On the afternoon of Thursday, 25 Feb., I welcome Mr. Steve Robar and his wife, Mary, aboard for a half-day’s pursuit of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.
Mary Robar drove from South Dakota for a big Texas bass, and, around 4:30p today, she got one!!
Mary and Steve were already familiar with vertical presentations given their experience in fishing for walleye. This established skill came in handy as they were able to take full advantage of the strong, but brief, vertical bite we experienced this afternoon. No on-the-job-training required; they just got down to brass tacks and caught fish.
The Robar’s are retirees wintering here in Texas at an RV park near Kingsland. They drove their truck and fifth-wheel trailer down from South Dakota and will be headed back that way Sunday.
Before leaving Texas, they wanted to enjoy some fishing on unfrozen water, and, since they left their walleye rig up north, they contacted me to help them accomplish that.
I shared with my wife, Rebecca, as we had lunch together in between my two trips today that I was a bit concerned about our chances at catching fish. The morning trip’s fishing was great for the first two hours, but when the winds turned northerly, the fish just quit. This afternoon’s winds were due to continue at 12-14 mph from the NNE.
My first instinct was to head deep — really deep, as depth seems to negate the impact of tough conditions.
This gut feeling served us well. At our first stop, and in 61 feet of water, we jigged up 29 white bass and a single largemouth over the span of an hour. These fish were all smallish, but, I was glad just to get our strings stretched in the middle of the day under tough conditions.
We decided to leave fish to find fish, hoping for some better size, and, despite checking 5 nearly identical areas, did not get back on the fish for another hour.
Around 4p, as the shadows began to lengthen and the sun’s intensity began to wane, we hit an area in about 41 feet of water after I saw a handful of gulls and terns hesitate over this area and then move on. Sonar told a much more encouraging tale than the birds did, as my fish finder lit up with heavily congregated white bass in the lower third of the water column.
For the next 75 minutes it was “game on”, with Steve positioned on the starboard gunwale to my right, Mary on the starboard gunwale to my left, and me in the middle of them just taking off fish. The pair took their count from 30 fish up to 87 by the time the fish gave up.
As we prepared to make our next move, I offered two options: catch more fish vertically by doing the same thing we’d been doing, only in a different location, or catch fewer fish but experience a new tactic in so doing, by casting blade baits up shallow.
They opted for variety, and, in the final 40 minutes of the trip, we rounded it off at exactly 91 fish. The final 4 fish came on Binsky’s used used up shallow in under 12 feet of water.
TALLY = 91 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 2:00p
End Time: 6:00p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F
Water Surface Temp: 57.2F
Wind Speed & Direction: NNE14 for the first 3 hours, tapering down to NNE10 by trip’s end.
Sky Conditions: Clear and bright.
Water Level: 622.42 with 622.0 being full pool. 0.03 feet of water was released in the last 24 hours.
Other: GT= 0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 947 — 60′ deep whites on slabs
**Area 074 — 41′ deep whites on slabs
**Area vic 0733/764 — horizontal casting Binsky’s in ~14′ at low light
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