There is no other way to describe it … this morning on Stillhouse Hollow, Mr. Steve Niemeier, his 9-year-old grandson Caleb Fowler, and I encountered one of the longest and strongest feeding frenzies I’ve ever seen on freshwater.
Caleb holds up his Cicada blade bait with a white bass caught on each hook. Many times we saw aggressive schoolmates follow hooked fish up to the boat nipping and swiping at the lure in the less fortunate schoolmate’s mouth.
Although the majority of our catch consisted of smallish fish, we put plenty of 12-13 inch white bass in the boat, as well.
I customarily take all fish off the hook for my clients. This is what my right forefinger looked like after this morning’s extended bout.
As we launched, everything “felt” right. There was a slight SW breeze, the air was heavy and humid but without fog, it was warm and balmy, the lake smelled like shad, and, best of all, a mild cold front was on its way to central Texas.
From before sunrise at 7:30 to the arrival of the cold front’s leading edge at 8:50, we boated exactly 92 fish casting blades and Rattlin’ Rapalas to surface feeding white bass which were pinning shad from 1.25 to 2.75 inches in length against the surface. There were so many fish covering such a large area, the few gulls working over these fish were spread well apart, such that it did not appear that they were on a concentration of fish at all.
At exactly 8:50am, the lead edge of the front arrived, and instantly the fish disappeared off the surface for about 15 minutes. As the wind picked up from the NNW and slowed down a bit, the fishing slowly built back.
Long story short, these fish fed for a solid 3.75 hours allowing us to amass the second largest catch I’ve ever brought aboard my boat in 23 years of fishing on Belton and Stillhouse. This is second only to a catch of 364 fish taken during a full-day trip in January several years ago, also in advance of a cold front’s arrival.
Steve and Caleb have fished with me quite a number of times, and our previous personal best for them was another spring white bass fishing trip on Stillhouse in which they boated 116 fish. So, once we got on these fish and saw that this was going to be a great day, they set their sights on 117 fish. We knew the cold front was coming, but didn’t know how that would impact the fishing once it arrived, so, we all fished hard to get to that 117 mark beforehand. As fate would have it, we cleared that 117 fish hurdle not long after the N wind kicked in, and then set our sights on beating the 251 fish mark, which, until today, was the greatest half-day trip total I’d ever guided clients to.
A great day with a great pair of clients!!
TALLY = 256 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: 64F
Water Surface Temp: 61-62F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW2-3, shifting at 8:50am to the NNW through to N at 8-10
Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover
Other: GT = 60
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 54/550 casting blades and Rattlin’ Rapalas
Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)