Winds from the East … 19 Fish, Stillhouse, 05 April 2014

This morning I was joined by Mr. John Stephenson, a physician friend who desired not to be identified, and Mr. Mark Conners for a morning of multi-species angling on Stillhouse Hollow. 
 



John Stephenson holds a pair of nice white bass he picked up while casting bladebaits up shallow.

Mark Conners shows a pair of white bass we picked up on the downriggers using ThinFin crankbaits.

John is a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces and served a term as a commissioner for Bell County, and Mark is a handyman who helps both John and Don maintain their properties now that they are both retired.

As the old adage goes, “Winds from the east, fish bite least.”  We definitely got a taste of that this morning as a stiff, cool east wind put a bit of a damper on the fishing.  We found fish, but getting them enthused about striking was a challenge most of the morning.

Unfortunately, we got off to a bit of a late start which cut into our chance at being on some prime early morning spots just as the skies were first brightening.  Once we got lines in the water, we had decent results right away, actually hooking 5 fish (but only landing one of them) during our very first trolling pass of the morning.  Afterwards, we were fortunate to pick up even a single fish per pass and noted steadily decreasing natural “sign”, especially while observing various fish-eating birds such as ospreys, gulls, and cormorants.  As the skies brightened through the grey clouds, the east wind continued to blow and cool us down, and weekend boat traffic built, the bite slowed down very quickly and stayed tough the rest of the trip..

We trolled early on with fair success, then did some horizontal work with Cicadas up shallow and again met with fair success, then returned to trolling with little to show for it, then ended the trip slabbing in deeper water, adding 5 more fish to our tally.

For our efforts today, we boated 1 freshwater drum, 2 largemouth bass, 3 white crappie, and 13 white bass.


TALLY = 19 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 8:10a
End Time: 12:20p
Air Temp: 51F at sunrise.
Water Surface Temp: 65-66F 
Wind: E8-9
Skies: 100% grey skies
Other Notes: GT0

Areas Fished with success:

**   698-540 trolling
**   684-405 trolling
**  729-730 bladebaits
**  1345 troll
**  572/1160 slab
**  074/1279 slab






Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

Doctor, Doctor, Gimme the News! Belton Lake, 72 Fish, 04 April 2014

At exactly 12:30 early this morning I was awakened by the sound of the mighty north wind suddenly beginning to blow, ushering in yet another cold front.  The winds went from calm to over 20mph in minutes and made what has already been a tough spring season even tougher.

I linked up in the afternoon with Dr. David Clark and Dr. Ryan Sparkman to try our luck on Belton Lake.  I had not fished Belton recently given the consistency I’ve experienced on Stillhouse, but David wanted at least a shot at a hybrid, so, Belton Lake got the nod.  For this reason, I arrived before sunrise to net shad and do some scouting so as to identify productive areas in advance of my guests’ arrival.  I was joined by my good friend Rodney Tyroch, a long-time multi-species Belton Lake angler, for this morning scouting effort.
 

David holds one of the “palmetto strain” hybrid striped bass we caught today.  The larger hybrid showed a preference for live shad, whereas the white bass were readily striking vertically worked slabs.

Ryan holds two of the larger white bass we boated today.  The “plumpness” of these fish indicate they have yet to spawn.

The morning scouting effort allowed me to catch shad in two locations and provided some insight on where we might expect to find fish when the afternoon bite turned on.  We found 2 solid schools of white bass working under birds just as the direct sun was coming on the water.  This activity lasted about 1 hour and 45 minutes.  During this time we caught fish very quickly on slabs and Cicadas — 25 fish in the first location and 11 fish at the next.  Instead of staying a long time on top of fish that were obviously in a feeding mode, we moved while the bite was underway so as to try to identify additional productive locations.  This is the essence of scouting — not to catch fish, but to find where fish can be caught.  We ended our morning with 36 fish boated, as we did not find any additional active fish after ~9:30am.

After a short off-the-water break, I returned and continued scouting around 1:45pm, finding schooled whites both on bottom and suspended in yet a third area.  I boated 9 more fish in this area, all on a slab fished vertically. This is where we would begin the afternoon trip for David and Ryan.

When David and Ryan arrived, we headed right back to these schooled whites and caught well upon our arrival, then saw the bite tail off after the first 40 minutes or so.  We then went and re-fished the areas where I’d found the fish activity earlier in the morning.  One of these two areas produced again, and the other was devoid of fish, however, moving just a few yards closer to the channel put us back in touch with a few fish.  Around 6:15p we had a subtle wind shift from NNW to NE and the fishing just went downhill once that occurred.  When all was said and done, I we’d boated 27 fish for our afternoon efforts — most on a vertically jigged slab, some on live shad, and one or two on a cast Cicada bladebait worked horizontally.

In summary, for this full-day effort we put 36 fish in the boat in the morning, added 9 more during pre-trip scouting in the afternoon, and then David and Ryan contributed 27 more between 4p and 8:15p, for a tally today of 72 fish.

TALLY = 72 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 8:15p
Air Temp: 51F at sunrise; 65F at trip’s start,.
Water Surface Temp: 65F 
Wind: N20 at sunrise tapering to N14 by trip time, then shifting to ENE by 6:15p
Skies: Clear and cloudless at sunrise; fair with 10% cloud cover at trip’s start.
Other Notes: GT35

Areas Fished with success:

**   Castnetting for shad: Areas 1367 & 1368
**   1366 vertical jigging (all white bass)
**   1365 vertical jigging with live shad rods out (all white bass and 1 hybrid on shad)
**   691 (white bass on artificials and whites & 1 hybrid on shad)






Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas