Off-Duty Fishin’ — 43 Fish, Stillhouse, 19 Feb.

Today, Friday, 19 Feb., I fished with brothers-in-law Jason Smelser and Stephen Pearson, both of Killeen.

Jason retired from the U.S. Army where he served as a musician playing both the guitar and drums. Stephen serves as a firefighter with the City of Killeen out of the fire station on East Trimmier Road.

 

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City of Killeen firefighter Stephen Pearson enjoyed some off-duty action this morning gunning for white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.

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U.S. Army retiree Jason Smelser invited his brother-in-law along for some early spring white bass action.  The two amassed a catch of 43 fish in 4 hours.

Jason initially contacted me after a friend of his, Steve Webb, “liked” my all-fishing Facebook page, providing Jason with a glimpse of what I offer on Belton and Stillhouse to the angling public.

Because Stephen’s shift did not end until 7am, and because the strongest bite of the day has been taking place just before sunrise to about two hours afterwards, I encouraged the fellows to come directly to the ramp — no donuts, no coffee, no breakfast tacos! This was all so we could take advantage of the aggressive low-light bite.

As the fellows pulled up the walked from the car, to the dock, into the boat with motor running, and we headed right out to get on fish.  I’d been watching gulls feed over active fish for about 15 minutes, and knew we needed to get to the fish right away to take full advantage of this easier, early morning bite.

All three of us were hooked up tight to white bass within our first 3-4 casts, and the low-light bite, enhanced this morning by cloud cover and a bit of wind, lasted for a good 2 hours. During this time we boated 34 fish by making “short-hops” in two distinct areas, both less than 20 feet deep.

During the entire time from 7:15 to 9:15 we enjoyed helpful bird activity. Contrast this with the last two hours of the trip in which we had no bird activity and in which the skies slowly brightened. This time frame yielded only 9 more fish.

The shallow fishing has lately involved lots of fish spread out horizontally in distinct clusters, whereas the later morning, deep-water fishing has involved more heavily concentrated groups of fish holding on the river channel walls or suspended over the channel. We enjoyed good results today fishing 3/4 oz. Binsky blade baits up shallow, and the old reliable Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 did the trick out deep.

Just before wrapping up we encountered some fish spread horizontally along bottom on a 40 foot flat. These fish were too scattered for effective vertical jigging and too deep to work blade baits effectively, so, I rigged up the downriggers and went as slowly as I could with Storm ThinFins in tow. We picked up 2 solid white bass and a short largemouth in the closing minutes of the trip.

Our tally today was 43 fish including 42 white bass and 1 largemouth.

 

TALLY = 43 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Water Surface Temp:  59.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S8-9 the entire trip.

Sky Conditions:  100% grey skies, slowly clearing to cloudless by 11am

Water Level: 622.25 with 622.0 being full pool.  0.01 feet of water was released in the last 24 hours.

Other: GT= 20

 Wx Snapshot:

19FEB16

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1701– shallow whites under birds, all spread horizontally over a large areas; used Binsky bladebaits

**Area  1702 — whites in ~15-18 feet of water under birds in a channel bend;  used Binsky bladebaits

**Area 1704 — deep, scattered whites on flat in ~40-42′.  Responded to slow raised slabs

**Area 1698 –  deep white bass heavily congregated on a breakline 43-50′; slow lifting slabs

**Area 1705-17066 — deep, scattered whites on flat in ~40-42′.  Responded to slow raised slabs and downrigging

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

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