of the sun visible through the clouds at most times.