Day: August 16, 2014

A Little Silver Lining — 54 Fish, Stillhouse, 16 Aug. 2014

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I finished with Garrett Jones, the son of Tim and Mitzi Jones of Michigan.  Both Garrett’s mom and his “favorite aunt” Aunt DeAnn joined us as non-fishing spectators/sunbathers.

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Garrett Jones joined me for some multi-species angling this morning all the way from Michigan.  We caught largemouth on topwater baits, and white bass and freshwater drum on slabs, blade baits, and downrigged spoons.

Garrett’s family traveled to Texas to visit a very ill family member, and decided to add a little silver lining to life in the way of a fishing excursion while they were here.

As we got going this morning I did a bit of instruction on fishing vertically with slabs as I anticipated we would find aggressively feeding fish given today’s weather conditions. We have had a return to moderate high-pressure, southwesterly winds, and some haze in the atmosphere, all of which contribute to a strong bite. When we actually got on the water and began searching with sonar, these expectations of finding aggressively feeding fish were quickly met.

We finished only two areas this morning and found a strong feed underway at both. The first area gave up fish on the downrigger for about our first hour on the water, then a few top water largemouth, followed by a strong slab bite from bottom-oriented, heavily schooled white bass in 32 to 30 feet of water.

These fish fed for another two hours right up to 10 AM. When the feed at this first location ended, we were fortunate to drive directly to yet another aggressively feeding school of bottom-oriented fish in 28 feet of water. This school of fish had evidently been feeding for a while and we were lucky enough to hit the tail end of that heavy feed. We finished blade baits in the lower third of the water column to cover a 40 yard area over which sonar indicated these fish were spread.

When the fish begin to turn off they often go from hitting the Cicada blade bait hard and hooking themselves on the forward hook, to just nipping at the lure and getting caught on the rear hook.  While they are still biting hard, the strike to land ratio can be right around 1 to 1; but once the bite gets sluggish it can drop to 5-6 strikes to every 1 landed fish, and shortly after this the bite just dies completely.  Things went flat for us right at 11am today.

As we wrapped up, our tally of 54 fish included 2 freshwater drum, 3 largemouth bass, and 49 white bass.  54, incidentally, is Garrett’s football jersey number.

 

TALLY = 54 FISH

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   78F

Water Surface Temp:   84.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:    SSW10-12

Sky Conditions:    Fair with 30% white clouds

Other: GT=40

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1419 downrigging

**Area  1436 smoking, blades, and topwater

**Area  836 blade baits

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

Good Athletes Make Good Fishermen — 71 Fish, Stillhouse, 14 Aug. 2014

by Bob Maindelle

This evening I finished with Jack Oliver, his dad, affectionately known as Pa, and Jack’s two sons, Isaac and Eli. Jack and his wife and boys live near Marble Falls, Texas, where Jack makes a living as an electrician. “Pa” Oliver in Temple, Texas.

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(L to R) Jack, “Pa”, Isaac, and Eli Oliver with a sampling of our catch of 71 fish taken by downrigging and vertically jigging with slabs on Stillhouse.

Isaac and Eli will be transitioning from home school to public school this year, both are soccer enthusiasts, and both just spent a few weeks of this summer at a Marine Corps-style military academy called “Marine Military Academy” in south Texas as an early introduction to military life, which they both very much enjoyed.

As we launched this afternoon the air temperature was 95°F, but just minutes before we got going a nice northeasterly breeze began to blow. This was the stiffest wind we have encountered in the last four days, and as far as the fishing was concerned, it was a welcome game changer.

Just 20 minutes after launching, and 30 to 45 minutes after that breeze began, we found white bass swarming all over a 28 to 32 foot breakline. These fish were bottom-oriented and were spread over a 60 yard area. Although we discovered these as we downrigged into this area, we pulled the downrigging gear out of the water as quickly as possible, e-anchored with the i-Pilot, and used slabs fished vertically to put 52 fish in the boat in the first 80 minutes of our trip.  Using small 3/8 oz. TNT slabs to match the look and size of the small forage fish being fed upon in this area did the trick.

