Good Athletes Make Good Fishermen — 71 Fish, Stillhouse, 14 Aug. 2014

This evening I finished with Jack Oliver, his dad, affectionately known as Pa, and Jack’s two sons, Isaac and Eli. Jack and his wife and boys live near Marble Falls, Texas, where Jack makes a living as an electrician. “Pa” Oliver in Temple, Texas.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

(L to R) Jack, “Pa”, Isaac, and Eli Oliver with a sampling of our catch of 71 fish taken by downrigging and vertically jigging with slabs on Stillhouse.

Isaac and Eli will be transitioning from home school to public school this year, both are soccer enthusiasts, and both just spent a few weeks of this summer at a Marine Corps-style military academy called “Marine Military Academy” in south Texas as an early introduction to military life, which they both very much enjoyed.

As we launched this afternoon the air temperature was 95°F, but just minutes before we got going a nice northeasterly breeze began to blow. This was the stiffest wind we have encountered in the last four days, and as far as the fishing was concerned, it was a welcome game changer.

Just 20 minutes after launching, and 30 to 45 minutes after that breeze began, we found white bass swarming all over a 28 to 32 foot breakline. These fish were bottom-oriented and were spread over a 60 yard area. Although we discovered these as we downrigged into this area, we pulled the downrigging gear out of the water as quickly as possible, e-anchored with the i-Pilot, and used slabs fished vertically to put 52 fish in the boat in the first 80 minutes of our trip.  Using small 3/8 oz. TNT slabs to match the look and size of the small forage fish being fed upon in this area did the trick.

When this action died it marked a slow decline in the fish action for the evening. We never found another group of fish willing to chase and strike our slabs, and therefore wound up downrigging for the remainder of our time on the water, finding an additional 20 fish at two distinct locations.  The go-to setup for this duty was the 3-armed umbrella rig with Pet Spoons attached.

As with many student athletes, Isaac and Eli had excellent coordination and very quickly picked up on how to rig the downrigger. This helped greatly having two capable ‘riggers on board, as it allowed me to steer the boat, focus on sonar, and keep or ‘rigger balls in the fish.  Our results bore this out, as this trip would be the most productive of the entire week.

For our efforts this evening we boated a total of 71 fish including 69 white bass, one channel catfish, and one large mouth bass.

 

TALLY = 71 FISH

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:15pm

End Time:  8:30pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:    95F

Water Surface Temp:   84.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:    NW10-12

Sky Conditions:    Fair with 10% high, thin, white clouds

Other: GT=40

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1432 and 1433 smoking

**Area  1231 to 1232 downrigging

**Area  1134 through 196 through 863 downrigging

**Area 1419 downrigging

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

A Little Time with Grandpa — 42 Fish, Stillhouse, 14 Aug. 2014

This morning I fished with Dr. Scott Isdale and his two grandsons, Dylan and Drake Degenhardt. The boys will be starting fifth grade and third grade, respectively, and grandpa wanted to get in an outdoor adventure ‘just for the guys’ before the school year begins.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Dr. Scott Isdale with his grandsons, Dylan (L) and Drake (R) with a few of the 42 fish we boated today.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
As the water temperature nears its annual peak, largemouth make up a larger percentage of the catch each August.
Dr. Isdale is a local chiropractor who has been helping people “adjust for the changes in life” since 1975 at his clinic in Killeen. The boys’ dad, Jason Degenhardt, is also a chiropractor and operates his practice off of Indian Trail in Harker Heights.  Dylan and Drake are both up and coming baseball players, but were decidedly not “morning people”.  Grandpa slowly coaxed them awake, and, by the time each had reeled in a fish or two, they were firing on all 8 cylinders.
Once again we had less than ideal conditions with a light northeast breeze, clear skies, and high-pressure, all in the wake of the cold front that passed early in the week.

This morning’s trip fished almost identically to yesterday morning’s trip. We encountered a light downrigging bite for sparse, scattered, suspended white bass in the first hour, followed by a 2-hour peak feed in the middle of the morning. As the peak feed got underway, largemouth bass began to pursue shad up on the surface, and white bass begin to pursue shad in the lower third of the water column. While the action was still ramping up we used three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons on the downriggers set at 22 to 26 feet. When the action built and we were able to hover over a very dense school of bottom-oriented white bass, we switched over to slabs and fished them vertically while the fish were in the immediate vicinity of the boat, and then used blade baits (Cicadas) cast horizontally to fish for them once they dispersed.

Once the downhill slide of the morning had kicked in, it progressed very quickly. By 1030 we had enjoyed all of the action we were going to enjoy for this morning. We caught a grand total of 42 fish this morning including exactly 40 white bass in the one, two, three, and four year classes, as well as 2 schoolie-sized largemouth bass.

 

TALLY = 42 FISH

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:00am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:    72F

Water Surface Temp:   84.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:    NW4-6

Sky Conditions:    Fair with 10% high, thin, white clouds

Other: GT=85

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 866 for an early downrigger bite on sparse, suspended fish

**Area 1232 through 671 for an aggressive downrigger bite on suspended white bass

**Area 1431 – 1133 about 25 minutes of solid smoking followed by 15 minutes of blade bait mop up on bottom-oriented white bass

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

Outdoors with Grandpa T. — 41 Fish, Stillhouse, 13 Aug. 2014

This morning I fished with Rodney Tyroch and his two grandkids, Scotty and Abby, who are visiting from northern Virginia.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Rodney Tyroch with his grandkids, Abby and Scotty, after a morning chasing suspended white bass on Stillhouse.

Although Rodney lives right on Belton lake, I let him know I preferred fishing Stillhouse lake this time of year, especially where kids are involved. Stillhouse fishes very consistently from the time the thermocline sets up to the time it breaks down again in October. Under most weather conditions white bass can be targeted and caught using downriggers as these fish suspend just above the thermocline. That thermocline is currently set up at around 34 feet deep.

Today we were faced with post frontal weather with its characteristic high, blue skies, high-pressure, and light northwesterly winds.

I’m never as confident when the winds are not out of the south or west, and today was no exception. It could have been a boom, it could’ve been a bust, or anything in between. As it turned out, we caught fish consistently from 8:45AM to 10:00AM after a bit of a slow start. During the slow start we downrigged for sparse, scattered fish. During the peak of the feed we continued downrigging for more heavily schooled, active fish, and once the fish really put the feed bag on, we caught them well for about a 25 minute span on slabs worked vertically. After the peak feed began to wind down, we “mopped up” with Cicada blade baits worked horizontally in the lower third of the water column.

When all was said and done, we managed to put 41 white bass in the boat in the zero, one, two, three, and four year classes.  Scotty took top honors for largest fish caught with his 14 7/8″ white bass, and Abby took top honors for most fish caught, sealing the deal with her early-morning triple (3 fish caught at a time) taken on the downriggers.

Whenever the kids come and visit “Grandpa T”, outdoor adventure is sure to happen. As we returned to the boat ramp, plans were already in the works for more fishing, more shooting, more bug collecting, more turtle netting, sleeping under the stars in the hammock, and more.

 

TALLY = 41 FISH

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  10:30am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:    71F

Water Surface Temp:   85.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:    NW4-6

Sky Conditions:    Fair with 10% high, thin, white clouds

Other: GT=65

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 871 for an early downrigger bite on sparse, suspended fish

**Area 1222 through 671 for an aggressive downrigger bite on suspended white bass

**Area 1431 about 25 minutes of solid smoking followed by 20 minutes of blade bait mop up on bottom-oriented white bass

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

Liam Tyding’s First Fish! — 28 Fish, Stillhouse, 12 Aug. 2014

This morning I fished with Ed Tydings of Pflugerville, Texas, and his five year old son, Liam. As they did for Eddie, Liam’s older brother, the Tydings treated Liam to his first fishing trip to celebrate his fifth birthday.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Ed Tydings and 5-year-old Liam Tydings with the very first fish of Liam’s fishing career.

We met at 7:00 AM and by 7:20 AM already had two fish in the boat.  I was a bit concerned about the fishing today due to the arrival of a weak cold front yesterday afternoon, which left northerly winds, clear skies, and high pressure in its wake. Although we saw next to no top water action today, the action on suspended white bass held up very well. We caught an even dozen white bass using three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons in our first hour and 15 minutes of fishing, along with one channel catfish.

I’ve learned a lot in my years spent fishing with literally hundreds of kids.  A few of those thing are 1) kids’ attention spans are short, 2) novelty wears off quickly, and 3) making intentional transitions to new techniques, species, and/or locations extends kids’ interest.

That said, by around 8:15 AM or so the novelty of the downrigging technique was wearing off for Liam, despite the excellent results. Dad and I agreed that a change of scenery and a change of tactics were appropriate. Thanks to the cold front conditions and falling water, plus a strong crop of hydrilla growing in the shallows, my ability to catch sunfish easily enough for small children to stay interested very long has slowly diminished over the summer, but, we gave it a try anyway using long poles with fixed lines and slip bobbers.  We fished in the “salad” of hydrilla in the back of a cove and picked up one bluegill sunfish and one green sunfish in fairly short order.

Liam then began asking questions about the “big net” (my landing net) on the boat. Ed and I told him that the big net was used to land big fish. So naturally, Liam asked if we could catch big fish so we could use the net. This allowed us to return to the white bass we had left behind still biting earlier in the morning and continue to catch them on the downriggers for the sake of introducing Liam to the finer points of netting big fish. We wound up catching an additional 13 white bass, with six of them coming on the downriggers and the remainder coming on slabs worked vertically after finding a heavy concentration of bottom oriented white bass at a break line in about 28 feet of water.

As the novelty of this third transition begin to wear off, as the sun began to beat down on us, and as the winds went slack, Liam’s interest level dropped sharply, and Ed and I knew that it was to a good time to end the trip so as to keep the memory of this trip a good one for Liam.  A lot of well-intentioned parents and grandparents make a big mistake at this point, insisting that kids stay out longer for the full duration of the trip, perhaps thinking that builds patience or character.  Actually, what it does is leaves a bad taste in kids’ mouths and is the last (negative) memory of what, up to that point, was a positive experience.  So, Ed made a good call here putting his boy first.  I have no doubt that Liam’s interest in the pursuit of fish has been kindled and that he’ll continue to look forward to outings with his dad and big brother.

Our catch of 28 fish today consisted of 25 white bass, 1 channel catfish, and 2 sunfish.  For landing the first fish of his life, Liam will receive a Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. “First Fish Award”.

 

TALLY = 28 FISH

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  10:38am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:    74F

Water Surface Temp:   85.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:    NW0-4

Sky Conditions:    Fair with 20% high, thin, white cloud cover.

Other: GT=15

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 912 to 1133 to 1417 gave up suspended white bass at 27-31 feet early and late this morning

**Area  1416 held a few sunfish

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

What do fishing and music have in common? — 50 Fish, Stillhouse, 11 Aug. 2014

So, what do fishing and music have in common?  Here it is … are you ready … scales!!  Okay, that’s hokey, but music and fishing did come together this morning as I finished with Ray Johnson and Stephen Kirkpatrick on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir in pursuit of white bass. Ray and Steven first got to know one another through Ray’s participation in the Central Texas Master Singers choral group which is conducted by Stephen.  Ray invited Stephen out for a relaxing morning of fishing, giving him a break from his many roles as husband, father, conductor, math teacher, worship leader, and golf coach.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

L to R:  Ray Johnson and Stephen Kirkpatrick with a sampling of the white bass action this morning.

We departed the boat ramp around 7 AM and were hooked up on our first fish by 7:20 AM. The first fish of the day we found suspended between 24 and 28 feet over a deeper bottom. Such fish are particularly prone to a downrigging approach, and that’s exactly what we used. We had a pair of three-armed umbrella rigs tied on, each equipped with a set of three Pet Spoons selected to imitate the size of the young of the year shad which the white bass are feeding heavily on at this point in the season.
As we continued downrigging the action continue to intensify, and, eventually we began to see largemouth bass and white bass feeding on shad at the surface and terns begin to dip down and feed on crippled shad. This was our indicator that things were about to get really good, and so as we down rigged I look even more closely at sonar in an attempt to find heavily schooled white bass holding tight to the bottom. Such bottom oriented fish typically respond well to a vertical jigging tactic. By 8:30 we were into our first large group of bottom oriented white bass, and they struck our TNT 180 slabs in silver, three-quarter ounce size very well. We caught the majority of our fish at this one stop over about a 40 minute span.
Eventually, the wind went slack in advance of the wind shift to the northwest on the lead edge of an approaching cold front.  When the wind went slack the fishing went downhill quickly and never did bounce back much. We put about 10 more fish in the boat in the last 90 minutes just picking up a few here and there at a milk run of about three different areas.
We called it a day right at 11:00am with exactly 50 fish boated this morning, including 48 white bass, 1 largemouth bass, and a single channel catfish.

 

TALLY = 50 FISH

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:00am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:    79F

Water Surface Temp:   86.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:    SSW5-6 @ trip’s start and until ~9:00am, then going slack for ~30 minutes, then picking up from the NW at 8-10 on the lead edge of a mild cold front.

Sky Conditions:    Fair with no cloud cover.

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area triangulated by Area 1134, 196, 863 gave up suspended fish early on the downriggers

**Area   883 smoking for bottom-oriented white bass

**Area   829 – 869 downrigging

**Area  1419 – 907 downrigging

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

Roe, Roe, Roe Our Boat — 58 Fish, Stillhouse, 09 Aug. 2014

This morning I finished with Don Roe, his wife Tracey, and their youngest son, Kevin. The Roe family traveled in from Dayton, Texas, to visit their oldest son, Donnie, who is stationed at Fort Hood serving with the 1st Cavalry Division where, in just 4 years of enlisted service, Donnie has seen 2 combat tours, one to Iraq, and the other to Afghanistan.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

L to R:  Don, Tracey, and Kevin Roe of Dayton, TX, took in a family fishing trip while visiting their oldest son, Donnie, at Fort Hood.

Don and Tracy run their own sports uniform and screen printing business, and Kevin is headed to college for his freshman year on a baseball scholarship to Angelina College in Lufkin, TX.

As we got going this morning the bite began around 7:15am.  We begin to encounter suspended schools of white bass on the move. After putting 8 to 10 fish in the boat on three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons, we began to see widespread surface feeding by largemouth bass and terns dipping to the water surface to pick up crippled shad. We looked within 150 yards or so of this activity, slowly and carefully sweeping the area with sonar and found small “patches” of fish (schools of 30-40 fish) – on bottom and ready to feed.

I simply dropped a buoy on top of these fish, turned back around, and let the i-Pilot work it’s magic in keeping us directly over top of the fish we had buoyed. We worked three-quarter ounce TNT slabs vertically in and around these fish and kept fish coming in the boat for a solid hour and 20 minutes making about three stops in one general vicinity over this period of time.

Once this bite died at this location, the overall bite softened very quickly over the next hour. We found a few more suspended schools of white bass holding down around 26 to 28 feet and downrigged successfully for 5 more fish, despite seeing dozens on sonar. By 10:15 the bite was over and, despite searching three more areas hoping to find some stragglers, we found nothing but bait and called it a day by 1045.

Our total catch today was 58 fish including 56 white bass and 2 freshwater drum.

 

TALLY = 58 FISH

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30am

End Time:  10:40am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:    80F

Water Surface Temp:   86.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:    SSE6, shifting to SSW12 over the first 4 hours of daylight

Sky Conditions:    Fair with no cloud cover.

Other: GT=40

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1260 downrigging in low light conditions at trip’s start for ~8 fish

**Area  882 smoking with slabs

**Area  856 and vicinity, smoking with slabs (most productive area of the morning; ~45 minutes of action)

**Area 1222-668 downrigging for reluctant, suspended fish as the bite was dying; picked up last 5 white bass here

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Fish with ‘The Commish’ — 32 Fish, Stillhouse, 09 Aug.

This evening I fished with Mr. John Stephenson, former Bell County Commissioner, and his adopted son, Gilbert.  Another of John’s friends, Mark, was supposed to join us but had some trouble locating his license, and never did make it on the boat.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

L to R: John and Gilbert Stephenson with a few of the white bass we caught by downrigging and fishing lead slabs vertically during the short bite this evening from 5:30 to 6:45pm.

As I got to talk with John and Gilbert, I learned that Gilbert has a very interesting background.  He was adopted by John and his wife, Shirley, around age 6 and was born in Saskatchewan, Canada, among the Cherokee Indians there.  John and Shirley (both U.S. Army veterans) traveled the world while serving our nation, and have fond memories especially of their time in Panama in the 1970’s.

On the fishing front, we got off to a late start thanks to all the license-hunting, but while we were waiting for Gilbert to arrive I fished with John not too far from the boat ramp we launched from, and we found a very active school of white bass pursuing shad at mid depth in 24 to 28 feet of water over the deeper bottom (38-40 feet). We ran twin downriggers through these fish with a three-arm umbrella rig and in less than 30 minutes time picked up 16 fish.

Unfortunately, by the time Gilbert arrived these fish were settling down, and we managed to pick up just three more white bass before having to go out and search for more fish. We spent the remaining time using a combination of downrigging and vertical jigging to add another 16 fish to our total for a tally of 32 fish caught on this trip.

Although there are certainly exceptions, generally speaking, morning fishing is a bit more productive than evening time fishing. Through the years, given the detailed records that I’ve maintained, I’ve seen a trend emerge that indicates an evening fishing trip will yield about 60% of the catch the that morning trip gave up when conditions are roughly similar between morning and evening. Evening bites tend to be less intense and less lengthy than morning bites, and this evening’s trip followed that trend.

 

TALLY = 32 FISH

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 5:30p

End Time:  8:30pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:    96F

Water Surface Temp:   87.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:    SSW11-13

Sky Conditions:    Fair with no cloud cover.

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1422-1428 Downrigging for 16 suspended white bass, then smoking for 3 more

**Area  196 fishing slabs vertically for 12 white bass

**Area  912 downrigged for one white bass as the bite was dying

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

Fishing the Globe, Fixing the People — 64 Fish, Stillhouse, 08 Aug. 2014

This morning I fished with Sue Phillips of the Austin area. Sue has only been in Texas a few weeks and wanted to understand about the tools and tactics necessary to successfully land fish in the Lone Star state.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Sue cast fast and accurately to topwater feeding largemouth bass and was rewarded for her skill.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

When the largemouth got scarce on top, the white bass remained a staple down below.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Sue shows off her “triple” — 3 fish taken on the same rod at the same time using a 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with Luhr Jensen Pet Spoons.
Sue is a traveling nurse doing a three month stint with the Seton hospital system in Austin where she works as an emergency room nurse.  Sue is originally from New Jersey and has future plans to travel to California, Alaska, and Florida to work and fish. Sue owns a kayak, and up to this point has spent most of her time fishing Walter E. Long reservoir on the east side of Austin.

Personally it was nice to have a “Jersey girl” aboard, as I spent 5 1/2 years in central New Jersey when my dad was in the military.  Sue actually owns her own small boat and fishes out of Belmar at the mid-point of Jersey’s Atlantic coast.  We’d fished some of the same places and for some of the same species, and so conversing about all of those things was nostalgic.

Sue quite capably handled a spinning rod, and so when we got into fish this morning we were able to make the most of the action we worked hard to find. We begin our day downrigging, and, after catching a few singles, a double, and then a triple, we found heavily schooled, bottom oriented white bass relatively early in the morning. From 8:05 AM to 9:55 AM we stayed on top of schooled white bass and saw occasional largemouth bass popping bait near the boat on a continuous basis.  Using silver, 3/4 ounce TNT slabs with a smoking retrieve did the trick for numbers of white bass.

Since one of Sue’s objectives was to learn about tools and tactics, we stopped fishing slabs in the middle of a strong bite (which I normally wouldn’t do) in order to transition over to blade baits fish on braided line and spinning rigs in order to introduce her to that equally effective technique. Then, when the largemouth bass action got strong, we put the heavy-metal lures away and fished top water hard baits for school-sized largemouth bass in the 13-16″ range. The clear Heddon Spook Junior did the trick this morning for seven largemouth bass.

Just as the fishing turned on earlier than usual this morning, it also wound down a bit earlier than usual. By around 10:20 AM the bass were no longer schooling, the white bass had finished biting, and the few birds that had been feeding over top of the schooling action disappeared.

For our efforts we landed 64 fish today including 57 white bass and seven largemouth bass. In doing so we were able to cover four different techniques: downrigging, vertical jigging with slabs, fishing blade baits horizontally, and fishing top water lures for schooling fish. As we wrapped up today’s trip we went through Sue’s tackle bag together and I pointed out to her some of the more effective baits and colors and rigging techniques that would help her catch more fish more consistently in the waters around Austin.

 

TALLY = 64 FISH

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50am

End Time:  10:30am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:    81F

Water Surface Temp:   85.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:    SSE7 at trip’s start slowly turning to SSW9-10 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:    Fair with 10% cloud cover.

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 864-866 downrigging and smoking

**Area 070 smoking

**Area 194 smoking (with topwater present)

**Area 194-1394 largemouth and white bass action spread throughout with whites on bottom and blacks on top

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

Under Investigation — 72 Fish, Stillhouse, 04 Aug. 2014

This morning I fished Stillhouse Hollow with Lorene Love and Bob Kloss of Temple.  Lorene presented Bob with a fishing gift certificate for his birthday a few weeks back and today was the day they chose to cash it in … and they chose well!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Lorene Love and Bob Kloss put 72 fish in the boat today under bright conditions with stable pressure in the wake of last week’s mild cold front.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Although the topwater action still hasn’t turned on to its fullest extend, each day of hot weather sees a bit more of this action beginning to emerge.

Bob is a U.S. Air Force veteran who has worked all over the coastal U.S. in the oil industry, and who now drives an 18-wheeler for a living.  He looks a bit like Tom Selleck.  Lorene is an information technology professional turned private investigator working in Killeen.  So, I kind of felt a bit edgy this morning between Bob’s looking like Magnum, P.I. and Lorene actually being one wondering if they had run a credit check on me before coming out fishing, or not!

We have had a return to more moderate atmospheric pressure and stable, fair weather conditions, and the fish have responded well as compared to last week’s roller-coaster ride thanks to a cold front’s arrival on Thursday and some murky grey cloud cover in the late week.

As we begin most summertime trips, I do an introduction to the techniques that we’ll use before we begin hunting fish so that when we come upon what we are looking for, we don’t waste valuable time learning a tactic while the fish are ready and willing to bite.  Well, as I was instructing Lorene on the use of a spinning rod equipped with a slab, she caught a fish during this “practice session” and so we just knew it was going to be a good day.

As we got going we put several white bass in the boat at the very first stop we made just minutes after concluding the “practice session”, and then were fortunate enough to find fish schooled heavily enough as to allow us to use our vertical jigging tactic to fish for these fish more thoroughly than the downriggers would allow for.

After this action died down, we headed to new fishing grounds and encountered an actively feeding, bottom-oriented school of fish in about 33 feet of water.  Without ever running the downriggers, we got right down to fishing for these fish vertically and, after they slacked off over a 25 minute period or so, continued right on catching them out away from the boat by casting blade baits horizontally.  The lure of choice for this application was the Cicada blade bait.

When the casting failed to produce any longer we also gave downrigging a try, but these fish were done biting by then, so, off we went to what would be our last (and most productive) stop.

The last area we fished even smelled of shad as we pulled in, indicating some below-surface feeding was going on.  Sonar quickly revealed that the area was blanketed with white bass over a ~40 yard radius, and we parked right in the middle of it all without another boat in sight!  We pulled 3 fish from the fray on downriggers as we idled into the area, then I shut the outboard down and we fished both vertically and horizontally for the next hour taking fish after fish in the 2-3 year class, along with 2 school-sized largemouth bass.

