This morning I took teenaged sisters Kristin (15) and Destiny (13) A. from Harker Heights out fishing on Stillhouse Hollow. Both girls caught their first fish today, and Destiny took her first boat ride, as well!
Kristin (L) and Destiny (R) display their four best white bass of the day. The girls also boated freshwater drum and largemouth bass.
Both young ladies were very well-mannered and regularly helped me and one another out so we could be as efficient as possible to maximize our catch today. The girls’ extracurricular interests lay in playing musical instruments in their school’s band. Although the girls had been fishing on a number of occasions, neither had ever landed a fish, so, given today’s success, both earned a TPWD “First Fish Award”.
We got going just as the sun was rising through some low grey clouds in the east. The fish really never fed on topwater for any length of time today as they had been doing in June, but, they were still feeding well where they were suspended, generally around 21-26 feet, just above the forming thermocline.
We started the day downrigging within the bounds of Areas 484/1233/660 and picked up singles and doubles on our tandem rigged Pet Spoons with regularity until we encountered our first good school of horizontally spread, bottom-hugging white bass at Area 444. We e-anchored and cast to these fish with bladebaits worked lift-drop style and did well for about 35 minutes. Next, we began downrigging southward and encountered another smaller school of fish along bottom a bit closer to Area 1233, and so we used TNT180 slabs to “smoke” these fish and did well for another 20 minutes or so, steadily pulling fish during that time. Once the morning peak was over by around 8:15a, we continued downrigging in this general vicinity, gradually moving deeper and deeper as the fish transitioned away from the shallows where they had fed during the early morning low-light conditions.
After this area played out, we dabbled a bit at Area 041 after seeing multiple small schools of white bass along the breakline and on the high side of it. These fish were in a slightly negative mode. I could see them on sonar and only occasionally would they follow a slab as we moved our lures among the fish.
We left this area after making 2-3 short hops and boating only 4 fish and headed to Area 1135 where we finished up the day with more downrigging and more singles and doubles on the Pet Spoons.
My preconceived notions of fishing with two teenaged sisters included lots of talking and lots of texting, but, in reality, the girls were very focused and engaged the entire time on the fishing. Kristin favored the downrigging whereas Destiny favored the slabbing approach. Both did very well and were fast learners. We ended up the day with 54 white bass, 2 drum, and 2 largemouth bass.
TALLY = 58 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 10:45a
Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 85F
Wind: Winds were SSW 7-8mph the entire trip.
Skies: Fair and 20% cloudy.
Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas