This morning, Wednesday, 16 March, I fished the 5th “Spring Break Week” trip of the week. I welcomed aboard John and Elaine Wyckoff and their 3 grandchildren, Dacia (age 15), Malia (age 11), and Gabriel (age 8) Rodriguez, all from Belton, Texas. Grandma and grandpa came as non-angling chaperones, so only the kids were doing the fishing.
Malia Rodriguez of Belton with her new Stillhouse Hollow Lake Record white bass. This fish measured 16.75, beating the existing Junior Angler catch-and-release record of 16.50 inches set in June of 2009.
From left: The Rodriguez kids: Dacia, Malia, and Gabriel, each with white bass caught on bladebaits in ~14′ of water this morning.
After experiencing a solid shallow water bite yesterday morning, I first searched this same area this morning and again found it held quantities of fish, and those fish were quality fish, with many 2 and 3 year class fish, and some 4 year class fish.
I covered the basics of casting and retrieving the bladebaits we would be using before taking the rope off the dock this morning so everyone had a solid grip on those fundamentals. When we arrived at our location, my first mate, the #Minn Kota #Ulterra trolling motor went to work anchoring us in place while I attended to the needs of my three young clients.
I had Dacia and Malia cast off the front deck, and I worked directly with young Gabriel in the stern. The kids quickly got the hang of working the bladebaits and as soon as the sky started to brighten, the area came alive with life. The water’s surface was dimpled by shad trying to escape the marauding white bass beneath them, and then gulls and tern joined in the fray from above. The kids were all catching fish very consistently, with fish ranging from 10.75 to 13.75 inches making up the majority of the catch.
At one point I looked up from working with Gabriel to make sure the girls up on the front deck were doing fine, and I saw Malia’s rod deeply bent down into the butt section. As the fish neared the boat, I saw a large white mass down in the still-stained water. When I grabbed the leader to help land the fish, I immediately knew we had record-book material. I checked out my TPWD lake record page stored on my cell phone and confirmed the existing lake record for white bass in the Junior Angler category taped in at 16.50 inches. Malia’s fish surpassed that by 1/4″. We photographed the fish on the measuring board as confirmation, took photos and released the fish so it could pass on those big fish genes one more time.
About 7 minutes later, Dacia caught another fish just a quarter inch shorter, which would have tied the existing record.
I explained to my five guests how unusual such a catch is. Of the nearly 10,000 fish my clients boated during calendar year 2015, not a single white bass exceeded 16.5 inches, yet on this one trip, two such fish had been landed.
The shallow bite lasted as long as the sun stayed behind the clouds (’til about 9am). After this bite ended, we moved out from shore a bit using downriggers and flatline trolling, but only picked up one fish.
It was now bright and calm — the toughest of all conditions. So, I used this time to do another block of instruction on vertical jigging, knowing the conditions would dictate that we’d have to fish deep. After this “class” was concluded, we headed to deep water to search out fish with sonar.
We found 3 separate concentrations of fish, and the first and last of these cooperated.
Just about the time we found the first concentration, a nice ENE wind kicked in and gave the fishing a nice bump. We ended our morning with exactly 101 fish boated.
TALLY = 101 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: 58F
Water Surface Temp: 65.0F
Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable for the first 2 hours, then coming up quickly ENE11-12
Sky Conditions: Thin grey clouds sufficient to mask the sun for the first 90 minutes, then clearing to fair.
Water Level: 625.41 and falling with 622.0 being full pool. Water being released at 2157 cubic feet per second. Lake fell 0.18 feet in the past 24 hours
Other: GT= 20
Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 128 — mid-depth vertical jigging for schooled fish in ~36′.
**Area 947/947 — deep vertical jigging for schooled fish in ~63′.
**Area 1716 and toward shore — shallow, low-light vertical jigging in 25′.
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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