OCTOBER 2009 RESULTS SUMMARY






I post a monthly summary of results so those looking to plan a trip in advance can have a feel for where the fishing typically has been for that particular month in years past. Note that the cooler months (when bookings often fall off) can offer some of the most productive fishing of the year.

October 2009 helped us shake off the funk of the low pressure systems of September, then gave us enough rain in two short shots to put the lake 8.6 feet high.

Regardless, fish have begun moving into their winter haunts and the vertical jigging pattern is coming increasingly into play heading into November.











Stillhouse Fishing Guide Report – 31 October 2009 – 73 Fish






Our cool weather patterns are beginning to fall into place, with vertical jigging in various forms now accounting for a majority of the fish caught. This trend will become more and more reliable right on through February. If you’re a blog follower or have fished with me in the summer months (or both) and you’ve been waiting to experience “electronic sight fishing” where we watch fish respond to our presentations on sonar, this is the time to get on the water with me. This morning I fished a second trip with high, stained water on Stillhouse. The water is still in rough shape, but the weather and wind conditions trumped all else, as usual, and we put together a respectable morning.


Start Time: 7:35a

End Time: 1:05pm

Air Temp: 46F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~64.5 to 65.5F

Wind: Winds were from the W to WNW the entire trip, but light except for a 45 minute span near noon when we had a steady 9 mph blow.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.



I started off the day in shallow water and moved gradually deeper given the bright, clear conditions today. There are no birds yet working, so all the fish-finding was done the hard way — via sonar. The lake has come down from its peak on Wed. of 8.4 feet high, and is now 7.6 feet high. The fish really didn’t do much in the low light period. I missed a keeper largemouth in the saddle area off Area 245. I then headed to Area 386 and picked up a small largemouth and a crappie. I moved on to Area 532 (off in 12-16 feet of water) and saw little action and so covered a lot of water while watching sonar and flatline trolling. This time spent watching sonar revealed a heavy concentration of shad at 10-12 feet below the surface.

By around 9am, a steady, but still light wind had kicked in and I gave a look over Area 533. There was some emergent vegetation here that had just started growing as the summer growing months were coming to a close. The presence of this vegetation made it difficult to see fish on bottom, but I thought I saw fish mixed in and so gave it a try. As it turned out, there were lethargic, inactive fish lying on bottom in 18-19 feet here, but, with suspended shad also appearing on sonar here, I found very active, very aggressive schools of white bass at 10-12 feet mixed right in with and feeding upon the shad that were constantly occupying that stratus. I chose a 3/8 oz. TNT 180 as that is what the fish were preferring on my last outing and used that as a starting point for this trip. The fish responded favorably to a smoking retrieve with this lure, so I never switched or experimented with anything else today. I caught fish consistently from ~9:00 to 10:30 here, putting 42 fish in the boat. When things got soft due to the slacking breeze, and near-calm, bright conditions at that point, I moved to a deeper but similar area, Area 535.

Here, in 22-23 feet of water, I found the same kind of action on high, suspended fish feeding on that band of shad at 10-12 feet, as well as some bottom oriented fish, although those fish were still tough to goad into striking. Around 11:15, the wind went more westerly, and increased to and then stayed at about 9mph. At this point the fishing ramped up and hit a peak for the day with the suspended fish chasing down anything that came near them, and the bottom-hugging fish also perking up, raising up off the bottom in schools, chasing a smoked slab, as well as a jigged slab. The fish caught off bottom were generally better quality fish than the much small, but more active

73 FISH CAUGHT, All caught and released