Stillhouse Fishing Guide Report – 12 April 2010 – 28 Fish






I fished an evening “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with 16 year old Eric M. of Belton this evening. This trip was a birthday gift from his grandmother.

Eric worked a Rip Shad at sunset for this white bass.

This largemouth was one of five species we caught today as the water continues on a nice warming trend into the high 60’s.

Start Time: 4:00p

End Time: 8:20p

Air Temp: 73F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~67F

Winds: Winds were waning as we drew closer to sunset. We began the trip at SE13 and finished up at SE6.

Skies: Skies were mostly sunny.


We started our day off of Area 555 with a flatline troll of twin Rip Shads working over 9-14 feet. We caught fish consistently here including a mixed bag of largemouth, crappie, and white bass. The white bass were smallish, and Eric came to learn, so, we left those fish in hopes of expanding Eric’s horizons and finding some better quality.

We flatlined off of Area 888 as a test and came up with only 1 crappie and 1 white, and neither showed on sonar to be associated with a school of fish so we moved on.

We hit Area 100 and picked up one suspended white bass on a smoked slab with no other fish or bait really showing.

We hit Area 595 and picked up a single drum with no whites showing on sonar.

We hit Areas 604 (zeroed), Area 599 (2 crappie), and Areas 145 and 149 (zeroed at both). All of this was via slabbing on sonar.

With about an hour or so of light left, we headed to Area 116 which has been such a consistent area this Spring. About 20 minutes either side of sunset produced the best action. Here again we were flatline trolling as these loosely schooled fish were suspended down at 6-11 feet. Just after sunset I saw sufficient numbers of fish holding on bottom to allow us a casting approach with bladebaits, but, given the choice, Eric wanted to stick with what was working instead of getting too exotic. He probably made the best decision — we landed several more healthy whites until they shut down altogether right at dark. By now we’d boated a total of 28 fish.

For his time spent on the water Eric got to see 3 different tactics used for fishing both suspended and bottom-oritented fish, he learned to tie an improved clinch knot, he used GPS to follow a “snail trail” and successfully backtrack over a productive trolling path, he got an introduction to sonar interpretation, and landed fish of 5 different species (crappie, white bass, largemouth bass, drum, and redear sunfish).


TALLY = 28 Fish, all caught and released








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