Free Fishing Trips for Deployed Soldiers’ Kids through the SKIFF Program — 76 Fish, 29 June 2013






This morning I fished with 13 year old Jake Pingley and his 7 year old sister, Layla, on Stillhouse Hollow. This was a “SKIFF” (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip — the 8th one of 2013.


Jake and Layla boated white bass from start to finish today using horizontal and vertical tactics, as well as some controlled-depth trolling.



Layla’s first fish of the day was actually two! As we downrigged waiting for the skies to brighten, this pair of white bass bit her tandem rigged Pet Spoons at the same time.

Jake and Layla are the children of Air Force Captain Joe Pingley and his wife, Angie. Captain Pingley is deployed to Saudi Arabia where he serves with a TACP (Tactical Air Control Party) tracking and coordinating everything flying in the airspace of concern to the U.S. in that region of the world.

Angie learned of SKIFF while at a business networking session. Mr. Marty Wall, who has supported SKIFF with videography for several years now, told Angie about the free fishing opportunities for deployed soldiers’ kids.

We had a great trip this morning, catching fish, literally, from start to finish. Jake and Layla had a bit of previous experience, but neither had fished from a boat before. As we began the day, we started off downrigging and scored on both drum and white bass using Pet Spoons rigged in tandem (Area 484/660). As we brought our 7th fish of the morning aboard, topwater action erupted about 100 yards to our west.

As we eased into the action, both largemouth bass and white bass were forcing 2.75 inch long shad to the surface. We rigged up with bladebaits matching the size and color of the prey, and proceeded to “wear ’em out” for the next 90 minutes solid using horizontal lift-drop technique (Area 1234).

After this action died down, we again downrigged (back at Area 484/660), and then we finished up the day in deeper 35′ water “smoking” our TNT180 slabs (chartreuse/silver halo) through big schools of congregated white bass (Area 1233).

Jake was really focused on the fishing and asked a lot of really good questions concerning why we were doing what we were doing. Layla, on the other hand, as all about variety. She fished a little, snacked a little, did a little aquatic insect identification, then fished a little more, and so on. Both kids really had a good time. Jake commented that his family has learned they’re to be stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington next, so he was glad he learned so much about fishing today so he could carry that with him to the lakes and streams of Washington which he has evidently already begun to investigate.

The members of the Austin Fly Fishers (and others) raise the funds and donate time and money to make these trips available at no charge to the families receiving them. Thank you all!!


TALLY = 76 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 10:40a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.2F

Wind: Winds were NNE5-7 at sunrise, slowly shifting to NE, but maintaining speed.

Skies: Clear.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Not Exactly Apples-to-Apples — 74 Fish, Austin Fishing Guide Report for Stillhouse, 28 June 2013






This morning I fished with 15 year old Matthew M. of Temple, and his 13 year old cousin, Bennie, both accompanied by their grandfather.



Bennie boated the trip’s big fish today. This 3.5 pound largemouth slurped up his bladebait near bottom in 23′ of water.



Matthew and Bennie worked bladebaits and the downriggers today to take some very nice white bass with a few largemouth, sunfish, and drum thrown in for good measure.


We experienced a wrinkle in our fishing today in that we had winds already from a westerly component before sunrise, then shifting to north of west by mid-morning. The fish still fed and we caught plenty, but they were tentative. We experienced next to no topwater bite, and what topwater action there was was fast and sporadic.

I really wanted to get the boys on some sight-fishing opportunities to allow them to cast to boiling fish with topwater baits so as to see the strike, but that just didn’t work out today.

We got into the fish well for the first time after 7:30a in the vicinity of Area 458/205. White bass were pushing shad to the surface and the commotion is what caught my eye and brought us to that area. As we shut down the motor and crept in, I assessed things and thought a sub-surface approach would be best given the situation. So, we rigged up with bladebaits and fished them via a count-down style and with a lift-drop tactic and scored well both ways. We put in about 1 1/2 hours in this area casting and netted 39 fish for the effort.

After this, we stayed in this general area and continued to downrig tandem-rigged Pet Spoons for 6 more fish before pulling the plug and looking elsewhere. It was at this time that the windshift occurred, and with it, a short interruption in our fishing success.

