Day: February 27, 2016

Variety is the Spice of Life — 32 Fish, 27 Feb., Stillhouse (Trip 1 of 2)

by Bob Maindelle

This Saturday morning, Feb. 27th, I welcomed Mr. Brad Bennett and his 11-year-old son, Bret, aboard for a morning of white bass fishing on Stillhouse Hollow.

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A few weeks back Brad sent me a note saying, “My son Bret just turned 11 and is starting to get interested in fishing.    I would like to see about booking him an afternoon or evening trip with you.  We would both love to soak up any fishing tips you have because I haven’t fished in many years,  but just got a boat to try to get my son out on the lake.  I am afraid he will lose interest if I keep taking him without catching anything.”

So, Brad chose to come along as an observer while I worked one-on-one with Bret to show him the ropes.  One of the first questions Brad asked was if we were going to fish for bass.  I told him we would instead be targeting white bass.  Because of the relative abundance of these fish in Stillhouse, one is likely to land far more white bass in a given period of time as compared to largemouth, and, for those who lack precision and distance in their casting, white bass can be forgiving in these areas.

It all came together as soon as we idled into our first area.  Some helpful gull activity pointed the way to fish, and, with some basic instruction, Bret was casting a spinning rod and reel (something he’d never done before) quite well.

The white bass cooperate for about 1 hour, but, after that, the bright skies and calm winds brought that to an end.  We worked over the last location we’d seen birds working at with vertical tactics, horizontal tactics, and downriggers and did poorly.  It was time for a change of location.

We headed to another area where, what little wind was blowing, would be acting best on the water to ripple the surface.  We found fish shallower than I anticipated in only 16-17 feet of water, and worked them over for about a half hour with Binsky blade baits.  Once this large slug of fish dissipated, we made short hops in the same general vicinity and very precisely vertically jigged with slabs for small groups of fish, one group at a time.

We pulled fish consistently for the last 45 minutes on the water.  Bret hung with the program about as long as most 11 year olds would and eventually tired of the fairly intense concentration level and attention to detail that vertical jigging for sluggish fish requires.

Around 10a, dad observed that Bret had reached his limit.  I’d let Brad know ahead of time to communicate this observation to me so we could end on a positive note and not turn this into an endurance contest for the young man.  The point was to teach Bret a few things about fishing and have him look forward to his next trip, as well.

We ended the trip a bit early, after 3.25 hours on the water, with 32 fish boated, 100% of which were white bass.

TALLY = 32 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  10:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 40F

Water Surface Temp:  57.0F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S0-3 for the first 2.5 hours, then slowly increasing up to S10 from 9:15 to trip’s close.

Sky Conditions:  Clear and bright.

Water Level: 622.39 with 622.0 being full pool.  0.03 feet of water was released in the last 24 hours.

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   531 – Casting blades for shallow whites under birds

**Area   054 – Slow action on blades and slabs for whites as they wrapped up their low-light feed

**Area  094 – Moderate action on blades in 16-17 feet as breeze began to ripple surface

**Area  092 – Moderate action on slabs in 20-25 feet as breeze began to ripple surface

 

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

Snow birds land on Stillhouse — 91 Fish, 25 Feb (Trip 2 of 2)

by Bob Maindelle

On the afternoon of Thursday, 25 Feb., I welcome Mr. Steve Robar and his wife, Mary, aboard for a half-day’s pursuit of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.

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Mary Robar drove from South Dakota for a big Texas bass, and, around 4:30p today, she got one!!

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Mary and Steve were already familiar with vertical presentations given their experience in fishing for walleye.  This established skill came in handy as they were able to take full advantage of the strong, but brief, vertical bite we experienced this afternoon.  No on-the-job-training required; they just got down to brass tacks and caught fish.

The Robar’s are retirees wintering here in Texas at an RV park near Kingsland. They drove their truck and fifth-wheel trailer down from South Dakota and will be headed back that way Sunday.

Before leaving Texas, they wanted to enjoy some fishing on unfrozen water, and, since they left their walleye rig up north, they contacted me to help them accomplish that.

I shared with my wife, Rebecca, as we had lunch together in between my two trips today that I was a bit concerned about our chances at catching fish. The morning trip’s fishing was great for the first two hours, but when the winds turned northerly, the fish just quit. This afternoon’s winds were due to continue at 12-14 mph from the NNE.

My first instinct was to head deep — really deep, as depth seems to negate the impact of tough conditions.

This gut feeling served us well. At our first stop, and in 61 feet of water, we jigged up 29 white bass and a single largemouth over the span of an hour. These fish were all smallish, but, I was glad just to get our strings stretched in the middle of the day under tough conditions.

We decided to leave fish to find fish, hoping for some better size, and, despite checking 5 nearly identical areas, did not get back on the fish for another hour.

Around 4p, as the shadows began to lengthen and the sun’s intensity began to wane, we hit an area in about 41 feet of water after I saw a handful of gulls and terns hesitate over this area and then move on. Sonar told a much more encouraging tale than the birds did, as my fish finder lit up with heavily congregated white bass in the lower third of the water column.

For the next 75 minutes it was “game on”, with Steve positioned on the starboard gunwale to my right, Mary on the starboard gunwale to my left, and me in the middle of them just taking off fish. The pair took their count from 30 fish up to 87 by the time the fish gave up.

As we prepared to make our next move, I offered two options: catch more fish vertically by doing the same thing we’d been doing, only in a different location, or catch fewer fish but experience a new tactic in so doing, by casting blade baits up shallow.

They opted for variety, and, in the final 40 minutes of the trip, we rounded it off at exactly 91 fish. The final 4 fish came on Binsky’s used used up shallow in under 12 feet of water.

TALLY = 91 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 2:00p

End Time:  6:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Water Surface Temp:  57.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNE14 for the first 3 hours, tapering down to NNE10 by trip’s end.

Sky Conditions:  Clear and bright.

Water Level: 622.42 with 622.0 being full pool.  0.03 feet of water was released in the last 24 hours.

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  947 — 60′ deep whites on slabs

**Area  074 — 41′ deep whites on slabs

**Area vic 0733/764 — horizontal casting Binsky’s in ~14′ at low light

 

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