If there is one commonality on the location of these fish since the thermocline has formed and the weather has stabilized it is near shad in 30-34 feet of water.  I’m finding fish on all manner of terrain (flats, break lines, sharper drops, etc., but every single place has 30-34 foot water and massive schools of shad.  By “massive schools of shad” I mean shad schools that stretch for 30-40 yards and are 5-6 feet thick and which are so densely packed together with shad that they reflect as much sonar sound as a hard, rock bottom does.

So long as our weather is stable, the bite will remains stable.

 

TALLY = 72 FISH

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45am

End Time:  11:45am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:    75F

Water Surface Temp:   83.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:    NE6-9

Sky Conditions:    Fair with 20% cloud cover.

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   1260 – 1112 downrigging and smoking

**Area    1225 – 1226 smoking

**Area   1425 smoking (with topwater present)

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

Daddy Doll Goes Fishing!! — 55 Fish, SKIFF Trip #2014-15

This morning I conducted the 15th SKIFF trip of the 2014 season by welcoming aboard Mrs. Marilyn Salazar and her 3 children, Alina (age 11), Jesse (age 8), and Alanis (age 5).  SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.  All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Background, L to R:  Mrs. Marilyn Salazar, Jesse Salazar, and Alina Salazar.  Foreground: Alanis Salazar.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A closeup of 5-year-old Alanis and her Daddy Doll!

Marilyn and her children are no strangers to the strain of extended overseas deployments.  Their husband/daddy/soldier, Staff Sergeant Jesse Salazar, is now serving on his 4th deployment, this time to Afghanistan.  He has been deployed so frequently that his youngest child, Alanis, has spent more time without her father present than with him.  SSG Salazar is a U.S. Army infantryman originally from the San Diego, CA, area.

As the Salazar family arrived, they were eager to learn and were all good listeners and learners, which made them more successful in the long run.  Fortunately the murky, grey weather of yesterday passed with the arrival of a mild, dry cold front, and, under increasing atmospheric pressure, the fishing began to bounce back from the slowdown yesterday.

We put a majority of our fish in the boat in the first 2.5 hour of the trip, boating 43 of our 55 fish by that time, primarily on a pair of 3-arm umbrella rigs presented very precisely and effectively at 24-26 feet where these schooled white bass were suspended over deeper water.  We also had an opportunity to stop and jig for some very heavily schooled fish and essentially caught as many of these as we could before Jesse’s wrist wore out and Alanis’ 5-year-old attentions span waned.  When the white bass feed began to play out, we went shallow and had some fun using poles without reels to fish for sunfish.  We capped off the trip with a bit more downrigging over the last 30 minutes or so.

I was very glad Marilyn attended, as there were times when Alanis got emotional about missing her father, and mom was there to comfort her as only a mom can do.  Marilyn was also a great asset to me in aiding me in making the kids successful by being an extra pair of eyes, ears, and hands to keep all of our moving parts headed in the right direction.

Little Alanis brought a “guest” along with her for this trip — it was her “Daddy Doll”.  This is a doll dressed in camouflage with a clear plastic pouch positioned where the face would normally be.  This pouch allows the doll’s caretaker to place a photo in the pouch.  In this case, Alanis had her daddy’s photo in the pouch, hence the name “Daddy Doll”.  She brings this most everywhere she goes, and this fishing trip was no exception!

For our efforts today we boated 55 fish including 5 sunfish, 2 freshwater drum, and 48 white bass.

TALLY = 55 FISH

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45am

End Time:  10:45am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  72F

Water Surface Temp:  83.5

Wind Speed & Direction:  NW9-13

Sky Conditions:  30% clouds on an otherwise blue sky

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1134 smoking and downrigging for a majority of our catch in the first 2.5 hours

**Area  1098 sunfish on floats

**Area 1419 slow white bass action on downriggers at last 30+ minutes of the trip

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com