We headed over to Area 1232, found fish well congregated at around 30 feet over a 35-38 foot bottom. We ran slabs through these fish but they simply weren’t interested in a vertical presentation. After picking up just one drum out of what was clearly a lot of white bass, we gave the downriggers another go and worked over this exact spot again horizontally and scored multiple times. In the next 45 minutes we continued boating singles and doubles and even double-doubles (two rods each with 2 fish on the tandem rigs equaling 4 fish brought in at a time). We took our tally from 46 fish up to 65 fish.

As we began this morning, Matthew, who has fished with me on a number of occasions, requested that we leave some time for fishing for sunfish in the shallows. He had enjoyed doing this on previous trips and wanted to show Bennie the method. So, with the white bass still hitting the downriggers well, we left these fish biting to target some sunfish and then wrap up for the morning.

At this point our count stood at 65 fish boated. It was here that a bit of competitive spirit kicked in. On a recent trip out with his cousin Kelsie, Matthew and she boated 68 fish. Well, Bennie wanted to beat that total. So, as we quietly approached Area 200, the boys were on a mission to boat at least 4 sunfish. As we eyed the situation, got our float depths adjusted and lines in the water, it was clear the sunfish here were eager. The “68” mark was soon eclipsed and the bite died down only after the 9th sunfish was brought aboard, making our grand total 74 fish on the day. In Kelsie’s defense, we had to spend nearly 5 hours on the water to accomplish this 74 fish feat, so, the comparison to her (4 hour) trip’s result is not exactly “apples-to-apples”.


TALLY = 74 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:25a

End Time: 10:05a

Air Temp: 79F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.1F

Wind: Winds were SW4 slowly increasing to WSW8, then changing abruptly to WNW8 around 9:45.

Skies: Fair and cloudless.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Stable Weather Equates to Predictable Fishing — 70 Fish, Central Texas Fishing Guide Report






This morning I fished Stillhouse with Steve N. of Temple, TX, his adult daughter, Sarah, and her two children, 8 year old Caleb, and 5 year old Macy.



Here’s the best the “boys’ team” brought to net. 19.75″ and 2.75 pounds



And here’s the largest “Team Girl” brought over the side. 20.25″ and 3.75 pounds

Once again, with high pressure dominating our weather, today’s weather was very stable and very like the weather of the past several days. In the summer months when such continuous, stable weather occurs, the fishing gets very, very predictable. The fish do much the same things, in the same places, and at the same times each day until the stable weather is disrupted.

So, we picked up where I’d left off on Tuesday morning, in the vicinity of Area 1227. We observed limited topwater action which put us on top of some excellent sub-surface feeding activity. At first we found white bass mixed which “schoolie” largemouth and took both species easily and regularly on the downriggers with tandem-rigged Pet Spoons as they presented themselves loosely schooled and suspended on sonar.

After the sun’s angle increased and the winds picked up, the fish began to group more tightly together on and near bottom. This opened up the door to “smoking” for these fish with TNT180 slabs imitating the shad these fish were feeding on. As we used this technique, young Caleb, who has been fishing with me accompanied by his grandpa since he was 4, realized a personal goal — landing a catfish. As long as we’ve fished together targeting white bass and hybrid striper, he’d never landed a catfish. Today, a nice channel catfish hanging right with the schooled white bass smacked his slab and the fight was on. Caleb brought to net a 19.75″, 2.75 pounder. We encountered such activity at Areas 1227, 1228, 1229, and 1230. When this action died around 9:30, we moved on.

We found nearly the same scenario at Area 1231, with both suspended white bass scattered and suspended over the more plain bottom, and fish schooled more tightly and nearer the bottom on the prominent topo feature here (a small hump).

When all was said and done, we caught a nice mixed bag of 1 drum, 1 channel cat, 1 crappie, 5 largemouth (the largest went 3.75 pounds and 20.25 inches), and 62 white bass.

Five year old Macy stayed engaged the entire time as we alternated between jigging and downrigging (with some snacking thrown in for good measure). She also didn’t bat an eye at sticking her thumb in the mouths of the fish she caught to release them once I’d removed the hook — very impressive!!

