On a morning that saw a sunrise temperature of 30F and a heavily frosted courtesy dock which we had to “ski” down, the action heated up soon enough and we walked away with another 100+ fish day, making this the 6th “100+ fish” trip this month.

Today I welcomed aboard “Grandpa” Russ (C) from southern California, his grandson, 10-year old Sidney (R), and Sidney’s dad, Lawrence (L), both from Belton.

Grandpa got a fishing trip gift certificate for Christmas and decided to cash it in right away. I chose Stillhouse for this outing as the fish have been a bit more kid-friendly here in that they are nearly all tight to bottom and in large schools. Once you find such fish, you can typically stay with them for quite a while.

We began our trip at 7:45 with a bit of flatline trolling over the Area 319-703-114 “circuit”. This bite was a bit softer than it has been of late, giving up only a handful of fish. I don’t know if the cold has pushed the bait deeper or if the 3/4 inch rain on Christmas Eve upset the balance of things, but, this bite was definitely off.

Around 8:40, with the S. wind getting to the 8-9mph range, I headed out looking for some congregated deepwater fish.

We looked over a few areas and found solid sonar readings at Area 549 (BA:4T). All four of us put slabs down over these fish and at first used a smoking technique to catch about of dozen of the most anxious “over achievers”, but then things settled down pretty quickly as they often do in cooler water, thus requiring a vertical jigging technique.

Over the next 3 hours we continued to catch fish, at first on 3/4 oz. baits, then, as the bite began to soften, on 3/8 oz. baits fished with an intentionally lengthened pause. We caught fish in year groups from 1 to 4 years of ages, ranging from 8 to 13 inches. Of exactly 101 fish boated today, every last fish was a white bass — no bycatch of crappie, drum, or largemouth occurred.

When all was said and done, Sidney and dad had all the fun, sun, and cold they could take for one day. Grandpa, on the other hand, I know would have been content to sit up on the front deck trying to match me fish for fish as we saw them come in low and slow on sonar. Alas, he had a flight to catch, so, we just had to send him back to do some more sunny California dreamin’ about the hot Texas fishing!

TALLY = 101 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 11:50a

Air Temp: 30F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~53.2F

Wind: Winds were S8-12.

Skies: Fair.