Day: January 1, 2017

All in the Family — 105 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow, 31 Dec.

by Bob Maindelle

This past Saturday morning, December 31st, I fished with my nephews-in-law, Steven Darst, of Belton Texas, and Alan Kirkpatrick, of Pearland, Texas.

 

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From left: Steven Darst and Allen Kirkpatrick put 105 fish in the boat on a grey, breezy New Year’s Eve.

Steven makes his living as a elementary school teacher with the Killeen Independent school District and as the pastor of a small Baptist church in Crawford, Texas. Allen works in the human resources department of an oil company in Houston.

This morning’s trip targeted white bass on Stillhouse Hollow reservoir. Because I had an afternoon trip booked, and because I had a request specifically to fish Stillhouse this coming Monday, I chose to fish on Stillhouse so I could quickly get turned back around for the afternoon trip (on Belton), and so as to do a bit of scouting for Monday’s effort.

We enjoyed breezy conditions and gray skies all morning, both of which are ideal for white bass fishing. We fished five locations this morning and amassed a catch of 105 fish.

All of the fish we caught were caught on the Redneck Fish’n Jigs Model 180 in the white color and in 3/8 oz. with a Hazy Eye Stinger hook affixed to the line tie. The majority of our catch consisted of one year old white bass, with enough two and three-year-old fish thrown in to keep it interesting. We also landed a handful of largemouth bass. We used both an easing tactic and a snap jigging tactic. We typically began with the more active easing tactic, and then as the fish eased off and lost interest, we would finish out at a particular area using snap jigging.

As was the case on my last two trips to Belton and again this morning on Stillhouse, birds only minimally assisted us in locating fish. All fish except those at our last area were found using sonar, and all fish were related to some manner of breakline.

TALLY = 105 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  10:45am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Water Surface Temp:  58.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW9-12

Sky Conditions: 100% heavy grey cloud cover

Water Level:  0.38 feet above full pool

GT =  0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 103/1873 –  white bass action on a breakline with 3/8 oz. slabs using an easing tactic

**Area 784 –  white bass at base of hump on 3/8 oz. slabs using an easing tactic

**Area vic 1057 – –  white bass action on a breakline with 3/8 oz. slabs using an easing tactic in 36′

**Area 1874 – larger white bass in a small school at mouth of cove holding on old drainage feature

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

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