TALLY = 70 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:25a

End Time: 10:05a

Air Temp: 79F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.1F

Wind: Winds were S2-4 at sunrise with a rapid taper up to S7-8 by 8:00a; winds then leveled off there.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Are You Teachable? — 129 Fish, Stillhouse Fishing Guide Report, 25 June 2013






This morning I fished with retired naval flight surgeon Ray J. of Harker Heights. Ray and his wife, Linda, put him through medical school around 1959.



Ray was, above all else, teachable — a rare trait in men, generally speaking — and it paid off handsomely for him today.

Fishing was just about as easy as it gets this morning. I’ve been on several populations of fish in several areas on Stillhouse for over 3 weeks now both morning and evening and their movements, given the stable weather, have become predictable. So, we were essentially sitting on top of the fish this morning waiting for them to begin their morning feed. The fireworks got started with some light topwater action which betrayed a strong feed immediately below the waves.

We fished Area 1227 for 3 hours straight and boated 86 fish there by “smoking” TNT180 slabs for schooled white bass that were heavily congregated on bottom in ~32 feet of water. We landed a roughly 10 to 1 ratio of white bass to largemouth bass. The majority of the white bass were 3 year old class fish around 12.75 to 13.5 inches, and the majority of the largemouth bass were just shy of 14 inches.

I’ve fished with a lot of older men and, honestly, most you can’t tell much to, but, to his credit, Ray actually listened and followed my advice about being careful to observe the nuances I was pointing out about rod position, retrieve speed, line management, and so on. Over the course of the trip this translated into significantly more strikes converted to landed fish than would have been the case if he’d just fished “his way”.

After Area 1227 played out, we made a move to Area 041 and put another 37 fish in the boat, thus easily surpassing the century mark once again this month (for the fifth time). These fish were a bit more finicky and were in 35-40 feet of water. We once again experienced a 10 to 1 ratio on white bass to largemouth at this location. As we fished here, the winds began to ramp up rapidly up to 17-18 mph with stronger gusts. I thought it prudent to spend our last 30 minutes or so in more sheltered conditions.

We moved over to Area 1135-458 and rounded out the trip by downrigging in the swells, boating a final 7 fish, including 2 sets of white bass doubles taken on a tandem Pet Spoon rig.

When “search-time” is minimized, “catch-time” is maximized — and that’s what we had working for us today, despite the all-night appearance of the full moon last night.

Our tally was 129 fish including 1 drum, and a mix of 128 white bass and largemouth in a ratio of about 10:1.


TALLY = 129 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83.8F

Wind: Winds were S7-8 at sunrise and tapered slowly up to S18, gusting over 20 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were greyed over with some low, thin clouds in the east until ~30 minutes after sunrise, then the skies cleared to fair with 10% cloud cover.








This Fishing Trip was very “Moving” — 91 Fish, Austin Fishing Guide Report, 22 June 2013






This morning I fished with Mr. Randy G. of Celina, TX, and his adult grandson, First Lieutenant Garrett S., currently serving with the 2-8 Cav. under the 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood.

Randy (L) and Garrett (R) used a combination of casting bladebaits, working slabs, and downrigging to put together a nice catch of 91 fish on this half-day morning trip.

Randy first contacted me about 5 weeks ago to coordinate a trip for he and Garrett, but, as happens in Army life, duty called and Garrett seemed to be either in the field, getting ready to go to the field, just coming back from the field, or (terror of terrors) assigned as Staff Duty Officer until today.

As we got to talking, I learned that Garrett was a part of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets and was commissioned as a U.S. Army Chemical Corps officer. We had quite a few things in common which made for good conversation. Garrett has wedding plans for this coming April (so naturally, Grandpa Randy and I automatically thought to ourselves “significant reduction in fishing time”, however, neither of us said anything to poor Garrett).

As fate would have it, today was also the day Garrett was due to move from one apartment to another, so, not only did Grandpa Randy get to go fishing, he also “got” to help Garrett move.

