Month: March 2016

I Need a Break! — 137 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow

by Bob Maindelle

This afternoon I fished with Rev. Eric Whitfield and his wife, Kris, of Round Rock, TX.  Eric sent me a pre-Easter e-mail with the subject line: Chaplain Needs a Break!  So, today, I did my best to provide a little respite from the rigors of dealing with the terminally ill and their families and concerns.

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This afternoon’s trip offered up both quality and quantity for Eric and Kris Whitfield — 137 fish, with many 3-year-class fish beating the 14″ mark in the mix.

 

Eric is a U.S. Army veteran who left the military following a parachute malfunction during his attendance at Ranger School near Dahlonega, Georgia.  Kris recently sold the financial services business she had built and now volunteers as a volunteer coordinator and as president of the Round Rock Arts Council.

 

The two had above average prior fishing experience, both with spinning and fly gear, which helped reduce their learning curve and increase their catch this afternoon.

 

When I arrived early to launch, Eric was already walking the banks with light tackle in hand casting an in-line spinner.  I commented as I prepared the boat for launching about how I really liked the weather conditions — balmy, breezy, and with solid grey cloud cover.  I covered the two foundational techniques I felt we’d need to use today: jigging and easing, and then we were off to hunt for fish.

 

We didn’t have to hunt long.  After finding no active fish at our first stop, I moved us after just 5-6 minutes to a second area.  I got very excited seeing fish blanketing the bottom over a span of about 30 yards in about 36 feet of water.

 

The first unsuccessful stop we made had already allowed us to work out the kinks on technique, so now Eric and Kris were primed and ready to take full advantage of the potential the situation offered.  Long story short, we sat on one boat-sized patch of water for over 2 hours and boated fish continually using both the jigging and easing tactics we’d practiced.  By 6:00p, when these fish finally let up, our count stood at 114 fish.

 

Given the heavy clouds and strong bite we’d experienced, I felt our final 45 minutes would provide lesser results and I communicated that to Eric and Kris so they’d have reasonable expectations.  In our final 45 minutes on the water, we jigged at two locations and tried casting blade baits up in shallower 10-15 foot water.  The blade baits were ignored, but both areas at which we tried jigging gave up fish.

 

As the light failed, the fish moved up surface-ward to take advantage of the light still penetrating there.  This level was higher than our easing tactics could reach, so, we actually began using a slow form of my “smoking” technique to access these fish.  We finished the evening with exactly 137 fish, including over a half-dozen freshwater drum with the balance consisting of white bass.

 

TALLY = 137 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time:  7:50p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 69F

Water Surface Temp:  66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE10-12 the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  100% grey cloud cover to the point of misting.

Water Level: 623.73 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1135 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.15 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

29MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1720/088 deep vertical jigging for mixed 1-3 year class white bass
**Area vic 1048 vertical jigging for mixed 1-2 year class white bass
**Area vic 1725 vertical jigging and slow smoking for mixed 1-2 year class white bass at last 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

Genuine “Old Navy” — 44 Fish, Stillhouse

by Bob Maindelle

This past Tuesday morning, 29 March, I fished with retired U.S. Navy Captain Ray Johnson or Harker Heights.  Ray served our country as a physician and flight surgeon, and I’ve had the good fortune of fishing with him a number of times over the past several years.

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This morning’s trip with retired U.S. Navy Captain Ray Johnson yielded a mixed bag including largemouth, crappie, drum, and (mostly) white bass.

Ray is now in his late 70’s, so I looked for a weather forecast that wouldn’t have us rocking and rolling in the wind and wherein the temperatures would be bearable.  Last week around Thursday, I saw this morning’s forecast and bounced it off of Ray.  He was ready to go!
As we got going a bit before 7:30a, the skies were overcast to the point of light drizzle, and the winds were calm.  I thought we might see some topwater action, but only single fish could be seen here and there — no definitive schooling or aggressive, sustained topwater was noted.
We kind of picked at the fish for the first 90 minutes or so, only putting 11 fish in the boat by 9am.  I left the more murky, shallow water we started the morning in for deeper, clearer water, and, in 63 feet of water, we found our first good concentration of fish.  We vertically jigged with 3/4 oz. white slabs for right at 75 minutes, enjoying consistent success, although the intensity level of this feed was pretty low.  We observed a lot more fish chasing our lures on sonar than were willing to commit to actually overtaking them and biting as we watched things play out beneath us on sonar.  Eventually this bite died to nothing, requiring a move.
We moved to a similar, but shallower area, in 36-38 feet of water and found a more aggressive school of white bass eager to bite.  These fish were, on average, a bit larger than we’d found in deeper water.  By now the time was around 10:50a, and I suspected the bite wouldn’t go much longer given that the wind, which had peaked around 10mph, was beginning to slow a bit.  Indeed, these fish stayed fired up for only a short 10-12 minutes and then sulked with little response to our jigging after that, despite being readily identified on sonar directly beneath us.
We looked over 2 more areas with sonar, dropping slabs at one of them, but, the bit was over and so we called it quits around 11:50a with a total of 44 fish boated, including 1 crappie, 3 largemouth, 2 drum, and 39 white bass.

 

TALLY = 44 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:25a

End Time:  11:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp:  65.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm at start, picking up to SSE7-9

Sky Conditions:  100% grey cloud cover.

Water Level: 623.73 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1135 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.15 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

29MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 116 shallow blade bait bite at (obscured) sunrise — 4 white bass
**Area 764 shallow blade bait bite in low light – 2 white bass
**Area 1724 shallow Rippin Rap bite in low light – 1 white bass, 1 largemouth bass, 1 crappie
**Area vic 947 deep vertical jigging for mixed 1-2 year class white bass
**Area vic 803 deep vertical jigging for mixed mainly 2 year class white bass

 

 

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

And the First Fish Award goes to …. 62 Fish, 26 March (PM Trip)

by Bob Maindelle

This Saturday evening, 26 March, I met up with Chris Meck, his girlfriend, Jennifer Hayden, and Jennifer’s son, Justin Hayden, out on Stillhouse Hollow in pursuit of white bass.

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Jennifer Hayden to big fish honors tonight with this fat, long Stillhouse white bass that fell for a downrigged bait worked down at 17′ over a deeper bottom.

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Fishing was easy for the first 1.75 hours.  We caught 55 fish off an area in 63′ of water during this time.

Neither Jennifer nor Justin had ever caught a fish before, so, they had a pretty steep learning curve to overcome this afternoon, but, they did great.

Afternoons lately have required near 100% vertical jigging, but tonight, due to some cloud cover in the west bringing some darkening of the skies a bit earlier than we’d normally encounter on a clear evening, we got to mix in a bit of downrigging and casting, and at a time when Justin’s 6-year-old attention span was due for a change of pace.

Our first 2 hours on the water was definitely the most productive.  We sat in 62 feet of water pulling white bass after white bass up on slabs.  Although this area has produced well lately, it had been giving up mostly small fish, but, today, over 60% were right at 11.75 to 12.25 inches, with the remainder being smaller.

Around 5:35p this bite shut down pretty quickly, sending us on a search for more fish that took nearly 30 minutes before we contacted fish again.

Once I found fish, they were suspended at 15-18 feet down over a 30-33 foot bottom, and required a downrigging approach to control the depth of the presentation.  This is where my #Cannon downriggers came in — instead of throwing a crankbait or a Hellbender back behind the boat and hoping for the best, this downrigging setup very precisely places baits right where I want them when the downrigger is used in conjunction with sonar pinging off the transom.  We boated a few fish this way, and then, for a final effort, we moved up shallow to check on low-light shallow biters, and found a few willing to chase our bladebaits.

Both Jennifer and Justin did indeed catch the first fish of their lives tonight, and as a result, Justin will receive a First Fish Award from TPWD.

Jennifer had big fish honors with a white bass that taped in at 15.25 inches, taken on the downrigger at 17 feet down over a deeper bottom and from amidst a large, loosely congregated school of white bass.

TALLY = 62 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time:  7:50p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE12-14, dying to SSE4 by trip’s end.

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with 40% cloud cover.

Water Level: 624.43 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1139 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.14 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 60

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

26MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 946 – vertical jigging with slabs for 55 fish in first 1.75 hours

**Area vic 798 downrigging with ThinFins for suspended white bass coming toward surface during last light

**Area vic 116 casting shallow blades for last-bite, low-light fish


 

 

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

Family Fun — 54 Fish, Stillhouse, 26 March

by Bob Maindelle

This Saturday morning, 26 March, I met up with Skip C. and his family of Salado out on Stillhouse Hollow in pursuit of white bass.

Culp Family Easter 2016

Skip C. and his kids, from left: William (12), Katherine (7), Sarah (6), and John (8).

Skip had fished with me once before in 2011 with just his two sons coming along, after being referred by a friend from the Baylor Scott & White anesthesiology department.  Today, the entire crew came out, no doubt giving mom some much needed down time.  The kids attend Providence Preparatory School in Belton, which comes alongside home-schoolers to allow for a half-homeschool and half-traditional school approach to education for families who choose to home-school.

It was cool this morning thanks to a cold front that came into the region early Thursday morning, leaving skies clear and allowing for much radiational cooling.  As a result, our water surface temperature has fallen about 3 degrees off of the high reached last week during an unseasonably warm Spring Break week.

As we got going, I discovered that the very reliable shallow water bite that has been going for at least the first 70 minutes following sunrise for the past 13 days was reliable no more!  While the skies were bright and the winds near calm, we put a few fish in the boat via both downrigging and flatline trolling, but solid fishing did not kick in until around 9:15a when a bank of grey clouds moved in and the wind became steady at S8.

Once the winds began to blow consistently, I moved us out to deeper, clearer water, found fish with sonar, and we began jigging with slabs.  This bite stayed solid right up until 11:05 with all 4 kids regularly catching fish on the very simple vertical jigging technique I demonstrated for them.

At age 12, William was operating nearly independently.  8-year-old John needed an occasional check-up but was otherwise just fine.  I covered down on Katherine (age 7), after about 10 iterations, got all but the pretty exacting depth adjustment concept down very well.  Skip stayed right with 6-year-old Sarah for the duration and the two of them did very well together.

We made a few “short hops” moving forward, backwards, left, or right a boat length or 2 or 3, but never left this general area.  As long as the clouds and wind were present, the fish kept right on feeding.

By the time 11:20 rolled around, the sonar screen was clean, the skies were brightening, the winds were dying, and the bite was over.  We’d managed to boat 52 white bass and 2 largemouth bass for our efforts.

TALLY = 54 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time:  11:40a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Water Surface Temp:  63.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds light and variable until 9:30am when they went SSE9.

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with 20% cloud cover for the first hour, then 100% grey cloud cover for the middle 2 hours, then slowly clearing to fair with 50% cloud cover.

Water Level: 624.43 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1139 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.14 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 50

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

26MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 109 downrigging with ThinFins for 3 fish

**Area vic 764 flatline trolling with crankbaits for 4 fish

**Area 108/1049 – vertical jigging with slabs for 47 fish
 

 

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

In One Ear… 78 Fish, Stillhouse, Good Friday 2016

by Bob Maindelle

This Good Friday was spent on the water with Mr. Tony Vriseno of Belton, and his two sons, 13-year-old Tony and 8-year-old Ben.  The boys had the day off from school for the Easter holiday.

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Tony Vriseno of Belton did very well this morning throwing bladebaits and jigging slabs and was rewarded for his efforts.  These white bass were both just shy of 15″.

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Ben Vriseno got a little help from his dad and did really well this morning, too.

Tony works for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad as a conductor and had some down time in his schedule, so, he gave me a ring a few weeks ago and we put this “Kids Fish, Too!” trip on the calendar.  Kids Fish, Too! trips are intended for only the kids to do the fishing whether or not parents/guardians come along for the ride.  These are a little less expensive than a standard trip, and tend to go 3-4 hours instead of 4+ hours as most adult trips do.

Radiational cooling took the sunrise temperature down to just 43F this morning, so, we were back to hats and gloves and jackets after wearing Crocs and shorts for a few of last week’s Spring Break trips.

The boys both were already familiar with how to use spinning gear, and so to start our day, I headed up shallow and had them cast bladebaits for white bass.  Although the fish were willing, they were nowhere near as shallow as they were last week before last Saturday’s cold front and yesterday’s coldfront pushed them back down in the water column and back away from shore.  There was no bait on or near the surface today and no helpful bird action to key on.

We found our first batch of fish in 15-17 feet of water, backed off a good cast’s length and worked them over with bladebaits.  We picked up 25 fish in our first 65 minutes on the water before this shallow bite died.

From that point on, it was all vertical jigging in 35 to 42 feet of water.  Tony got the hang of this tactic pretty quickly and fished in the stern pretty much independently.  Ben was aided by his dad at the beginning and then he, too, was catching fish on his own by the end of the trip.

We made 3 distinct stops in deep water and found fish at 2 of them, allowing us to boat another 53 fish spread over the last 3 hours on the water.

Tony (dad) and I laughed at how the boys were getting to the age where if dad says something, it goes in one ear and out the other, yet let a coach or, in today’s case, a fishing guide, say the exact same thing, and all of the sudden it’s like Gospel.

We had a good time this morning!  Of the 78 fish we landed, 3 were largemouth bass, and the remainder were white bass in the 1-3 year class range.

TALLY = 78 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Water Surface Temp:  64.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds light and variable until 10:30am when they went SSE9.

Sky Conditions:  Clear blue skies thanks to post-frontal high pressure

Water Level: 624.57 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1139 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.13 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

25MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 108/1049 – vertical jigging with slabs
 
**Area 128 – vertical jigging with slabs
**Area 780 – vertical jigging 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

First Fish Ever! — 84 Fish, Stillhouse, 24 March

by Bob Maindelle

Today, Thursday, 24 March, I fished with father and son Peter and Theo Little.  Theo, a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army stationed at Ft. Hood treated his dad to a fishing trip for his 55th birthday.  Neither fellow had ever caught a fish before, so, we started with the basics of holding and using spinning gear, and built up from there.

PETER

Peter Little landed this 5.125 pound Stillhouse largemouth from amongst a school of white bass we had been jigging for for over an hour.  Once this fish came on the scene, the mostly 1 and 2 year old white bass departed the area.  After Peter landed this fish, we never caught another white bass at this area.

THEO

Theo Little with a sampling of the mostly 2-year class fish we vertically jigged for from start to finish on this cold front-influenced evening trip on which both Theo and his dad caught the first fish of their lives.

Both men are followers of Christ, so that made the great fishing and this new experience for these fellows that much sweeter as we got to converse about how and when we came to begin our relationship with Him.

The weather we experienced this afternoon, closely mimicked the weather I encountered last Saturday.  A hard coldfront blew in overnight dropping a bit of rain and bringing heavy cloud cover and strong winds.  As I did Saturday, I waited for the winds to peak and begin to fall off before we headed out fishing.

My experience has shown that until the winds subside, the fishing will be good, assuming boat control is possible given the strong winds typically experienced in a cold front’s wake.  Today as we launched, we faced 17mph winds with higher gusts and boat control was difficult but not impossible.  By the time we moved to our second area, the winds, which steadily tapered over the entire trip, were down to 15 mph and quite manageable.

