Scouting Results: The Loons Are Here! — Stillhouse Hollow – 15 Fish

This morning I waited until the wind began to blow and then headed out for just a short while to do some scouting.  Due to last weekend’s 2015 Central Texas Boat and Outdoor Show and the prep leading up to it, I haven’t been on the water since 30 Dec.

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If you look closely, you’ll see 3 black-colored loons actually in the water beneath the white and grey gulls.  These loons were feeding on shad, both driving them toward the surface and surfacing with shad in their bills.  The gulls hovering above cash in on the dead and crippled shad the loons drop.  When spotted from a distance, it can be difficult to distinguish this unhelpful activity from gull activity that is gamefish-related.  Anglers beware!!  You can burn a lot of gas and show no results chasing such loon activity.

I put in on Stillhouse Hollow at 8:25am, and by 9:40 had no problem boating 5 white bass at each of 3 locations I stopped and checked on.

Each location was tipped off by light bird action, although there was more unhelpful bird action than there was helpful bird action, thanks to the gulls and terns now focusing on feeding loons instead of solely focusing on shad made available by gamefish feeding activity.

The white bass I found were all in small schools and were all 2 and 3 year class fish in 25-27 feet of water.

Before heading out, I was concerned that the fish would have pushed deeper (which always makes for difficult fishing when deep fish are pushed there by the cold, not drawn there by the bait).

With a 4 day warming trend in the forecast, I don’t see any immediate danger of such cold water occurring that the fishery is negatively impacted.

As for a fishing “forecast”, Saturday afternoon looks good due to a still SW breeze with some high, thin cloud cover, and next Tuesday morning, 20 Jan., is looking good thanks to a forecast windshift through the west in advance of a mild, dry cold front.

This is the time of year to learn vertical jigging in conjunction with down-looking electronics.  If you are interested in an on-the-water lesson as you catch fish, just give me a call.

 

 

TALLY = 15 FISH, all caught and released

 

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

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:25a

End Time: 9:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 39F

Water Surface Temp: 47.6 to 48.2

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW11-13

Sky Conditions: Fair and cloudless

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1309 to Area 1518, & spot hopping in between the two

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