Fishing has Turned the Corner! — 41 Fish, Stillhouse, 17 March 2015

This morning I fished with Dr. Ben Vacula and his 3 children, 11-year-old Madeline, 9-year-old Olivia, and 7-year-old Gabriel.

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11-year-old Madeline Vacula.

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9-year-old Olivia Vacula.

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7-year-old Gabriel Vacula.

Ben is an anesthesiologist working for the Scott & White system out of Temple where he trains residents in this discipline, but today he was a non-fishing chaperone for his kids and a very helpful first mate.  This was Ben, Madeline, and Olivia’s second trip out with me, and Gabriel’s first.  Our first trip, taken during Spring Break on the 10th of March last year resulted in a catch of 11 fish on a very cold day with some very unseasonably cold water.  Today was the “polar” opposite (pun kind of intended).  We woke up to 64F thanks to thick overnight cloud cover spinning off a strong Pacific low pressure mass moving up from Mexico.  This continued the nice warming trend we’ve been experiencing and put the fish in a biting mood.

I had planned on using 2-3 different techniques today to account for the younger kids’ shorter attention spans, and, as fate would have it, we actually got to employ 4 different techniques:  downrigging, vertical jigging, casting blade baits, and flatline trolling.

We began the day under birds and actually missed 5 of our first 6 hooked fish on the downriggers in the first 30 minutes on the water as we worked out the kinks of how to and how not to reel in fish correctly.  Once we got settled in, we missed very few fish afterwards.  The aggressive downrigger bite, in which we could physically watch fish pull 3-8 feet up off the bottom to inspect the passing downrigger ball, lasted for exactly 2 hours.

After the birds and fish began to settle down, we moved to another area, found some tightly grouped, bottom-hugging fish, and vertically jigged for them successfully for about an hour when the novelty of that fairly technical tactic began to wear off.

To change things up and keep it interesting, we sought out some shallower, warmer water and flatline trolled a set of 4 crankbaits.  We wound up catching 3 fish on the crankbaits, but, as we idled along, observed white bass chasing shad to the surface and “breaking” the water.  This is the first time I’ve observed this aggressive behavior this season.

Seeing this, Ben worked with Gabriel, and I worked with Madeline and Olivia to do some quick spinning reel casting lessons and we fished  these active fish until each child caught at least one using this technique.

When all was said and done, we’d worked together to boat 41 fish.

TALLY = 41 FISH, all caught and released

 

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp: 55-56F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW2-6

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

Other: GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1531/1496/1310 downrigging

**Area 363/948/1535 downrigging

**Area 1513 vertical jigging

**Area 405/684 flatline trolling and casting blades

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

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