This past Monday morning I fished with father and son Joey and Jayden Rogers of Georgetown, TX, targeting white bass on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.
From left: Joey and Jayden with a sampling of the large, plump, healthy white bass we took on artificial baits from 14 to nearly 50 feet deep.
This was the first time I’ve fished with Joey and Jayden. After they booked this Presidents’ Day trip with me based on Jayden’s school holiday, I watched the weather very closely and was pleased to find we’d be fishing on a windshift in advance of yet another mild, dry cold front.
As we got going this morning a negative fishing report from a fishing buddy, Rick Aker, haunted me a bit. He’s a good fisherman and spent a considerable amount of time on the water over the weekend and came up with little. The last two trips I took on Stillhouse found fish in a migrating mode, up over the old river channel or down in the old river channel and moving upstream in preparation for spawning. When they get in that “mode”, they can be tough to catch.
I felt these pre-frontal conditions would override all of that today, however, and that hunch proved to be correct. As we began our trip, our first stop came under the largest flock of gulls I’ve seen working over fish yet since the birds arrived in November. Although fish were definitely present and feeding under these gulls, the main attraction was the feeding loons. We boated a few fish casting bladebaits in 14-16 feet of water, but moved on when yet more gull action presented itself.
Our next stop came at a bend in the river channel with yet more gulls and terns working the area. The fish were definitely on the move here, as evidenced by seeing packs of fish quickly appear and then disappear on sonar as we sat still, anchored in place by our @Spot Lock feature on the @i-Pilot equipped @Ulterra trolling motor. Jayden thought the self-deploying feature was pretty cool. We landed right at 20 fish in this location before the bite dried up and the birds dissipated.
Our next stop came up shallow again on a flat in 12-14 feet of water. Again, some minor gull action brought me here and sonar confirmed the presence of fish. We picked up 3 more white bass, including our largest of the trip, but the place wasn’t just crawling with fish, so, with winds picking up and skies brightening, we headed for deeper, more open water to find fish.
We stopped at 2 areas where birds were working, and found fish at both, but the bite was tough and slow for scattered fish, so we kept looking. Around 10am we found what we were after — a large school of white bass holding fast along a breakline from 42 to 53 feet of water. Fortunately, this break was oriented NW to SE, the same direction the wind was blowing, so, when we Spot Locked on this area, the depth of our presentation stayed constant, despite shallower water to our port and deeper water to our starboard.
We arrived at this location with 27 fish in the boat, and ended the trip a bit early, around 10:40, with 50 fish boated. Despite snacking for a majority of the time on the water, Jayden’s belly demanded more attention. The discussion he and Joey had about the possibilities of eating tostados at Coronas de Oro on the creek in Belton was too much for the young man, and he just had to lay down his rod and pick up his fork. Joey told me Jayden can eat a full meal roughly every two hours!
So, we wrapped it up with a few photos, having landed a total of exactly 50 white bass with no other species in the mix this morning.
TALLY = 50 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 10:35a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 56F
Water Surface Temp: 57F
Wind Speed & Direction: WNW8 at trip’s start, shifting and increasing to NW16 by trip’s end on the arrival of a mild cold front.
Sky Conditions: Clear, bright, cloudless skies at first, followed by a band of thin grey clouds (50%) just after the front started moving through following the wind shift.
Water Level: 622.31 with 622.0 being full pool. 0.0 feet of water was released in the last 24 hours.
Other: GT= 5
Wx Snapshot:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 290-531 — shallow whites under birds with loons mixed in, all spread horizontally over a large areas; used bladebaits
**Area vic. 1696 — whites in ~20-25 feet of water under birds in a channel bend; all vertical work
**Area 732 — spotty shallow whites under birds; used bladebaits
**Area 1697 – deep white bass turned off by lead edge of front’s arrival; more bird action than fish action
**Area 1698 – deep white bass heavily congregated on a breakline; still sluggish, but sheer numbers of fish allowed for a catch of over 20 fish on a vertical presentation with slabs.
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle
