Friends since school days — from left, Jordan Miller, Luke Miller, and David Garrell shared a morning on the water in pursuit of Stillhouse Hollow white bass.
Jordan with an unusually large bluegill for Stillhouse Hollow, and the largest he had ever landed in a lifetime of fishing. This big boy measured 8.50 inches and slammed a downrigged Pet Spoon.
As Jordan called to schedule this morning’s trip, I tried to shoot him as straight as I could, being clear that the fishing is very tough thanks to scattered, suspended fish which have been put off of their normal early summer habits due to the recent flooding and ongoing release of water from the dam on Stillhouse. He appreciated the candor and was looking forward to the trip regardless of the slow fishing.
We met up at 6:45am (a bit later than normal due to the forecast for heavy overcast conditions) and launched out in search of fish. I first found abundant bait in the upper 15 feet of the water column in the vicinity of Area 1184-175, mixed with the occasional gamefish signature. With no topwater action showing whatsoever, and what gamefish we were seeing being both scattered and suspended, we went directly to a downrigging approach and, in the first 70 minutes of the trip, boated 12 white bass and 1 largemouth. we were using umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons.
We then experienced a bit of a lull, which was broken when the sun began to shine through the diminishing cloud cover as we arrived at and began to fish deeper, at around 24-28 feet over a 35-45 foot bottom in the vicinity of Area 1440-1436. We added another half-dozen fish to the count at this location before having to head back to drop Dave off for his 4 year old daughter’s dance recital, complete with a daddy-daughter dance.
Jordan, Luke, and I then headed back out and once again located more scattered, suspended fish in the vicinity of Area 124. We added a freshwater drum, a bull bluegill sunfish, and 4 more white bass to our count before calling it a day at the 5 hour mark, around 11:45am.
I am very hopeful that this coming week’s forecast closure of the floodgates on Stillhouse will bring on much improvement in the fishery.
TALLY = 24 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 4:30p
End Time: 8:45p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F
Water Surface Temp: 84F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-12
Sky Conditions: 80% cloud cover with light drizzle in the first hour’
Note: Stillhouse is at 622.49 and dropping
Other: GT=70
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1184-175
**Area 1440-1436
**Area 124
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Salado, TX
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com