This morning, I fished with returning clients Steve and Hunter Crawford targeting white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.  Steve and his family are from Beaumont, TX, and Hunter is now a majority of the way though his junior year at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, TX, where he is pursuing a degree in international business.

Hunter landed two fish on the same lure at the same time in our final hour on the water.  One fish was caught on the treble hook at the tail-end of the lure, and the other was caught on the stinger hook on the head-end of the lure.

Both pre-spawn (fish on far left) and post-spawn fish (thin fish held by Steve, in blue shirt) were mixed together and feeding heavily on shad in the pre-frontal conditions we encountered this morning.  From left: Hunter and Steve Crawford.

This morning we faced even heavier grey cloud cover than yesterday, and, accordingly, the bite got off to a lighter and later start, but, once it cranked up, around 8:15, the fish fed heavily until about 9:25a when a blanket of fog moved in, lowered the light level and killed the bite.  During this feed, casting bladebaits in 10-16 feet of water was met with a willing response on just about every-other cast.

As the fog rolled in, the winds went slack for about a 45 minute span.  I used this time to instruct Steve and Hunter on how to work a slab in what would be our next approach at catching fish: vertical jigging.

We moved to deeper, clearer water and I began to use sonar to search out patches of the bottom attractive to fish.  Once I found what I was looking for, I buoyed the fish, then lowered my #Ulterra and used the Spot Lock function to hold right on top of the fish.  We then employed the tactics I’d instructed the fellows on earlier, and we enjoyed another nearly 90 minutes of consistent action as we fished 3 distinct areas in this manner.

The cold front generating this pre-frontal fishing was forecast to enter into this area right around 6pm this evening.

TALLY = 94 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time:  11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Water Surface Temp:  65.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  LIght winds under ESE3 for the first 2.5 hours, then ESE6-7 for the balance of our time on the water

Sky Conditions:  100% grey cloud cover with fog forming for about 45 minutes from 9:25 to10:05a

Water Level: 625.40 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1143 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.01 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 50

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1718 to 1722 — shallow white bass action on blades for active post-spawners chasing shad

**Area 306 – vertical jigging with slabs

**Area vic 1049 – vertical jigging with slabs

**Area 055-140 – vertical jigging with slabs

 

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

This evening I conducted a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Luis Garcia, his wife, Tonya, and their kids, Julianna and William Neel.  The plan was to have the kids to all the fishing while mom and dad looked on.

From left: Julianna and William Neel of Austin headed north to Stillhouse with their parents, Luis and Tonya Garcia, to cash in on some white bass fishing action.

As has been the case all week, thanks to the recent flooding, the evening bite has been 100% deep vertical jigging, with no bird action, bait action, or fish action yet spotted in the shallows, even at low light around sunset.

I let Luis and Tonya know right off the bat that it would be quite a feat to have an 11 and 12 year old stay engaged for a full four hours with such limited variety in the tactics that are working.  I do this so that it is not awkward for clients to let me know they’ve had enough before the usual 4-hour mark, perhaps fearing I’d take it the wrong way.

We did a thorough dockside introduction to vertical jigging and then headed out.  We were onto our first dozen fish within as many minutes from leaving the dock.  The first 2 hours of the were productive, however, the fish would not stay turned on very long.  At our first 3 areas fished, the fish would “fire up” as soon as we got our slabs down to them.  We’d then be able to catch 6-8 fish, but the fish would quickly turn off, settling back to the bottom, and become tough to get to bite.

We began fishing our 4th and final stop of the evening around 5:50p.  With the sun heading down and shadows getting long, the fish began to respond more aggressively and for a longer duration.  We fished this population in ~38′ for a full hour, taking the kids’ tally up to 69.  When it became clear to Luis that the kids had had enough and we agreed their technique was getting rough and inconsistent, we agreed to shoot for one more fish to make it an even 70.  Before long, Julianna hooked into a nice white bass and in came that 70th fish.  Well, not to be outdone, her younger brother wanted to have the last word, so, he insisted on pressing on until he caught one more.  A few minutes later, number 71 came over the port gunwale.

By this time, Will was done and searching for the snack bag, but steely-eyed Julianna just kept right on jigging.  She was NOT going to let Will have the last laugh.  So, with a fish population growing increasingly disinterested thanks to the length of time we’d been fishing over top of them, Julianna set about to catch “just one more”.  And she did!  Around 6:55p, our (honest this time!) last fish came on board and we cranked up and headed to the dock.

Our catch consisted of 71 white bass and 1 freshwater drum.

 

TALLY = 72 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time:  7:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Water Surface Temp:  65.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ESE7-8 the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  ~10% white clouds on a fair sky

Water Level: 625.40 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1143 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.01 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 25

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1173 – vertical jigging with slabs

**Area 1713/719 – vertical jigging with slabs

**Area 074 – vertical jigging with slabs

**Area 803 – vertical jigging with slabs

 

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