Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Report – 27 July 2010 – 26 FISH






After some time off the water to lead our church’s Vacation Bible School last week, I returned to Stillhouse this morning and did the kind of trip I love the most, a father-son trip with a young boy aboard. This morning I was joined by Paul T. and his 5 year old son, Joshua, of Austin. The pair had a rather full summer vacation day planned. That plan included fishing with me in the morning, and taking a “discovery flight” in a small aircraft from the McGregor Airport in the afternoon– very exciting!!

Paul and Joshua T. of Austin enjoyed some father and son summertime fun today on Stillhouse!!

We had a solid trip today, starting off in deep, open water at Area 644 and to the N and W of it by ~100 yards. We nailed down some locations with abundant bait, found gamefish not too far away and worked ’em over with downriggers until the novelty wore off for little Joshua. We found 22 feet to be the key depth to set the riggers at today, and the larger Pet Spoon in white/white outperformed smaller lures of the same make and color, as well as both sizes of silver lures of the the same make. I suspect the lack of sunlight made the opaque bait stand out a bit better than the shiny finish, and that the shad are growing out now to ~2 inches or so on average.

From ~6:45 to ~8:45, we landed every fish we hooked, which included 12 whites, of which 3 were in the 14″ class, and 3 largemouth, the largest of which went 14.75″ and 1.50 lbs. Joshua got really quiet and put his game face on when he had those fish on the line and was very focused until that hooked fish came aboard.

As with most 5 year olds, even the fastest action couldn’t keep pace with his attention span beyond the 2 hour mark, and so, with whites and blacks still biting, we left them behind in search of the mighty sunfish for a change of pace.

At this point we had nearly windless conditions which made for some great conditions for spotting sunfish with polarized glasses on. We hit Area 231 and found abundant sunfish in the aquatic vegetation here. No reasonably well-placed cast went unanswered, allowing Joshua and Paul to boat 11 sunfish in under 25 minutes, including bluegill, longear, green sunfish, and even a green/bluegill hybrid. Alas, even this lost it’s appeal after a bit for young Joshua, as noted by his dad who observed him playing in the worm container and showing an increased disinterest in battling anymore of the scrappy little “sunnies” that we’d found.

At that point dad wisely called it a good day after about 3 hours on the water, and we held onto our hats for a quick boat ride back to the courtesy dock.

I’d like to note here that Paul really did things right as far as introducing a child to fishing. Joshua hadn’t fished much before this trip, so, we did things he could excel at and fished for species that offered constant action instead of slugging it out all day for a few outsized fish. Paul didn’t force him to endure beyond his limited attention span nor relegate him to the back of the boat while he tried to fish on his own. He knew his son well enough to know when he’d had enough of a certain tactic and let me know that so I could keep things interested. In short, he focus on Joshua and as a result Joshua did well, was encouraged by his dad, and, I have no doubt, walked away with a favorable impression of the sport which can be expanded on in the future as he matures and can do more complex tasks that require more patience and offer greater reward. Wish more dads “got it” like Paul “gets it”.

Our tally for the day came to 26 fish including 12 whites, 3 largemouth, and 11 sunfish.

TALLY = 26 FISH, all caught and released


Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 9:40a

Air Temp: 72F at trip’s start, heading only to the mid-80’s due to rain and heavy cloud cover.

Water Surface Temp: ~86.2-86.5F

Wind: Winds were SE at 2-6 the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were low, grey and 100% cloudy.








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