This past Saturday morning I fished with Angela Edelbrock’s two sons, 14-year-old Joseph and 10-year-old Dylan, all of Temple, TX.
From left: Joseph and Dylan Edelbrock, each with a pair of solid white bass taken by downrigging Pet Spoons on Stillhouse Hollow after it reopened to boat traffic following weeks of closure due to May flooding.
Angela, who came along as a non-fishing chaperone, is a surgical tech at Baylor Scott & White Hospital in Temple, where she works on occasion with Dr. David Clark, another client of mine, who referred her to me (much appreciated, David!).
After having all boat ramps shut down due to flooding for several weeks now, the Union Grove launch on Stillhouse Hollow (with a 4-lane ramp) reopened on July 6th.
My plan was to introduce some variety into today’s trip by fishing for open-water white bass under the lower light conditions in the first half of our trip, then head up shallow and target sunfish under brighter conditions in the latter half of our trip. As it turned out, this approach worked well.
As the sun was rising, we got two lines in the water, both equipped with Pet Spoons and both attached to the downriggers. There was a definite “band of life” set up horizontally between 25 and 31 feet, and most of the suspended shad I found on sonar were in that band. We fished one area with only one white bass to show for it, then moved to what would be a very productive area. Funny thing was, despite all of the bait found in that “band of life”, the aggressive white bass I found were up higher in the water column.
We set our downrigger balls at between 15 and 22 feet, and did all the catching at 15-18 feet beneath the surface. We landed one triple, one double, and 13 singles for a total of 18 white bass by the time we left them biting to change over to panfishing. I like to note the ratio of triples, doubles, and singles, as it is indicative of the fishes’ activity level and typical school size, both of which vary over the summer months.
The sunfishing was pretty straightforward. Once the boys got the hang of allowing the wind to help them place their presentations in the nooks and crannies of the flooded brush the sunfish were hiding in, they were hard to stop. The boys amassed a catch of 35 sunfish of all sizes, and including longear, bluegill, and green sunfish, all taken on ultralight slipfloat rigs.
TALLY = 53 fish, all caught and released
Wx Snapshot:
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:25a
End Time: 10:35a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F
Water Surface Temp: 85.4F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8 at trip’s start; shifting to SSW 11 over the course of the morning
Sky Conditions: Low grey cloud cover at dawn burnt off to hazy skies with 30% cloud cover by 8am
Water Level: ~9.50 feet high and falling ~0.4 feet per day with a flow of ~1900 cfs
GT = 105
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 454/1782/1783 – downrigged for 18 white bass in this triangular area; Pet Spoons @ 15-17′
**Area 1098 – Sunfish on slipfloats
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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