This Thursday morning, 18 Feb., I fished with husband and wife team R.C. and Marsha Stephenson of Sun City, near Georgetown, TX. We targeted white bass on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.
R.C. Stephenson of Sun City in Georgetown, TX, with a 7.00 pound bass (measured on certified scale) that fell for his Binsky bladebait worked around schooled white bass in 16-18 feet of water at first light.
The Stephenson’s originally booked with me in the spring of 2015, but the flooding rains that came prevented that trip, as did heat in the summer which they preferred not to fish in, and then, in November, Marsha broke her wrist in a fall, thus pushing our plans even further into this year.
I saw today’s “fishy” conditions developing while watching the forecast last week and suggested that we make a go of it. After the past two days of bright, high pressure, with fairly low wind speeds, today’s clouds and wind promised a big turnaround.
We got going right at 7:00am and were on the fish less than 10 minutes later. Some wide-spread gull activity got us close to the fish, sonar helped us find the spot on the spot, and the Spot Lock feature on the #Ulterra sealed the deal by keeping us there even in a stiff 20+ mph wind.
As we encountered fish in under 16 feet of water we cast bladebaits and worked them horizontally. I experimented with a new bait on my clients’ rods today that I had success with while experimenting prior to this trip. This bladebait is called the “Binsky” and fills a gap that the Cicadas that I’ve come to rely on over the years do not fill at the 3/4 oz. weight range. The Binsky casts well into the wind and gets to bottom quickly in up to 20 feet of water. It does have a vibration to it, but not nearly as strong as the Cicada.
For deeper work today, we relied on the 3/4 oz. Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 with a stinger attached..
We fished up shallow until around 9:15am, then transition to deeper 45-50 foot waters immediately adjacent to the old Lampasas River channel.
Th fishing tapered down to nil by 11:00a and we called it quits at that point with 48 white bass and 2 largemouth landed today. Roughly half the catch came from the shallow horizontal tactics and the other half from deeper vertical work.
TALLY = 50 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 11:00a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 56F
Water Surface Temp: 57.5F
Wind Speed & Direction: S16 at trip’s start, steadily increasing to S22 by trip’s end.
Sky Conditions: 100% grey skies, slowly clearing to cloudless by 11am
Water Level: 622.26 with 622.0 being full pool. 0.01 feet of water was released in the last 24 hours.
Other: GT= 30
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 116/1699 — shallow whites under birds with loons mixed in, all spread horizontally over a large areas; used Binsky bladebaits
**Area 1700 — whites in ~15-18 feet of water under birds in a channel bend; used Binsky bladebaits
**Area vic 103 – vertical jigging for whites in 25′ on breakline
**Area 1690 – deep white bass heavily congregated on a breakline 43-50′; slow lifting slabs.
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
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