This morning I welcomed Marvin and Hilde Ewing of Louisville, Kentucky, aboard for a half-day trip targeting white bass on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.
Marvin and Hilde Ewing got a solid introduction to Texas white bass fishing today. The couple, from the Louisville, KY, area, traditionally fishes for sunfish and crappie on a small, natural lake in the Bluegrass State.
The Ewing’s are in Texas for about a month visiting Hilde’s Temple-based side of the family. Marvin is a Vietnam veteran and retiree of the Ford Motor Co., and Hilde is retired from administration in the Louisville public school system. The couple has been married for over 40 years and regularly fishes together on a small, 900 acre lake in Kentucky, mainly in pursuit of sunfish and crappie.
Marvin called me last weekend, explained his situation, and let me know he and Hilde wanted for fish for whatever was biting on Belton or Stillhouse. I watched the weather closely, saw some SW wind at a good velocity forecast for today, and contacted him back on Wednesday to set us up for today.
As we got going, the very first thing I considered was the water temperature which stands at 49-50F right now. No matter how you slice it, these cold-blooded creatures are going to be sluggish in such cool water, so, I made very sure Marvin and Hilde clearly understood how we had to present our slabs in order to attract fish today. We actually did a “practice round” before leaving the boat ramp area just so I could coach them well and work out any major flaws in their technique before we encountered fish.
The weatherman got the wind direction and speed down, but missed it on the cloud cover a bit. I was expecting 60+% cloud cover and got near zero. We were fortunate to encounter some early gull action that put us on the fish right off the bat. When this early, low-light action died, we had to work more intensively with sonar to find fish, and that was a little slow-going. Later, around 10:30, just as the wind ramped up from 6-7 up to 12-14, we encountered some unusual late-morning gull action that put us on top of some mobile, deepwater fish. We added 6 more fish to our count of 17, for a total of 23 now boated by around 11 am.
With the wind now really coming on strong for the first time all morning, I was encouraged that we could still find fish, despite it getting late for a morning bite. We looked over a stretch of river channel and found some bait and fish both on bottom and suspended up as much as 6 foot off the bottom. I setup over these fish, and, by 11:50, we added another 9 fish to our tally.
Marvin and Hilde thorough enjoyed the new surroundings new tactics, and new species and were very pleasant people to spend 4-5 hours out in the Lord’s creation with.
TALLY = 32 FISH, all caught and released
GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:15a
End Time: 11:50a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F
Water Surface Temp: 49-50F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW3 at trip’s start ramping up to SSW14 by trip’s end
Sky Conditions: Fair and high thin white clouds
Other: GT=0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1520-1057, first light bite under ~6 gulls in 27′
**Area 1521 vertical bite in 36-38′
**Area 1522 – 1523, deep vertical bite in 38-40′ under ~5 gulls
**Area 1524 late morning bite aided by wind; suspended and bottom oriented fish in 25′
Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)