We met right on time at 6:15, allowed the froth on the water to settle down from the 16-boat bass tournament that blasted out of the launch site just ahead of us, and headed on out at a leisurely pace to the fishing grounds, thus allowing me so cover the basics of safety and the presentations we’d be using as we motored along.

We began our day hopeful to encounter some topwater action, but, the stiff wind put the brakes on that. Regardless, the fish continued to hold where they have been for several weeks now (Area 484/444/660), and so we kicked off with some downrigging to allow us to have a shot at catching fish as I studied sonar looking for heavier concentrations of them. We scored 4 fish very quickly including 3 largemouth bass and 1 white bass, so this immediately bolstered our confidence level and we continued on with downrigging until, about 30 minutes past sunrise (given the grey clouds that masked the direct sun until that time), we marked the first fish beginning to school up in the lower third of the water column. When we found this scenario, we stopped the boat, put it in a “hover”, and cast with bladebaits worked lift-drop style amongst these bottom-oriented, schooled fish. By the time the action died out here, we’d boated a total of 39 fish.

Next, we headed to Area 1222-1226 and found fish holding off the side of the slope here in 25-30 feet of water. In several areas we saw tightly grouped fish on sonar. I suspected a “smoking” presentation might work in this situation, so, we gave it a try. Garrett was the first one to hook up and “break the ice”. Once that first fish was hooked and played in, the door opened on all of its schoolmates. We sat in one location and boated 20 fish in short order as the school got worked up into a strong feed by the frenzied action of the hooked fish. After that school cooled off and moved on, we returned to downrigging for the remainder of the trip, regularly hooking up with singles and doubles on the tandem rig.

By around 10:30, the action began to drop off noticeably. We pressed on until around 11:15 and had to work harder and wait longer for each fish we caught after that 10:30am mark. When all was said and done, we’d boated 83 white bass, 4 largemouth, and 4 freshwater drum.


TALLY = 91 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.5F

Wind: Winds were S12 at sunrise and tapered slowly up to S15 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were greyed over with some low, thin clouds in the east until ~30 minutes after sunrise, then the skies cleared to fair with 25% cloud cover.








Man Camp 2013 — Belton Lake, 22 Fish, 21 June 2013






This morning I fished with returning guest Craig M. of Temple, this time joined by his dad, Billy, and one of his two brothers, Chad.


Billy is flanked by his two of his three sons, Chad (L), and Craig (R). The hybrid was one of 13 we boated today primarily on live shad.

The “boys” were all spending the weekend together on one of the floating barges up in the Cedar Creek arm of Belton Lake. The plan was to eat well and fish when possible.

I’d contacted Craig earlier in the week to see what his preferences were for this trip. I was very candid about the slow, tough hybrid bite we’ve been experiencing lately — something which happens this time of year after the shad spawn and before the thermocline sets up. I offered the option of white bass fishing on Stillhouse, but, they preferred to gun for hybrid, so, that is what we did.

Summertime hybrid usually involves live shad and/or downrigging, and we did a bit of both today.

By far the best action was within an hour of sunrise. As we got launched, we encountered some aggressive but short-lived topwater action by white bass in the vicinity of Area 133. Some well-placed casts saw everyone hookup with whites, allowing us to boat 5 before the fish sounded, never to reappear.

So, now were were off to hunt hybrid. We first began graphing fish down around 29-31 feet in the vicinity of Area 1223. We put a variety of baits down with 4.5 inch gizzard shad being the centerpieces of our offering. We had a number of good takedowns and put fish in the boat consistently for a solid 45 minutes or so before thing dried up here. We bumped over to Area 1023 nearby and picked up a few more hybrid and a few white bass.

After things noticeably slowed, we began downrigging in the vicinity of Area 844-1084 both so we could present baits horizontally and on the move, and so we could cover some water hoping to graph some schooled fish that we could again put baits in front of. We picked up a number of white bass, including a “double” for Billy, as well as one short hybrid on the two downriggers, both equipped with tandem rigged Pet Spoons, hence fishing with 4 lures at one time. By 10:35 we saw our last fish come over the side and the fishery in this area shut down.

I spent another hour searching with sonar, but, in the end wound up with nothing to show for that final effort.

By 11:45 the count stood at 22 fish, including 13 hybrid and 9 white bass.


TALLY = 22 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83.4F

Wind: Winds were S12 at sunrise and stayed within ~3-4mph of that the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were greyed over with some low, thin clouds for about half the morning, giving way to fair and cloudless skies thereafter.








I’m Not Normal … I’m in Camel Mode!! — 14 Fish, Belton Lake, 20 June 2013






This morning I fished with (nearly) 11 year old Miss Abby L. of Virginia and her “Grandpa T”.


What a way to start the day — Abby boated this 11.75 pound smallmouth buffalo on a 3/4 oz. TNT slab.


Our goal was to put Abby on hybrid striped bass so she could attempt to land one unassisted. Abby realized her goal 5 times over today. This hybrid, the last one she boated, was a tough fighter, forcing her to swap hands with the rod a few times during the fight, but, as you can see, she came out on top.


Abby and her big brother, Scotty, flew into Austin around 8pm last night, went to bed after mid-night and Abby was up and at ’em sufficiently early to arrive at 5:45a for our 6:00a trip. Scotty opted for the “sleep until well after 10am” plan.

Abby is quite an accomplished outdoorswoman already. She is essentially fearless, she’s focused, she knows her fish, she casts far and accurately, she is patient when patience is required, she shoots a mean bow, and she can eat a 1/2 pound “Crow’s” burger in 6 minutes flat!

Abby has really been looking forward to this trip to her grandpa’s — so much so that she went into “camel mode” as her mom has termed it. Camel mode occurs when one gets so fixated on an outdoor goal (i.e. catching a hybrid striped bass) that all else (eating, drinking, peeing, personal hygiene, and other optional life activities) are tuned out in the relentless pursuit of that goal.

Indeed, Abby’s goal was to catch a hybrid striped bass without assistance during the fight. With this in mind, I came prepared for topwater, for downrigging, and for fishing with live shad. We searched far and wide for fish, finally encountering some very loosely congregated fish down around 28-31 feet over a deeper bottom in the vicinity of Area 472. As soon as we got our baits down, we saw solid fish returns on sonar near bottom, so, I moved all of our bait rods to one side of the boat so Abby and I could work slabs off the other side. Our first hookup of the morning came on the slab when an 11.75 pound buffalo gave chase and struck. Just minutes later, Abby’s goal was realized when our first hybrid of the morning took a live shad suspended at around 26 feet. The reel’s clicker went off, Abby hit the handle, the rod bent deeply, she pried it out of the rod holder and the unassisted fight was on. She handled the fish well, keeping it out of the other lines and the trolling motor, and soon brought it to the surface and kept it there for me to net. We went on to catch a few more hybrid here on live shad as well, but the bite was very tentative.

We pulled up stakes and gave downrigging a try for a while both for variety’s sake, and to get our baits moving horizontally and cover some ground in hopes of finding some better concentrations of fish that we could once again put baits in front of. We found little, picking up just a single white bass that way.

We then headed to between Areas 512 and 815 and spent the remainder of the morning here. Again, the bite was tentative. We drew one strike for every 20-30 fish we saw enter our bait spread beneath the boat. We added a few more hybrid and a mess of blue cat to our tally here. By around 11:25 we could tell the already tough bite was getting even tougher, so, we decided to head on in (for a Crow’s Burger, of course).

Belton is often a tough nut to crack for several weeks after the threadfin shad spawn concludes and before the water stratifies and a thermocline develops, and this year seems to be no exception. Bait, patience, and a good attitude are required. We had all 3 on board today.

TALLY = 14 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:00a

End Time: 11:25a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83.4F

Wind: Winds were SSE12 at sunrise and stayed within ~2mph of that the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.








Variety and Hands-On Tasks — the Keys to Fishing with Kids, 51 Fish, 20 June 2013






This evening I fished on Stillhouse with 6 1/2 year old Steven M., his dad, Josh M., and Josh’s father-in-law, Steve C., visiting from Alaska.


From L to R. Grandpa Steve, little Steven, and Josh with the largest 5 white bass we boated via downrigging this evening.


Josh’s wife, Stephanie, was behind-the-scenes (aren’t all moms?) making the reservations, taking care of logistics, and keeping everyone on schedule for this week’s events which included a family trip to Great Wolf Lodge near Dallas, and this evening’s fish adventure. Thanks, mom!!

As you can imagine, the patience and attention span of a 6 year old are both pretty short, so, I planned to have some variety and I planned to make things as hands-on as I could to try to keep young Steven’s interest and make the trip enjoyable for the “big boys”, too.

As we began, we downrigged for white bass over 40+ feet of water in the vicinity of Area 886/887. Fish were suspended down around 26 feet and were a bit tentative here. We lost 2 fish before boating our first — a white bass, followed by a freshwater drum. I thought we could find some better action than this, so, we moved on.

We headed to between Areas 671 and 1222 and found abundant bait and active white bass in the lower third of the water column. We got our tandem-rigged Pet Spoons working and stayed hooked up for over an hour and a half, landing singles and doubles of white bass over and over again. Everyone got to share in the action, but, even though the fishing was going well, eventually the novelty wore off for young Steven and he announced, “I think I’m done.” It was time for some variety.

We broke out some red Gatorade for snacking, and then changed our gameplan. We headed up shallow to Area 1098 to fish for sunfish using a pole with a slipfloat and maggots. I only had to “demo” this one time for Steven before he got the hang of it and began boating his own bluegill and longear sunfish one after another. After a total of 10 fish caught here over the span of about 30 minutes, that novelty also wore thin.

We then talked Steven into letting dad and grandpa catch a few more “big ones”, and then promised to take him on in. To make it interesting, despite the fact that we could have returned to Area 621/1222 and kept right on catching fish, we instead took a “fast” boat ride to the other side of the lake to search out fish in another area. Fortunately, this worked out as we found yet more active white bass down around 19-22 feet at Area 1221/660. We boated a final 5 more white bass here before “nature called” to Steven, and we decided this would be a good time to call it a good day and head on back in.

We boated a total of 51 fish on this slightly abbreviated outing — 1 drum, 10 sunfish, and 40 white bass.


TALLY = 51 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 4:45p

End Time: 8:00p

Air Temp: 94F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.2F

Wind: Winds were S15 tapering down to S12.








Ahh! To be Free of the “Gris-Gris” — 107 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Report, 19 June 2013






This morning I fished with a very nice young couple, John and Lauren V., both originally from Louisiana.


The white bass action was white hot today — 107 fish in just over 4 hours, with most coming on topwater!!

John is a Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Army, and Lauren is currently in her residency as a psychologist working at the Veterans Administration hospital in Temple.

Lauren contacted me about 2 weeks ago. She and John have been accustomed to fishing in the fertile, brackish waters of coastal Louisiana and have found adapting to the clear, infertile waters of our Texas Hill Country reservoirs a very difficult transition to make. Numerous bank fishing attempts have never netted more than a fish or two. While John was on block leave from his current assignment as a platoon sergeant with the 1st Cavalry Division, she wanted to get him on some fish and so booked the trip as a surprise.

We were originally to fish yesterday, but lingering morning thunderstorms that brought over 1.1 inches of rain prevented that. We postponed to this morning and we were all glad we did!

We started the day up shallow, sight-casting to surface-feeding largemouth. The action was so-so in the vicinity of Area 061. John started off batting a thousand by landing a fish on his very first cast of the trip, a chunky 13.75 incher, but it was tough going after that as the fish were well-spread and only stayed up for short periods. Lauren got a fish of about the same size and John had one more shake his bait at the boat before the topwater action by these black bass waned.

We moved on and were fortunate to spot some feeding herons taking both shad and white bass as the white bass were driving the bait to the surface, thus creating a commotion which drew the birds’ attention. In the vicinity of Area 660, we saw a roughly 3 hour long feed play out from start to finish. As we first arrived, schools of white bass could be seen here and there staying up just briefly. We threw blade baits and kept them up high in the water column to tempt these fish and did very well. Over time the feed got stronger with fish nearly constantly on the surface and bait running everywhere trying to escape with their lives. We continued using bladebaits as long as this lasted.

Eventually, as the sun brightened, the fish pushed down further in the water column but continued right on feeding. To account for the additional depth, we counted our bladebaits down and then retrieved them. Later, as the fish pushed even deeper into the lower third of the water column we used slabs to execute a “smoking” technique to consistently catch these fish now down in 28-32 feet of water.

When the fish were no longer active enough to be willing to respond to a “smoked” slab, we knew the beginning of the end was upon us. We broke out the downriggers and, with 88 fish now caught, downrigged for the final 45 minutes of our trip and put another 19 fish in the boat including multiple doubles coming on the tandem-rigged Pet Spoons we were running. By 10:20 even the downrigging was producing little and we knew the bite had run its course for this morning.

As we took photos, returned to the dock, and said our goodbyes, Lauren thanked me for “lifting the gris-gris” (that’s a Louisiana term for a curse, pronounced gree-gree). They’d had a run of bad luck lately starting with a stolen wallet a few weeks back and continuing up to yesterday’s rained out fishing trip. I am glad to announce this couple is now gris-gris free!!

TALLY = 107 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:30a

Air Temp: 75F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83.4F

Wind: Winds were SSE4-5 until around 9:15a, then shifted SSW8-9 thereafter.

Skies: Skies were fair with a thin bank of clouds to the east only at sunrise.








Fathers’ Day Fishing and Birthday Golf — 63 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Report, 15 June






This morning I fished with Austinite John M. and his dad, Basil M. of Carrollton, TX. This was in celebration of both John’s birthday and Fathers’ Day.



We enjoyed a solid 2 hours of topwater action under grey skies and SSW winds. As the wind died, the fishing died down with it making our final hours much tougher.

After 9 straight days of very solid fishing under the influence of stable weather, that stability began to break down today as clouds, light precipitation, and an easterly component to the wind crept onto the scene. We caught fish well early on prior to the wind shift from SSW to SSE, but then really had to work thereafter.

We began our day looking in the vicinity of Area 061, but saw little and never even wet a line here due to the thick grey cloud cover limiting the light that has been a triggering mechanism for largemouth bass to feed here.

Instead, we shot directly over to Area 484/485 and found multiple, aggressive schools of white bass up and feeding on shad over open water. Due to the dark conditions, I traded out the silver bladebaits we’ve been using of late for white versions of the same to make our offerings more visible. We had a nice run here, boating the majority of the 63 fish we’d land today during this stint.

When the SSW died and went slack, the fish immediately left the surface, never to return in any appreciable numbers. We took up downrigging as our main approach from this point on, successfully boating fish at both Areas 458 and 453/671. As we downrigged at Area 453/671, we began to see very light topwater begin to recur. I suspected that Area 484/485 might light up again, so, we returned there only to find zilch on top and little more willing to go for our downrigged offering. We struggled for a bit, hitting Area 887 and finding nothing willing to strike there.

As this point (around 11:00am) we’d had our longest fishless streak of the morning. Not wanted to end on a dry note, we stayed a bit longer and returned to Area 458 with the hope of allowing both John and Basil to land just one more fish each. John had previously recognized a correlation between his eating jerky and fishing success. So, as we got on site, got lures and balls down and began to watch sonar attentively, I insisted that we all throw a piece of jerky in our mouths “just in case”. Well, before we could swallow, John’s rod went off — a double — 2 fish on one rod. Next, it was Basil’s turn — another double. By this time, John had “reloaded” and picked up one more. 5 fish in the span of 5 minutes after a lengthy lull. I believe at this point John called in an order to “Jacks Links” jerky company and put a rush on delivery!! We decided to be content with what we had at that point and called it a day so the boys could get a bite to eat before taking on the Mill Creek Golf Course in the Village of Salado.

Happy Birthday, John! Happy Fathers’ Day, Basil! Thank you fellows for booking with me!


TALLY = 63 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83-84F

Wind: Winds were SSW6 until 8:15, then going slack, then picking up at SSE4-8 thereafter.

Skies: No direct sun shone during the entire trip; very thick grey clouds with very light sprinkles just prior to and during sunrise.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas