Green Eggs and … Fish??? 111 Fish, Spring Break 2013, Day 4 (PM), Salado Fishing Guide Report






This fourth day of Spring Break 2013 I was joined in the afternoon by Dr. Dan D. and his 15 year old son, Jason, of San Antonio, TX.

Dan boated this long 6.00 pound flathead catfish from amidst an aggressively feeding white bass school in 38 feet of water.




Jason caught this 2.00 pound largemouth and the white bass just feet away from where Dan hooked his big catfish.


As the sun set and the shadows got long, we experienced a short blitz of white bass action allowing us to put 59 white bass, most of this quality, in the boat in under an hour.





Dan and Jason no sooner concluded a morning flyfishing outing for trout on the Guadalupe River than they sped north to link up with me this afternoon for some conventional tackle fishing for white bass on Stillhouse.

As most afternoon trips this time of year do, this trip started off a bit slow, then built as we moved towards sunset.

Before leaving the ramp area, we went over in detail exactly how to vertical jig with a slab, as I expected most, if not all, of our trip would involve this tactic.

We first connected with a few fish on a gentle breakline near the old river channel at Area 1185. These fish were sluggish and appeared in small clusters of 3-5 fish each, so, this made for some slow going, but, it also allowed us to boat some fish during a typically slow time of day AND to really polish up our jigging technique. We boated 17 fish in this area before moving on.

With their slabbing skills now honed, we moved on to Area 1038 and found a large school of smallish fish right at the break into the old river channel on the extreme NW portion of this topographic feature. We went to work with our slabs and, over the next 90 minutes, put an additional 35 fish in the boat including a few 12 inch white bass, a 2 pound largemouth, and a 6 pound yellow catfish. By 6:45p this area had played out.

I went looking over a few other areas adjacent to the river channel but saw little. Then, in the distance, I saw a few terns working anxiously over a fair spread of water. They were definitely looking “fishy”. As I idled about beneath the area (Area 1184) where the terns were working, the bottom literally lit up with white bass — they were all over this place, from bottom and upward to as much as 4-5 feet above the bottom. I did my best to hover us in place over what appeared to be the “center of mass” for this action and the game was on! We sat in one spot and more than doubled our catch in less than 50 minutes, taking our tally from 52 fish up to 111 fish. We used only a moderately-paced smoking tactic here. Jigging was not necessary as these fish were neither sluggish nor bottom-oriented.

Now, about those green eggs … it’s not what you’re thinking. “Green Eggs” are actually some new-fangled form of grill which use ceramic material to retain heat and provide a consistent cooking temperature over time. There is evidently a “Green Egg Grill” convention in Salado this weekend and Dan and Jason are pairing up to cook some samples and enjoy the festivities planned at Pace’s Park.


TALLY = 111 fish, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:


Start Time: 3:30p

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp: 72F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~58F

Wind: Winds were SSW10-13

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.

Environmental Note: Noted first mayflies hatching today and first mass “rise” of insect life off the bottom at sunrise tonight.








You Ever Really NEED a Fishing Trip? Spring Break 2013, Day 4 (AM), 52 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow






This fourth day of Spring Break 2013 I was joined by Tom S. of Dallas, his son, Jack, and Jack’s friend, Jake, both age 17.

Jack with two of the nicer fish we boated on blade baits cast horizontally this morning.




Tom with a TPWD Big Fish Award winner. That fat white bass on the left measured 15.25 inches.


Jake was pretty new to fishing, but is an athlete, so, his coordination kicked in after a bit of coaching and he held his own on what was a new adventure for him today.





Sometimes a fishing trip is a nicety, other times, it is a necessity. I’d rank this trip in the “necessity” category. Spring Break has not been easy on Tom and his clan — Tom suspects his new Lab puppy of burying his wallet earlier this week with cash, cards, ID, and fishing license. Next, Jack’s car got a “free towing package” awarded to it as it sat at a Subway while he and Jake attended Six Flags in Arlington, and, to top it all off, they all got a major runaround from a major outdoor retailer while trying to get Jake his license for this trip. By the time they got to the boat ramp after an early morning 3+ hour drive from DFW, they NEEDED to catch some fish for therapeutic purposes!!

We made “first contact” with fish today using downriggers between Area 052 and 335 over a 20-25 foot flat. Terns showed us the way to the fish, but the fish were widely scattered in small clusters, so, we covered ground in a hurry with the ‘riggers and wound up boating 21 fish in our first 70 minutes, including 3 sets of doubles, all on Pet Spoons.

Next, we headed to Area 1183 and found white bass feeding aggressively along the bottom at a breakline from ~17 to 25 feet of water. I saw these fish were stacked vertically on the drop and dispersed horizontally up on the flat in this area, so, we first “smoked” slabs vertically for the fish directly beneath us, and then cast blade baits and worked them near bottom to coax the fish on the flat into striking. We put 26 fish in the boat in this area, most of which went 13.5 to 14.5 inches, with one fish Tom boated going exactly 15.25 inches, thus qualifying him for a TPWD “Big Fish” Award.

By around 12:30 things were beginning the downhill slide toward the midday pause in action between the morning bite and evening bite. We tried one last stop at Area 074 and, with very little showing on sonar, managed to put a final 5 fish in the boat, all via a vertical jigging approach.

TALLY = 52 fish, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:


Start Time: 8:15a

End Time: 1:15p

Air Temp: 50F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~57-58F

Wind: Winds were SSW10-13

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.








Spring Break 2013, Day 3 – Fishing with The Holeman Clan — 130 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow






This third day of Spring Break 2013 I was joined by The Holeman’s — Grandpa Gary, his son, Rick, Rick’s wife, Cylena, and Rick and Cylena’s daughter, McCartney — all from the Midland area where Gary works in the oil business and Rick pastors Cotton Flat Baptist Church.

Fishing was the “main event” for the Holeman’s Spring Break camping trip this year.




Cylena boated the trip’s largest fish today — a nice largemouth that was hanging out with a big school of white bass down around 38 feet.




This was a really fun trip for me today. This was a great, close-knit, godly family who clearly enjoyed being with one another. McCartney, age 13, had never been on a guided trip before, so, this was her first experience with that and, fortunately, the weather and fish both cooperated to make it a memorable one.

As is often the case on bright, cool days, we found our fish up shallow early on, and out deeper later in the trip.

We did a bit of flatline trolling with crankbaits to kick the morning off as it was nearly windless and no birds were yet working. We picked up two nice white bass off of Area 116 and were about to put the baits back out when we spotted some terns working over fish. We headed to them (in the vicinity of Area 557). We got into our vertical jigging mode (which we’d practiced earlier) and began to pull fish. We put an additional 17 fish in the boat here out of 19 feet of water before the action dried up on us.

Next, we headed to Area 055/995 and found a few packs of fish in and around this location in ~25 feet of water. These fish were a bit reluctant, but, we worked them over with the jigging spoons pretty well and wound up leaving this area with a tally of 37 fish.

By 10:30, the SE wind was building and the sun was getting higher, so, I decided to head deep and check some haunts further downlake. We hit paydirt at Area 1039/981 in about 38 feet of water. Over the next 2 hours we caught fish steadily from within a foot of the bottom. There were a number of times when, with 4-5 rods going, we had 2, 3, or 4 fish coming aboard at the same time.

We had fun hitting “milestones” of 50 fish, then 61 (the highest previous fish count for this Spring Break week), then 100, then 122 (double the highest previous fish count for the week), until we finally came to rest at 130. It was almost 1pm and the fish were getting fewer and further between, plus, we discovered Grandma H. had been waiting in the parking lot for over and hour!

So, we took some good photos and headed back in to the boat ramp, with some much more accomplished anglers aboard than we had left the dock with just a few hours earlier.

Thank you all for coming out fishing with me!

TALLY = 130 fish, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:


Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 12:45p

Air Temp: 48F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~57F

Wind: Winds were SE8-9

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.