Go Deep, Young Man! — 61 Fish with Charley Elgin

This past Monday morning, 16 January (and Martin Luther King Jr. Day), I welcomed aboard 13-year-old Charley Elgin.  His mom, Jessica, arrange for this fishing trip through the Ft. Hood SKIES Program as Charley enjoyed a holiday off from school.

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Nearly 20% of our catch this morning consisted of legal (14+ inch long) largemouth bass. Charley found this one in 36′ hanging with a school of white bass.

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This screen shot was taken off the DownScan portion of StructureScan on my Lowrance unit.  There where multiple large schools of fish on bottom and just above the bottom in 65+ feet of water — the deepest I’ve ever encountered gamefish on Belton or Stillhouse in 25 years of angling on these reservoirs.

 

Charley, a middle school student at Audie Murphy Middle School on Fort Hood, is a sharp young man.  His interests lie in robotics and his role as percussionist in his school band. He caught on to the jigging techniques I  showed him quickly, and then stuck with it, remaining consistent in his presentation from start to finish.  Charley had a bit of prior fishing experience and was enthusiastic in telling me about his fishing adventures with his grandpa in northern California where they hung worms under bobbers and caught bass together.

Building on this foundation, I went over the spinning equipment we’d be using, and the vertical jigging tactics which are most effective this time of year.  We then headed out to catch fish.

The previous two days were damp, cool and foggy.  This all cleared out as an overnight band of rain passed through allowing some clearing and cooling by the time we got on the water.

There was a noticeable film of green algae on the surface, and there was abundant shad feeding activity just about everywhere on the surface from first light through sunrise.  Birds were scattered as they chased after shad, but were generally not over top of fish in the first third of the morning.

I noted that one cove was particularly full of shad, so I covered it with sonar and liked what I saw.  Charlie and I boated 12 fish in our first 25 minutes on the water, half of which were largemouth bass, and all of which came out of just 20′ of water — the shallowest I’ve encountered white bass since mid-November.

As the skies brightened and the winds stayed calm, I opted to head for deep water.  We fished 3 deepwater areas at 36 feet, 38 feet, and finishing up at over 65 feet.  This is the deepest I’ve ever found white bass on either Belton or Stillhouse in 24 years of fishing and keeping notes.  And there wasn’t just an isolated school in this deep water — there were hundreds of fish in multiple large schools and they were feeding hard.  In the past I’ve referred to wintertime “mega-schools” — such was what we ferreted out this morning.

We caught as many fish from this final stop in deep water as we had at our previous 3 stops over the first 3 hours.  Matching the small forage was the key.  I tried upsizing out baits to get them near bottom more quickly, but wound up switching back to the diminutive 3/8 oz. slab because that is what the fish wanted.

Military and DoD personnel interested in scheduling a fishing trip through the Ft. Hood SKIES program may contact that office at 254.287.4592.  Deployed soldiers are credited “Deployment Benefits” which may be used to pay for activities like the “Fishing 101” adventure Charley enjoyed this week.

For our efforts this morning, we landed 61 fish, including 2 drum, 12 largemouth bass, and 47 white bass.

 

TALLY = 61 FISH, all caught and released

Wx SNAPSHOT:

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Water Surface Temp:  55.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  W2-4

Sky Conditions: 5% cloud cover on a fair sky

Water Level:  0.78 feet above full pool

GT =  0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1685 – shallow first light fishing in 20′ for a 50/50 mix of 12 largemouth/white bass

**Area 1883 – moderate white bass action under birds (gulls, terns, cormorants, pelicans) in 36′

**Area vic 988 – moderate white bass action in 38′

**Area vic 232-1450 – deep white bass (65-67 feet) under flock of ~20 terns; small forage imitation was key

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

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