28 APRIL 2008






Stillhouse Fishing Report by Stillhouse Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a 4 hour morning trip this morning from 6:30a to 10:30a. Winds were up from the SW before sunrise and climbed even higher as the day warmed. I fished in 14-17 mph winds during this trip. The recent cool snap (including a record low for the date of 41 degrees on 28 April) has knocked the surface temps back to 68.5. At launch time the air temp was a wind cooled 54F.

Decided to experiment in the lower lake today and so I headed first to the shallow shelf at Area 159. Due to the high winds, no surface activity could be seen even if it existed. I dropped a slab along the dropoff and came up with one drum.

Moved along further down lake to Cove 160. Saw nothing on surface or sonar. Then ran sonar over Areas 70, 61, 59, 57, 58, and 26 and saw no gamefish or bait.

Moved back uplake a bit and looked with sonar over Areas 65 and 63 with no result.

Moved further back uplake to Area 157 and at between 30-34 feet on a subtle drop, found concentrations of white bass and shad on sonar. Dropped a slab down and found very tentative, reluctant fish here that would respond only to a tedious tease/smoke type retrieve. The first 8 fish came hard, then, as the morning advanced, brightened, and got even windier, the fish loosened up a bit and I wound up catching 20 fish here and then leaving them biting during the “open window” of opportunity to find other fish-holding locations.

Moved to Area 158 and found nearly the exact same scenario as far as bait and depth. Caught 10 in no time and left them biting and moved again to seek out active fish.

Moved to Area 77 and caught another 10 whites in no time and concluded the scouting effort satisfied that there was a reliable abundance of bait and whites in this area.

TALLY = 41 FISH, all caught and released