Keep Goin’ Owen!! — 101 Fish for the Teixiera/Rosa Crew

This morning, Thursday, 17 March, I fished with returning guests Butch Teixeira and his grandsons, Ethan and Owen Rosa.

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From left: Butch Teixeira and his grandsons, Owen Rosa, age 11, and Ethan Rosa, age 16 teamed up for a half-day chasing white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.  The first half of the trip was spent casting bladebaits in shallow water, and the last half was spent vertical jigging in 31-34 feet of water.

Butch and his wife, Lena, traveled down to Texas from Fall River, MA, to visit their family now stationed at Fort Hood.  Butch runs his own 14′ aluminum boat with 15 hp motor fishing the freshwater ponds and brackish water rivers in his home state, but, Massachusetts is still firmly in winter’s grip right now, so, getting to fish in a t-shirt with me and his grandsons in mid-March was a real treat.

The shallow bite turned on again for the third day in a row.  Due to heavier cloud cover the bite started a bit later than during the past two days, and ended right around 9:15a.

After the shallow bite turned off, we headed for deeper water and, thanks to two ring-billed gulls, found a nice population of white bass in ~33′ of water that cooperated for about 90 minutes as we jigged for them.

By the time the bite died right around 11:15, we had 99 fish boated.  We spent another 15 minutes working for that last one to make it an even 100.  When Butch sealed the deal we decided to call it a good day on that good note, but not before Ethan contributed one last time.  Our catch consisted of 99 white bass and 2 largemouth.

 

TALLY = 101 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: 69F

Water Surface Temp:  65.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ESE8-9 the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  Overcast grey skies the entire trip but not to the point of drizzle.

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 1718 casting bladebaits to white bass aggressively chasing shad in 12-16′; 42 fish

**Area vic 1721  – vertical jigging; 59 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

Abadie Family Boats 91 Fish — Spring Break Trip #6

This evening, Wednesday, 16 March, I fished the 6th “Spring Break Week” trip of the week.  I welcomed aboard Andre Abadie, his wife, Linda, and their boys, Nicholas and Christopher for a white bass fishing adventure on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.

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From left: Nicholas, Andre’, Linda, and Christopher Abadie all display white bass taken from Stillhouse Hollow just a few minutes into their 4-hour trip.  The fish cooperated for over 3 of those 4 hours, allowing the Abadie’s to put together a catch of 91 fish.

Andre’ serves as a commissioned officer in the First Cavalry Division on Ft. Hood and Linda works in the healthcare field as a registered nurse.  They were referred my way by COL Hank McKnelly whom Andre’ works with.

Although this spring season usually allows for some variety in the tactics we employ, last week’s rains stained the upper part of the lake and the fishing there has been off.  It is in that shallower water where casting and trolling have typically paid off, but that has not been the case  this week.  That left us with one alternative, and that was deep-water vertical jigging.

This is a super-productive technique, however, it is quite technical and requires concentration from start to finish.  So, the challenge was to help encourage Nicholas and Christopher to stick with the program.  The boys did a great job, improving as they went, and their results reflected this.

By the time the sun set, we managed a nice bag of 91 fish, every single one of which was caught on slabs.

 

TALLY = 91 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time:  7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Water Surface Temp:  65.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE8-9 the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  A light white hazy cut down on the sun’s intensity and grew thick enough to obscure the sun just prior to sunset.

Water Level: 625.41 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 1143 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.06 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

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

16MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   342/1567 – vertical jigging

**Area   947/948  – vertical jigging

**Area   640/803 – vertical jigging

 

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

New Lake Record White Bass — 101 Fish, Spring Break Trip #5

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.

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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.

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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):

16MAR16

 

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

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Rod and Colin Reagan — 82 Fish — Spring Break Trip #4

This afternoon Mr. Rod Reagan and his son, Colin, of Salado, TX, joined me for some white bass fishing on Stillhouse Hollow.

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From left: Rod Reagan and his son, Colin, amassed a catch of 82 fish, all via vertical jigging with 3/4 oz. slabs in water ranging from 25 to 63 feet deep as a mild, dry cold front moved in over the course of our trip.

Thanks to clear, bright conditions, the fishing this afternoon was all deep, vertical jigging.  Staying focused on good technique for four hours is tough enough for adults, but young Colin stuck with the program and really came on strong at the end as we worked to polish up his technique.

Although we found fish at 3 distinct areas and at 3 distinct depths, all of the fish were somewhat reserved in that they simply didn’t very aggressively turn on, nor did they feed long once the schools we found got active with the appearance of our baits among them.

We wound up with a grand total of 82 fish caught, including 81 white bass and 1 freswater drum.

TALLY = 82 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time:  7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 86F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW13, slowly tapering to NNW6.

Sky Conditions:  Clear blue skies.

Water Level: 625.47 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 2159 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.16 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 20

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

15MAR16

 

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

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

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

Wheeler Crew — 82 Fish, Stillhouse, 14 March (AM)

This morning I fished the first of 12 planned “Spring Break Week” trips with the Wheeler clan.  Grandpa Cass Wheeler brought his grandchildren, 12-year-old Trinity Wheeler and 7-year-old Cash Wheeler, out to Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir for a morning in pursuit of white bass.

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Trinity was like a machine.  I showed her one time what to do at dockside, polished up her technique the first time we encountered fish, and she steadily reeled ’em in the entire time on the water.

Cash

Cash, like most 7-year-old boys, stayed engaged for a while, then needed “alternative assignments” to hold his interest.  So, he became my aerator-switch-operator, my net-man, and my check-on-the-health-of-the-fish-in-the-livewell representative.

After a bit of early morning searching, we got on fish around 8:20a and stayed on them right until 10:45 when both the kids and the fish played out.

We fished three distinct areas this morning.  The first area was on a flat, clean bottom over 34′ of water.  The second area was a gently sloping bottom going from 42′ to 45′.  Finally, as it got brighter and calmer, we moved out even deeper into 48′ and continued to vertical jigged for moderately concentrated fish.

The white bass we caught were heavily congregated near bottom, and therefore responded best to vertical jigging.  We used white, 3/4 oz. slabs the entire time this morning.

Once an area “played out”, I moved us very slowly a few yards in one direction or the other staying in the same general vicinity and, using sonar, stopped us right on top of the next patch of action we found.

We wound up with exactly 81 white bass and one largemouth this morning.

TALLY = 82 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Under 5 mph from the SSW for the first 90 minutes, followed by an hour of NE5, followed by an hour of calm, followed by a steady breeze from SSW at 8.

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

Water Level: 625.73 and has hit its crest and is now falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 2161 cubic feet per second

Other: GT= 25

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

14MAR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   1716 — vertical jigging for heavily schooled fish in 34′.

**Area   1567/978  — vertical jigging for heavily schooled fish in ~43′.

**Area  1715 — vertical jigging for heavily 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

Griffel / Zornes Party Boats 80 Fish, Stillhouse, 12 March

On Saturday afternoon, 12 March, I fished with Army buddies Brandon Griffel and Jared Zornes and their sons, 7-year-old son, Payton Griffel, and 13-year-old son, Ethan Zornes.

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From left: 7-year-old Payton Griffel and his dad, Brandon Griffel, and Jared Zornes and his son, 13-year-old Ethan Zornes.  This crew of 4 put 80 fish in the boat today fishing slabs in deep, clear water away from the mud brought in by the Lampasas River and Trimmier Creek due to recent rains.

We had all manner of weather going on this trip, some of which helped us and some of which hurt us.  At the start of the trip, the last of the heavy grey clouds which had moved in around 10am was about to clear from south to north.  These clouds held some rain to the point that there was some sprinkles falling even as the sun shone as we prepared to launch.

This turbulence and change in the weather turned the fish on at an unusually early part of the afternoon.  We made our first stop where I’d witnessed some terns feeding over 36′ of water, and, in our first 50 minutes boated 40 fish in the 1, 2, 3, and 4 year class using slabs.  Once this action dried up, we had quite a lull in the action before the fish cranked up again.

From 4:00p to 5:15p we got back on fish in 38-44′ of water.  These fish were not overly aggressive and required that we make short hops to move regularly to present our lures to “new” fish, as the fish were not active enough to come to us as the fish we boated created commotion beneath the boat.

We put another 26 fish in the boat over this span of time.

Our final action of the trip came from 6:20 to 6:50 under terns feeding on shad forced to the top by white bass feeding in the failing light right at and just after sunset.  We put a final 14 fish in the boat in this flurry of activity, putting us right at the 80 fish mark for the trip’s total.

All fish were caught on slabs today.

TALLY = 80 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 2:30p

End Time:  7:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  64.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light and variable

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

Water Level: 625.67 and rising with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 2159 cubic feet per second

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   1714 — vertical jigging for heavily schooled fish in 36′ during the last turbulent weather of the day under light sprinkles and clouds before the skies cleared and dried.  40 fish (half of our overall catch) came in our first 50 minutes on the water.

**Area   1567/1564/1563  — after an hour’s lull under brightening skies and calm winds, we found a few patches of fish by spot hopping in this general vicinity, fishing in 38-42′.

**Area  1192/072 — “last light” bite took place here with ~12 terns pointing the way to the action in 25-35′ along slope.

 

 

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

Will Fish for BBQ! — 122 Fish, Stillhouse, 12 March

This Saturday morning, March 12th, I was joined by fiancees Sean Cousens and Courtney Denman for a birthday outing celebrating Sean’s 36th birthday.  We targeted white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.

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We had solid fishing this morning from roughly 7:30 to 10:20a.  Our catch consisted of white bass mainly in the 1 and 2 year class, with a few nice 13+ inch 3 yearolds like those shown above thrown in for good measure.

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As often occurs when white bass feed in the same spot for an extended period of time, bottom feeders like catfish and drum will move in after detecting the odor and commotion of the white bass, to feed on the scraps that have fallen to the bottom.

Although the “mudline” has not progressed much distance-wise beyond the Union Grove area, the opacity was greater today than yesterday as Stillhouse continues to rise.  We’re now 3.41 feet above full pool.
I just don’t like fishing muddy water on Stillhouse.  I believe that because the water is so clear so much of the time, that the white bass really become mainly sight feeders despite having a lateral line to detect vibration.  When the water gets muddy, my results really drop off, so, we moved down lake today and fished the still-green water there.
Our first fish came under birds in 25-27 feet.  The action then moved out to 40-45 feet where we continued to catch fish right up until around 10:15am.
All fish we caught today came on the Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 in the “Holding the Line” custom color pattern and 3/4oz. size.
We boated a grand total of 122 fish this morning, including 116 white bass, 4 largemouth bass, 1 drum, and 1 channel catfish.  Courtney had previously announced that if she caught the 100th fish, she’d buy lunch.  As the 99th fish came aboard, I put my rod away and let the two soon-to-be-married-in-September couple duke it out.  Courtney hooked what could have been fish #100 but, as she had it about half way in, Sean hooked a fish of his own.  The two got a bit too competitive and wound up losing both fish.  Then (wouldn’t you know it?!) the fish quit at this location and we had to drive around looking on sonar for more fish just to get that 100th fish!
But, all ended well, as the two were headed to Schoepf’s BBQ in Belton when I last saw them.
TALLY =  122 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time:  10:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Water Surface Temp:  63.0F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were light and variable for the first 2.5 hours, then picked up and tapered up to 13 SSW by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  60% clouds on a fair sky increasing to 80% coverage by trip’s end.

Water Level: 625.41 and rising with 622.0 being full pool.  Water is now being released at a light 2157 cubic feet per second.  Water discolored to beyond Union Grove.

Other: GT= 50

 

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

12MAR16

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   158 to 067 under birds in 25-27′ with slabs

**Area  vic 978 to 1567 under birds at first, then fish continued biting after birds left.  45′ deep.

**Area 1713 final stop of the day — short, intense bite, typical of late morning

 

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

Soggy, with a chance of continued dampness — 63 Fish, Stillhouse, 11 March

This (rainy!) Friday morning, March 11th, I met up with Dennis Moses, his wife, Nakeya, and their 7-year-old son, Ayden.  Let me start out by saying, all three were real troopers to put up with the wind and rain they put up with this morning.  In the end, they were definitely rewarded for their persistence.

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From left: Dennis, Ayden, and Nakeya Moses with Ayden’s 4.5 pound largemouth taken on a bladebait in 25 feet of water.

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The white bass fed for a solid 2 hours this morning, allowing for consistent action on both bladebaits and slabs during that feeding window.

This all started with an email from Dennis to me in late February.  Dennis wanted to do something special with his son before he deployed to Turkey with his military police unit on March 20th.  This morning was the earliest I had free and which Dennis could take leave, Nakeya could be away from her job as a loan officer in Cove, and that Ayden could afford away from school.
As it turned out, it was a “now or never” kind of proposition because, with a completely full booking calendar for Spring Break, I had no alternative dates to offer Dennis if this morning didn’t work.  So, we kind of “made it work” … which meant we fished in the wind and, at times, an outright downpour.
Our first 40 minutes on the water had me concerned.  The discolored water which was at the west end of Union Grove last night had moved even farther downlake this morning, so we had to avoid that.  There was not much bird action, and what bird action we found was just “recon” flight, not feeding activity.  So, combine the dark, the wet, the cold, and no fish, and I thought we were going to have to pull the plug early as rain started soaking into socks, underwear, etc.  Just then, a fish bit.  Then another, then another.  Then the birds started to show up, and the rain and wind slacked off, and, before long it was “game on”!
We vertically jigged and cast blade baits with equal success in ~25 feet of water at three separate open water areas for 2.5+ hours and the action never slowed down once it started until right at 9:40am.  At this time the birds departed or went to rest on the surface and the bite died very quickly.
By this time we’d already boated exactly 61 white bass and 2 largemouth.  I could see Dennis was thinking about being happy with all that had transpired and taking his family to a nice, warm truck.  To put him at ease, I let my super-troopers know that if we fished the final hour we’d likely only add another 10-15% to our catch, but that we’d seen the vast majority of the fish we were going to catch this morning given the bird and fish behavior I was observing.
So, with 63 fish to our credit, including a really nice 4.50 pound black bass landed by Ayden, we took some family photos to commemorate the trip with, had Dennis and family tuck their heads down to avoid the stinging pelt of the raindrops on a quick ride in, and we headed ‘er to the dock.

TALLY = 63 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time:  9:40a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Water Surface Temp:  63.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were higher than forecast this morning – NNE13-14

Sky Conditions:  100% grey skies with a light mist or drizzle falling most of the trip.

Water Level: 624.78 and rising with 622.0 being full pool.  Water is now being released at a light 1819 cubic feet per second.  Water discolored to beyond Union Grove.

Other: GT= 0

 

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

11MAR16

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   946-1165 – exactly 100 fish taken here in 63′ on slabs

**Area  1710-758 – Casting blades for mid-depth whites under birds.

**Area 888 – one white bass via flatline trolling

 

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