This morning I fished with Dr. Michael Szkrybalo of Austin on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir in pursuit of white bass.
After a nice weekend of warming weather putting surface temperatures at 53-54F, the fish were turned on today.
Michael is an emergency medicine doctor working for Scott & White. He’s originally from northern New Jersey and received his medical training through the U.S. Army. He is a combat veteran, having served in Somalia in the 1990’s.
The original plan was for Michael to bring his son, Colton, on what would have been their 3rd trip together with me while Colton was on his Spring Break from school this week. That plan crashed and burned when Colton got sick over the weekend. So, when 7:30 rolled around, only Michael arrived and we made it a 2-man show for the morning.
The nearly 3 degree warmup we enjoyed this past weekend did wonders for the fishing. The gulls worked for about two hours this morning while the winds blew, and we caught fish consistently during this time using blade baits in shallower water up to 15 feet, and slabs in deeper water, up to 28 feet. Over the first 2+ hours we boated exactly 30 fish.
By around 10:15, our light WSW wind completely died for about 45 minutes. It got very bright and very warm (given the clothes we had on for the 50F start of our trip), and the birds gave up and went to roost. We struggled during this time, looking over 5-6 distinct areas and finding little to fish for.
Around 11:00, a light NW breeze kicked in and some high, thin white cloud cover. To help buffer the effects of the less-than-ideal conditions now facing us, we headed for deeper water and, in the last 45 minutes or so, picked up another 11 fish from out of 43′ of water on slabs worked a bit more slowly.
TALLY = 39 FISH, all caught and released
GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:30a
End Time: 12:00p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 50F
Water Surface Temp: 53-54F
Wind Speed & Direction: WSW6, slowly shifting to NW4-5 with a 45 minute period of calm in between from ~10:15 to 11:00
Sky Conditions: ~30% cloud cover on a fair blue sky
Other: GT = 0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1173/1500 cast Cicadas for 1 fish
**Area 1527 jigged slabs for 17 fish
**Area 332 fancast Cicadas for 12 fish
**Area 1169/1534 vertical jigged slabs for 11 fish
Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)