When this action died it marked a slow decline in the fish action for the evening. We never found another group of fish willing to chase and strike our slabs, and therefore wound up downrigging for the remainder of our time on the water, finding an additional 20 fish at two distinct locations.  The go-to setup for this duty was the 3-armed umbrella rig with Pet Spoons attached.

As with many student athletes, Isaac and Eli had excellent coordination and very quickly picked up on how to rig the downrigger. This helped greatly having two capable ‘riggers on board, as it allowed me to steer the boat, focus on sonar, and keep or ‘rigger balls in the fish.  Our results bore this out, as this trip would be the most productive of the entire week.

For our efforts this evening we boated a total of 71 fish including 69 white bass, one channel catfish, and one large mouth bass.

 

TALLY = 71 FISH

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:15pm

End Time:  8:30pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:    95F

Water Surface Temp:   84.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:    NW10-12

Sky Conditions:    Fair with 10% high, thin, white clouds

Other: GT=40

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1432 and 1433 smoking

**Area  1231 to 1232 downrigging

**Area  1134 through 196 through 863 downrigging

**Area 1419 downrigging

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

A Little Time with Grandpa — 42 Fish, Stillhouse, 14 Aug. 2014

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I fished with Dr. Scott Isdale and his two grandsons, Dylan and Drake Degenhardt. The boys will be starting fifth grade and third grade, respectively, and grandpa wanted to get in an outdoor adventure ‘just for the guys’ before the school year begins.

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Dr. Scott Isdale with his grandsons, Dylan (L) and Drake (R) with a few of the 42 fish we boated today.

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As the water temperature nears its annual peak, largemouth make up a larger percentage of the catch each August.
Dr. Isdale is a local chiropractor who has been helping people “adjust for the changes in life” since 1975 at his clinic in Killeen. The boys’ dad, Jason Degenhardt, is also a chiropractor and operates his practice off of Indian Trail in Harker Heights.  Dylan and Drake are both up and coming baseball players, but were decidedly not “morning people”.  Grandpa slowly coaxed them awake, and, by the time each had reeled in a fish or two, they were firing on all 8 cylinders.
Once again we had less than ideal conditions with a light northeast breeze, clear skies, and high-pressure, all in the wake of the cold front that passed early in the week.

This morning’s trip fished almost identically to yesterday morning’s trip. We encountered a light downrigging bite for sparse, scattered, suspended white bass in the first hour, followed by a 2-hour peak feed in the middle of the morning. As the peak feed got underway, largemouth bass began to pursue shad up on the surface, and white bass begin to pursue shad in the lower third of the water column. While the action was still ramping up we used three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons on the downriggers set at 22 to 26 feet. When the action built and we were able to hover over a very dense school of bottom-oriented white bass, we switched over to slabs and fished them vertically while the fish were in the immediate vicinity of the boat, and then used blade baits (Cicadas) cast horizontally to fish for them once they dispersed.

Once the downhill slide of the morning had kicked in, it progressed very quickly. By 1030 we had enjoyed all of the action we were going to enjoy for this morning. We caught a grand total of 42 fish this morning including exactly 40 white bass in the one, two, three, and four year classes, as well as 2 schoolie-sized largemouth bass.

 

TALLY = 42 FISH

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:00am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:    72F

Water Surface Temp:   84.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:    NW4-6

Sky Conditions:    Fair with 10% high, thin, white clouds

Other: GT=85

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 866 for an early downrigger bite on sparse, suspended fish

**Area 1232 through 671 for an aggressive downrigger bite on suspended white bass

**Area 1431 – 1133 about 25 minutes of solid smoking followed by 15 minutes of blade bait mop up on bottom-oriented white bass

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX