This morning I fished Stillhouse Hollow with J.W. and his step-son, Kyle.
J.W. has traveled all over the country working in the oil business and has had a chance to fish in some out of the way places with some unique gear, but had never worked downriggers until today.
Kyle, who plans to transfer from Temple College to Texas A&M to pursue a business degree, focus strictly on the fishing business today!!
J.W., originally from Kirbyville, TX, is employed in the oilfield in south Texas and works 16 days on and 5 days off. While he was away, his wife, Monica, looked for something nice for him and Kyle (a student at Temple College) to enjoy together when he returned. She found me through the current special I’m running through “Buy Texas Deals” online and booked this trip for them.
Our timing could not have been better. We fished in the “calm before the storm”, literally catching the last SW breeze pushing in in advance of a cold front which, by 11am, began dropping heavy, widespread rain over all of central Texas.
Numerous times to told the fellows we needed to “make hay while the sun shines (even though it was completely cloudy today)”, meaning we needed to catch all we could before the cold front dipped down and messed up our fishing. In the end, we got a full 4 hours in and did well.
The fishing was good the entire trip, and even better “spikes” occurred when the sun occasionally brightened the skies through the clouds.
As soon as the sun rose (though obscured) some light surface action broke out helping guide us to where the fish were, with a little help from some friendly terns flying over the area. We downrigged a bit, then hovered and threw blade baits, then returned to downrigging, catching fish all the while. We pulled fish from this fair expanse of water for 3 straight hours catching numerous doubles on our downrigged umbrella rigs and 3 sets of triples, as well.
By 10:15 I told the fellows that I thought they had more than checked the block on the downrigging and offered an opportunity to change tactics even though I couldn’t guarantee success as I suspected the fishing wasn’t going to hold up much longer.
We searched 3 different areas with no luck, but, on our fourth look, over about 31 feet of water, we found fish aggressively feeding from top to bottom just minutes in advance of the windshift from SSW to NNE that would usher in the rain. We witnessed white bass and largemouth bass chasing large 4+ inch long threadfin shad to the surface, then rushing to overtake them as they panicked and swam in the surface film with backs nearly out of the water. We threw bladebaits to “match the hatch” and pulled a a final 13 fish in at this location before the weather bore down on us and brought everything to a screeching halt.
We wound up boating 74 white bass and 2 largemouth on today’s trip.
TALLY = 76 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 7:15a
End Time: 11:10a
Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 84.1F
Wind: Winds were SSW4-6.
Skies: 100% cloudy with occasional light rain.
Areas Fished:
** 1246/1242 for 3 hours with a combination of 85% downrigging and 15% blades
** 671 for 25 minutes throwing blades vertically and horizontally
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Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas