The Kid is Good! — 67 Fish, Stillhouse, 22 Dec. 2014

This morning I fished with 9-year-old Kaden Lehrman, targeting white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.  This trip was a birthday present from his mom, Michelle Mikeska, and his grandparents, Don and Monica Mikeska.  This was Kaden’s third time out with me.

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Kaden Lehrman with one of 3 white bass we landed today that taped between 14 and 15 inches.  We boated a total of 67 fish today, primarily on 3/8 oz. slabs.

shot 51

This is what was taking place 20 feet under the boat as the white bass turned on the afterburners and started a heavy feed on threadfin shad at mid-morning today. This shows approximately 40 fish in a very tight school patrolling within 3 feet of the bottom.

Kaden is a 4th grade student at Timber Ridge Elementary School in the Killeen Independent School District and he has a real passion for and knack for fishing.  Seeing this, his mom and grandparents have helped him develop his potential by sending him to week-long fishing summer camps over the past two summers.  The summer of 2013 was spent in freshwater, and the summer of 2014 was spent in saltwater out of Port Aransas.

Each time Kaden and I have fished together, I’ve tried to introduce him to new tactics — our first trip was spent fishing live shad for hybrid on Lake Belton in the spring; our second trip was spent primarily downrigging in the summer for white bass on Stillhouse, and today’s trip introduced the tactics of vertical jigging, easing, and fishing bladebaits for white bass on Stillhouse.

We had good wind, good weather, and cooperative fish and birds this morning.  We got on fish right away and stayed on them until right at 11am when the last birds stopped feeding and the fishing went downhill quickly.

We began the morning on a slow, methodical bite for white bass on slabs under gulls, then, as the skies brightened and the winds increased, we found more heavily concentrated white bass action beneath terns in shallower water.  We initially caught these active fish by working Reef Runner Cicadas horizontally, and as the fishes’ interest in chasing diminished, we switched over to slabbing with 3/8 oz. silver Redneck Fishn Jigs model 180 slabs.

I was very impressed with Kaden’s ability to focus and maintain consistency in his technique over the entire 4+ hour duration of the trip.  Most kids his age will become distracted after going for any length of time without catching a fish, or even when we get on a hot bite and success becomes routine, but Kaden stayed sharp the entire time, working his slab perfectly, setting the hook well, fighting his hooked fish very well, and minimizing the amount of downtime we experienced due to things like tangles, etc.  Look out Kevin VanDam!

By the time the bite died, we’d boated 67 fish, including 1 largemouth bass, 3 freshwater drum, and 63 white bass with our best 3 taping between 14.25 and 15.00 inches.

TALLY = 67 FISH, all caught and released

 

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:20a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 56F

Water Surface Temp: 56.2-57.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW11-14

Sky Conditions: 70% clouds on a blue sky with direct sun shining through

Other: GT=15

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1510 in 15-17 feet of water under “first light” conditions

**Area 1511/1512/977 vertical jigging for sluggish fish under birds in 23-25′.

**Area 1509 – best fishing of the trip; 90 minutes on shallow, aggressive fish in under 16 feet of water, starting with blade baits and transitioning to slabs.

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)