This past Friday morning, August 10th, I was joined by Mr. Ryan Dunlap and his friend, Joni Lethco. Ryan’s kids, Brooke and Logan, and Joni’s son, Flynt, also joined in the fun.  We fished a multi-species trip focused on white bass on Stillhouse Lake.

Brooke Dunlap got the ball rolling for us this morning, taking this nice 3 year class white bass from out of 36 feet of water.  Brooke may look chipper in the photo, but she only got 3 hours of sleep before the trip after competing in a rodeo up near Ft. Worth the night before.

 

Logan Dunlap and Joni Lethco with a pair of white bass that struck our downriggers right about the same time.

Flynt Lethco, a high school student from the small town of Mullin, TX, with a nice double he came up with as we downrigged in an area thick with baitfish this morning.

 

Fishing has been just so – so this week, and I let my crew know that we would have to work for each fish we caught today. I anticipated we would catch fish with the downriggers, and also hoped that we could add some variety by fishing vertically for more heavily congregated fish we found near bottom as we downrigged.

We fished four distinct areas this morning and found fish at the last three of them.

The fish behaved in much the same way at each — the fish would perk up and take interest in our downrigger presentations, allowing us to catch on the first three or four passes over them, then, after that, even though the fish were still in the same locations, they just lost interest quickly.

I noticed similar behavior during the three or four times that we stopped over top of congregated fish to vertical jig for them. As soon as we got baits down to the bottom and started working our slabs, the fish would bite aggressively, allowing each angler two or three fish. After that, even though the fish were still present, they would just “sit tight” and ignore our presentations. The activity just seemed to come in spurts.

As Joni and the kids did most of the fishing, and Ryan and I just helped with getting the downriggers set and other supportive tasks, they racked up a catch of exactly 60 fish one or two fish at a time, enduring the often windless heat as they did so.

By around 11 AM, with the fishing slowing down, the temperature rising, and the wind staying near calm, we decided to call it a good day with exactly 60 fish in the boat.

As we wrapped things up, I let Ryan know I’d be sending him photos and links to this summary by email.  He then informed me he didn’t do email.  I asked about Facebook — no Facebook.  I kidded him that he was just an analog dad in a digital world, and let him know I’d send everything to the kids instead!

TALLY: 60 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Water Surface Temp: 84.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW breeze 4-6mph the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 30% white cloud cover

Water Level: At exactly full pool (622.0 ft ASL)  and slowly falling with only evaporative losses of ~0.02 feet per day; 0 cfs release at dam

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1962-1976-039 — downrigging and smoking

**Area 1977 & 1978 – smoking on these numbers and downrigged in between

**Area 1971-1440 – — downrigging and smoking

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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