We looked at 8 areas with sonar and found solid fishing on 3 of them, with marginal quantities of fish at two others, and nothing on the remaining three.

For quite some time now, the afternoon bite has been a one-trick-pony, and that one trick is deep vertical jigging.  We jigged in 34-38 feet at the 3 areas that gave up fish for us this afternoon.

We wrapped up a bit earlier than usual.  It seems Theo has been cooking for his dad and, well … I’ll just stop right there.

The fellows put exactly 83 white bass and 1 largemouth in the boat this evening and missed a good number more due to inexperience, but both definitely improved greatly from start time to the time we finished up.

TALLY = 84 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time:  6:55p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F

Water Surface Temp:  64.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Hard NE winds at 17 tapering down to 10

Sky Conditions:  Clear blue skies thanks to incoming high pressure

Water Level: 624.62 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1139 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.13 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 25

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

(not available for this date)

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1048 – vertical jigging with slabs
 
**Area vic 719 – vertical jigging with slabs
**Area vic 1720 – vertical jigging 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

Grade “A” White Bass — 124 Fish, Spring Break trip #11

by Bob Maindelle

This windy afternoon I fished with old college buddies Ben and Bryan Uy (pronounced YOU-wee), and their friend Xerxes Pascua.  Ben is now an Austin attorney, Bryan is an engineer, and Xerxes works at a state-level savings and loan regulatory agency.

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From left: Xerxes, Bryan, and Ben with a sampling of this evening’s catch.  Fish typically continue to bite during a cold front right up until the winds let up.  Fortunately, the winds stayed up sufficient to fuel feeding behavior for our entire 4 hours on the water.

 

As the cold front that roared in around 6:45p yesterday began to blow itself out, the winds which blew steadily 20-22 and gusted higher on occasion, began to slowly scale back.  As we began our trip at 3:45p, the winds were at NE18 with temps in the high 50’s thanks to clear skies and direct sunshine.  The winds would continue to taper down to about 11 mph by trip’s end at 7:45p.

 

We had some factors working both for us and against us.  In the “Pros” column: warmer than normal water temperatures, wind-moved water, clearing water, hungry post-spawn fish, some natural “sign” in the form of gulls and ospreys working over the water here and there.  In the “Cons” column: northerly wind direction, bright skies, winds impacting boat control to some extent.

 

As we motored to the area I wanted to try first, I really wasn’t sure what sonar might or might not reveal.  I was therefore quite relieved to see a nice, tight cluster of fish on a breakline that produced earlier this morning.  As we got baits down to the fish to sample their activity level, they responded, but were pretty subdued about it all.  We managed a few fish here and on a few short-hops in this general vicinity, then moved on with 8 fish landed from out of ~34′.

 

Our next stop came in right at 40′ of clearer water.  Sonar revealed fish closely packed together on a breakline.  As soon as the slabs went down, the fish came up.  We fished over these fish for just over an hour and 20 minutes, boating an additional 61 fish for our efforts until they played out.

 

Our third stop was a bust, but, our final stop (at around 6:45p) would be our best stop of the trip.  We had more manageable winds and decreasing light levels working in our favor.  We nearly doubled our catch in right at an hour’s time, finishing the trip with 122 fish.

TALLY = 124 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time:  7:55p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp:  65.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Hard NE winds at 17 tapering down to 12

Sky Conditions:  Clear blue skies thanks to incoming high pressure

Water Level: 625.10 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1143 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.13 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 50

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

19MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 108/1049 – vertical jigging with slabs
 
**Area 128 – vertical jigging with slabs
**Area 780 – vertical jigging 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

Lord-made Lemonade — 95 Fish (Spring Break trip #10)

by Bob Maindelle

I love how the Lord provides!  As I was on the water Thursday evening, a call comes in from the fellow who was scheduled to fish with me this afternoon.  Since he had made the reservation just that morning, it took my by surprise.  He was to drive in from Dallas, saw Friday afternoon’s weather forecast, got cold feet, and wound up canceling on really short notice.

IMG_1592

From left: James Powell and Ricardo Cisneros each with a 14″ class white bass taken from a school of white bass numbering in the hundreds that turned on strong just in advance of an incoming cold front.

As a small businessman, cancellations on short notice are really a lose-lose which I try to avoid at all costs.  Not only does the client lose their deposit, I lose out on the opportunity to earn the balance of the trip’s fare by putting people on fish.
With less than 22 hours to respond, I put out a Facebook post advertising the opening and sharing this week’s excellent fishing results.  As my Friday morning trip came to a close, I had two “nibbles”, but no takers.
As my Friday morning clients headed to the parking lot, I was by myself cleaning up the boat.  Another boat came in to load up and go home and one of the two passengers overheard my phone conversation with my wife lamenting the missed opportunity for putting people on fish.
Long story short, after struggling a bit to catch fish all morning, this man, Ricardo Cisneros, his friend, Rick Powell, and Rick’s brother, James, decided to take advantage of the opportunity.  We agreed to meet back at the same location at 3:45pm.  I had a good feeling about the trip, as pre-frontal conditions were quickly developing and I knew the fish were going to feed hard.
At 3:45p, we headed out and I began sweeping with sonar thanks to a lack of bird activity (which is now almost ended for this season).  I found a few fish in 40′ adjacent to the river channel, and we jigged for 1 white bass and 1 crappie.
We checked a second area — nothing.
We moved a bit shallower, and there they were — a strong concentration of fish numbering several hundred individuals.
We began jigging and the fish started coming over the side.  The nearly calm winds went NE3-4.   The breeze slowly increased to 6, then 7, then 8 mph.  Then came a noticeable cool down.  All this time the fish fed hard and the fellows kept right on jigging and catching.  We boated 65, then 75, then 85, then 95 fish.
When that 95th fish came over the side, right at 6:50pm, the skies darkened suddenly.  I told everyone to batten down the hatches because the cold front was about to roar in.
In minutes, the lake went from docile to a whipped froth with the wind blowing 20+.  My guests took a (very!) quick poll amonst themselves and everyone decided they’d caught enough for this day.
We skidaddled!
The winds would continue to increase and blow strong right through 2pm Saturday afternoon, but, it sure was fun while it lasted.
The Lord took those lemons and made some lemonade!  Thank you!

TALLY = 95 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time:  6:50p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  66.0F

Wind Speed & Direction:  See report above

Sky Conditions:  100% grey cloud cover the entire trip

Water Level: 625.10 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1143 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.13 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 20

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

18MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1563/1567/1720 – vertical jigging 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

Crusader Fishing — 94 Fish, Spring Break Trip #9

by Bob Maindelle

This morning, I fished with returning clients Steve and Hunter Crawford targeting white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.  Steve and his family are from Beaumont, TX, and Hunter is now a majority of the way though his junior year at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, TX, where he is pursuing a degree in international business.

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Hunter landed two fish on the same lure at the same time in our final hour on the water.  One fish was caught on the treble hook at the tail-end of the lure, and the other was caught on the stinger hook on the head-end of the lure.

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Both pre-spawn (fish on far left) and post-spawn fish (thin fish held by Steve, in blue shirt) were mixed together and feeding heavily on shad in the pre-frontal conditions we encountered this morning.  From left: Hunter and Steve Crawford.

This morning we faced even heavier grey cloud cover than yesterday, and, accordingly, the bite got off to a lighter and later start, but, once it cranked up, around 8:15, the fish fed heavily until about 9:25a when a blanket of fog moved in, lowered the light level and killed the bite.  During this feed, casting bladebaits in 10-16 feet of water was met with a willing response on just about every-other cast.

As the fog rolled in, the winds went slack for about a 45 minute span.  I used this time to instruct Steve and Hunter on how to work a slab in what would be our next approach at catching fish: vertical jigging.

We moved to deeper, clearer water and I began to use sonar to search out patches of the bottom attractive to fish.  Once I found what I was looking for, I buoyed the fish, then lowered my #Ulterra and used the Spot Lock function to hold right on top of the fish.  We then employed the tactics I’d instructed the fellows on earlier, and we enjoyed another nearly 90 minutes of consistent action as we fished 3 distinct areas in this manner.

The cold front generating this pre-frontal fishing was forecast to enter into this area right around 6pm this evening.

TALLY = 94 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time:  11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Water Surface Temp:  65.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  LIght winds under ESE3 for the first 2.5 hours, then ESE6-7 for the balance of our time on the water

Sky Conditions:  100% grey cloud cover with fog forming for about 45 minutes from 9:25 to10:05a

Water Level: 625.40 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1143 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.01 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 50

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

18MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1718 to 1722 — shallow white bass action on blades for active post-spawners chasing shad

**Area 306 – vertical jigging with slabs

**Area vic 1049 – vertical jigging with slabs

**Area 055-140 – vertical jigging 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

Just One More — 72 Fish, Garcia/Neel Spring Break Trip #8

by Bob Maindelle

This evening I conducted a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Luis Garcia, his wife, Tonya, and their kids, Julianna and William Neel.  The plan was to have the kids to all the fishing while mom and dad looked on.

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From left: Julianna and William Neel of Austin headed north to Stillhouse with their parents, Luis and Tonya Garcia, to cash in on some white bass fishing action.

As has been the case all week, thanks to the recent flooding, the evening bite has been 100% deep vertical jigging, with no bird action, bait action, or fish action yet spotted in the shallows, even at low light around sunset.

I let Luis and Tonya know right off the bat that it would be quite a feat to have an 11 and 12 year old stay engaged for a full four hours with such limited variety in the tactics that are working.  I do this so that it is not awkward for clients to let me know they’ve had enough before the usual 4-hour mark, perhaps fearing I’d take it the wrong way.

We did a thorough dockside introduction to vertical jigging and then headed out.  We were onto our first dozen fish within as many minutes from leaving the dock.  The first 2 hours of the were productive, however, the fish would not stay turned on very long.  At our first 3 areas fished, the fish would “fire up” as soon as we got our slabs down to them.  We’d then be able to catch 6-8 fish, but the fish would quickly turn off, settling back to the bottom, and become tough to get to bite.

We began fishing our 4th and final stop of the evening around 5:50p.  With the sun heading down and shadows getting long, the fish began to respond more aggressively and for a longer duration.  We fished this population in ~38′ for a full hour, taking the kids’ tally up to 69.  When it became clear to Luis that the kids had had enough and we agreed their technique was getting rough and inconsistent, we agreed to shoot for one more fish to make it an even 70.  Before long, Julianna hooked into a nice white bass and in came that 70th fish.  Well, not to be outdone, her younger brother wanted to have the last word, so, he insisted on pressing on until he caught one more.  A few minutes later, number 71 came over the port gunwale.

By this time, Will was done and searching for the snack bag, but steely-eyed Julianna just kept right on jigging.  She was NOT going to let Will have the last laugh.  So, with a fish population growing increasingly disinterested thanks to the length of time we’d been fishing over top of them, Julianna set about to catch “just one more”.  And she did!  Around 6:55p, our (honest this time!) last fish came on board and we cranked up and headed to the dock.

Our catch consisted of 71 white bass and 1 freshwater drum.

 

TALLY = 72 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time:  7:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Water Surface Temp:  65.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ESE7-8 the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  ~10% white clouds on a fair sky

Water Level: 625.40 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1143 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.01 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 25

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

17MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1173 – vertical jigging with slabs

**Area 1713/719 – vertical jigging with slabs

**Area 074 – vertical jigging with slabs

**Area 803 – vertical jigging 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