Fished a morning “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with a family of four from Georgetown. Trey and Ann are the parents of Brandon (11) and Jonathan (4). Trey and I spoke before the trip and his concern was to keep the boys busy so they’d have a positive experience. With this in mind, I opted for Stillhouse and we split the trip between sunfish and white bass fishing.
From L to R – Jonathan, Ann, Brandon, and Trey. Be sure to notice little Jonathan’s sunfish proudly displayed in the lower left corner.
Brandon with a 1.25 pound largemouth which went for the largest of our offerings, a Lunker Licker in silver and chartreuse.
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 11:00am
Air Temp: 71F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: ~84.5F
Wind: Winds were from the NNW the entire trip at about 7-9 mph.
We started the trip off with bream poles in hand baited up with dilly worms for sunfish. We hit Area 510 and put 2 blacktail shiners and a sunfish in the boat, but this stop was mainly to work the kinks out and get the boys used to the equipment and the approach so they could capitalize on the better fishing at the next spot we’d hit.
Our next stop for sunfish was Area 203. I had Brandon on the front deck with me and he was operating independently by now. Trey had Jonathan on the back deck and assisted him. We went through 17 fish in about 30 minutes. Our catch included several bluegill sunfish, several longear sunfish, one green sunfish, 2 blacktail shiners, and one juvenile largemouth bass. As the sun got brighter the fish got sluggish and I knew it was time to move on.
By now the sun had brightened things up and the wind was steady from the NNW at ~9. Things were really looking good. We headed directly to Area 041. As we idled in, I look for signs. There was a single tern working in the area, but the presence of surface feeding largemouth (scant in number, but still there) let me know there was bait to be found here. We searched with sonar for a few hundred yards and noted all the life was in the 25-29 foot range. We put downriggers down and were immediately onto fish. We put 3 pairs of white bass in the boat as the boys took turns on the rods and I then knew these fish were turned on. Just then it was apparent that we had to take a little unexpected potty break for little Jonathan’s sake. I was concerned about breaking the momentum of these biting fish, but, we were blessed … the fish stayed right where they were and stayed biting. We returned as quickly as we could and got right back into the swing of things. In the patch of water bounded by Areas 041, 460, and 196, we worked up 34 fish through about 10:40, when the fishing began to slack off. Our catch out of this area included 2 drum, 4 largemouth bass (all right at 13.75 to 14.50 inches) and 28 white bass going 10.75 to 13.75 inches. By 11:00 the bite was just about done and so were the boys. We called it a day at that point with 54 fish boated on a nice, dry, cooler than average late August Saturday morning.
TALLY = 54 FISH, all caught and released
Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing