Chalk Me, Baby!! Stillhouse Fishing Guide Report, 30 March 2012






This afternoon I met up Dimitri and Eric, old rock band buddies now separated by the miles, who came together for a long weekend to fish, camp, hike, and catch up with one another.

L to R — Eric hangs onto a largemouth that slammed his bladebait as we fished a mid-depth flat for white bass, as Dimitri grips a nice white crappie that fell for a crankbait early in our trip.



The majority of our catch tonight (22 of 26 fish) were white bass. Here Dimitri shows the largest of them taken on a blade bait in 12-14 feet of water.

Based on my scouting success from the evening before, I had a strong suspicion that we’d be spending most of our time in and around Area 1064 trolling to find fish, buoying them, and then saturating the area with casts to take advantage of the evidence we’d discovered by way of trolling.

With this in mind, before we even left the ramp area, I coached both fellows on the use of the spinning gear we’d be using, and the right technique for working the bladebaits I had tied on for this job.

After that, we hit a few areas quickly by flatline trolling and came up with only one crappie that way. I told the fellows before we launched that afternoon trips typically start slowly with action building towards sunset and that is what we experienced today. Around 5:30p I moved us to the vicinity of Area 1064 and we began combing the breakline here while constantly monitoring sonar. Soon we were into fish by flatline trolling, then, as the action began to steadily build, we went from seeing single fish or fish in groups of 2-4 fish to seeing schools ranging from a dozen to 2 or 3 dozen fish each. When this occurred, we left the trolling behind, placed a buoy near the marked fish and then cast to these fish over and over again until we’d ferreted out all of the active fish in the school. We’d then locate another bunch by trolling and repeat the process, eventually putting together a decent catch of 26 fish given the tremendous environmental changes the lake has undergone in rising over 10+ feet in a short span of time.

Now about that “Chalk Me, Baby!” title to this blog entry … well, first you need to know that Dimitri drives an old Subaru station wagon which he unceremoniously painted flat black. As I met him and Eric in the parking lot, we shook hands and I motioned for them to follow me to the water’s edge for casting lessons. Dimitri made a few steps to follow, then paused and headed back to his car indicating he’d forgotten something. It was then that he emerged with 3 very large pieces of chalk and wrote “Chalk me!” on his vehicle’s flat black hood then left the chalk pieces resting on his driver’s side windshield wiper. Later, when I inquired about that practice, Dimitri informed me that this is something he’s accustomed to doing in Austin (the city with the unofficial motto which reads “Keep Austin Weird”). Evidently, when you leave such a message on your car, you give license to anyone who wishes to leave a message, artwork, advertisement, etc. to do so. Naturally, I had to ask about the most memorable of the chalk messages he’s received over the years. His responses would be rated “PG” at best and will not be herein disclosed!

After our trip the two men headed off to camp overnight in the Union Grove campground with plans to hike and explore along the Lampasas River the following day and to dine on various “pliable” foods that could be crammed into a flour tortilla shell.

TALLY = 26 fish, all caught and released.


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 3:50p

End Time: 8:10p

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 70.2F

Wind: Winds were S7-8 .

Skies: Skies were cloudless and fair.








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