Got Bait? — 128 Fish — Stillhouse, 15 March

This morning, March 15th, I was joined by John and Matthew Morrison of Temple, TX, for a morning of white bass fishing on Stillhouse.

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From left: John and Matthew Morrison “tore ’em up” this morning.  We “parked” in one area and boated 90 of our 128 fish in the first 2 hours on the water as hungry, spawned-out fish returned to the lake and started hunting their favorite meal — threadfin shad.

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Matthew picked up this plump largemouth as he worked his bladebait in ~14 feet of water amongst a mess of hungry white bass.

What a treat this morning’s trip was!  The flood-muddied water created by last week’s week-long rains have begun to clear, thus increasing the number of fishable areas.  And to fish with two really nice fellows was icing on the cake.  John is an executive with Ambit Energy and Matthew has dreams of a scholarshipped education golfing for the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor next year.

We read the birds this morning and this placed us squarely on top of a 2-hour long feed that was just getting underway as we encountered it.  Hungry, post-spawn white bass were corralling shad against the surface and chasing them throughout the water column.  Steadily worked bladebaits matching the forage size did the trick for us over, and over, and over again.   The Morrison’s boated exactly 88 white bass and 2 largemouth before the sun cleared the grey clouds it rose into.  Once the direct sun hit the water, the bite moved briefly deeper, and then died.

We were then pushed out to deeper, clearer water for the remainder of our trip.  We successfully jigged with 3/4 oz. slabs to add an additional 38 fish to our take.

The majority of the fish caught up shallow on bladebaits were 2 and 3 year old, 12-14 inch fish with gaunt bellies.  The deepwater fish we caught were split nearly 50/50 between 1 and 2 year class fish with an occasional 3 year old thrown in.

Matthew, a confessed recreational eater, gave me some good insights on some local eateries I’ve yet to try.  Topping the list was Raymond’s, right off of I-35 in Lorena.

A great trip with some great fellows.  The Morrison’s have fished with me through thick and thin.  This was their 15th trip with me since 2011.

TALLY = 128 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: 69F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW7, slowly swinging WSW and increasing to 12 by trip’s end.

Sky Conditions:  Thin grey cloud cover sufficient to obscure the sun until ~9am, then clearing to 30% white cloud coverage on a white sky.

Water Level: 625.59 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 2159 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.14 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

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

15MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   741/1718 — casting bladebaits in 10-16 feet for post-spawn white bass herding shad

**Area   1719  — mid-depth vertical jigging for schooled fish in ~48′.

**Area   1715/312  — deep vertical jigging for schooled fish in ~48′.

 

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

Vacula Family boats 127 fish, Spring Break 2016

This afternoon, March 14th I fished the second of 12 planned “Spring Break Week” trips with the Vacula family.  Dr. Ben Vacula of Temple, Texas, brought his 3 children, Madeline (age 12), Olivia (age 10), and Gabriel (age 8), along with his parents, Dennis and Amy Vacula, of LaGrange, Texas, out for an evening of white bass fishing on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.  Ben and the 3 kids fished, while grandma and grandpa just enjoyed the boatride and taking photos and video clips of the grandkids.

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From left: Gabriel, Olivia, Madeline, and Ben Vacula of Temple, TX, landed 127 fish during their 4-hour evening fishing trip on this first day of Spring Break 2016.

The reservoir crested and, thanks to a light flow of water from the dam, is now falling very slowly from ~3.75 feet above full pool thanks to abundant rains all last week.

These rains have muddied the upper 1/3 of the lake and forced us to fish deeper, clearer water that I would normally not be fishing this time of year.  This has made our trips a “one-trick-pony” of vertical jigging, but that has been successful.

We fished only 2 areas this evening, with exactly 100 fish landed at our first area at which the fish stayed actively biting for over 2 hours.  This area was in 63′.  The second area was in ~27 feet of water.  The bite was intense, but short lived as the light began to fail toward sunset.

My approach, since I knew vertical jigging was going to be the key to success, was to show everyone exactly what needed to be done before we ever left the dock.  Then, I “tested” each person individually while watching their technique, offering pointers where I saw some polishing was required.

Although a lot of our fish were small, the action was very steady, which is just perfect when having a number of youngsters aboard.

TALLY = 127 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45a

End Time:  7:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 84F

Water Surface Temp:  64.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW14, tapering down to SSW8

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with less than 5% cloud cover.

Water Level: 625.64 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 2159 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.09 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

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

14MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   1717 — vertical jigging for heavily schooled fish in 63′.

**Area   1716  — vertical jigging for schooled fish in ~27′.

 

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