This morning I welcomed 3 generations aboard — Gladys N., Deb P. (Gladys’ daughter), and Jared and Austin M. (Gladys’ twin 10 year old grandsons and Deb’s nephews).
White bass? We caught ’em!
Black bass? We caught ’em!
The two ladies had fished with me once before in May on a mother-daughter trip on Belton. This morning we gave Stillhouse a try as it has been very consistently producing both largemouth and white bass with many of the fish cooperating by hitting topwater presentations as they feed aggressively in the upper portion of the water column on shad.
We began this morning’s trip between Areas 057 and 061. Abundant “schoolie” sized largemouth between 13-15 inches were feeding aggressively on shad. We used topwater hardbaits to attempt to quickly and accurately cast to fish as they “boiled” on the surface. Most accurately and timely casts drew strikes early on, then, as the sun brightened, the success rate began to fall off.
After the winds increased sufficiently to stop the topwater bite, we let the largemouth bass fishing fall by the wayside and turned our attention on white bass.
We headed to the vicinity of Area 644/660 and found abundant, suspended white bass and plenty of forage in the form of shad here. Due to the winds being right at 13-14 mph, we went with a downrigging approach, using two sets of twin Pet Spoons on spreader rigs to regularly catch both singles and doubles of white bass for over two hours. Occasionally we would break from this routine to throw bladebaits if an aggressive school of white bass pushed shad to the surface and stayed there long enough to warrant bringing in all the downrigging equipment and e-anchoring in place so as to steady the boat enough for casting in the windy conditions.
All four anglers were casting proficiently by the time we got into the white bass at this location, so, the numbers began to add up very quickly … 60, 70, 80, then 90+ fish. Once everyone realized that a 100 fish day was attainable, we wanted to accomplish that, but, the boys were on edge of having the novelty of the whole adventure wear off.
I had to dust off my pep talk about being so close to reaching a goal and our fate being in our own hands. I advised the boys that we could definitely have a 100 fish day, but that we’d need to stay focused. To their credit, they both rose to the occasion, cooperated well, and brought the last 4 fish in needed to bring our trip total up to exactly 100 fish.
By 10:10am our common goal was reached, so we sought out some calm water, took photos to commemorate the trip, and headed back in to the boat ramp.
TALLY = 100 FISH
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 6:15a
End Time: 10:15a
Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 83-84F
Wind: Winds were S5 increasing to S14.
Clouds: ~40% cloud cover on a fair sky.
Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas