Fishin’ on the Fourth of July — 82 Fish, Austin Fishing Guide Report for Stillhouse Hollow






This morning I fished with “Grandpa” George D. of Waxahachie, TX, and his two grandsons, 13 year old Jonathan, and 11 year old Joshua, from Katy, TX.

Jonathan with two of our four best fish of the trip.


And Joshua with the other half of our best four fish of the day.

The boys were well-behaved kids, eager to learn, and ready to fish. We got on our first area and had our first rod bent just minutes into the trip and never went but a few minutes without catching a fish for the remainder of our time on the water.

Fishing could really not have been much easier today. We enjoyed the return of a SSW wind today with continuing high pressure and bearable temperatures. The consistent high pressure makes for “cookie cutter” days where the fish do the same thing in the same locations and at the same times nearly every day until a wrinkle in the weather changes their routine.

Here’s how it played out this morning … first, we downrigged as we waited for the skies to brighten and the fish to get active (Area 458/459/909), then, once we began to see fish chase bait to the surface, we got in the “center of mass” and used a combination of horizontal and vertical techniques with slabs and bladebaits to capitalize on the find (vicinity of Area 484/485 and south of Area 1233). After that morning peak of activity had passed, we downrigged (Areas 1231-1222) to comb out the still active fish while every once in a while stopping to “smoke” our slabs through a tightly schooled bunch of white bass holding on or near bottom.

Along the way we picked up several doubles on the tandem rigged Pet Spoons we used for downrigging. Noticeably absent from our catch today were any largemouth bass. Largemouth have been making up ~10% of our catch over the entire month of June, but today, not a single one was hooked or landed. We boated exactly 80 white bass and 2 freshwater drum.

Over the course of our time together, George, a small group leader at his church, and I got to talk in between fish about group life, church history, and modern Christian authors (his favorites are John MacArthur and John Piper).

By 10:30 the Fourth of July “crazies” had begun to show up — jet skis, ski boats, pontoons everywhere, so it was time for we on the “early shift” to head on out.


TALLY = 82 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 72F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83.1F

Wind: Winds were SSW7-8 the entire trip.

Skies: Fair.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas