This past Monday morning, January 2nd, I fished a white bass trip on Stillhouse Hollow with brothers-in-law Clayton Bell and Gaines Smith, both from the Florence, Texas, area.  Clayton has followed me on Facebook for over a year, saw a pattern of consistent success, and decided to give it a try.

 

Gaines Smith of Florence landed this nice 6.00 pound Stillhouse largemouth bass on a 3/8 oz. slab from out of 32′.  We landed a total of 15 largemouth.  Every single one was primarily hooked on the Hazy Eye Stinger affixed to the line tie end of the lure.  The percentage of largemouth in my deepwater catch is definitely on the rise with the water cooling from the high 50’s.

 

Look at that grin!!  Clayton and I were like kids on Christmas Day waiting for this fish to show itself.  We knew instantly that it was large, but the species remained a mystery for a while as Clayton worked the rod trying to get this channel cat to the surface.  It went 4.50 pounds on a certified scale.

Clayton is an artist who works with stone (specifically, slate) and makes fountains and other creations with it.  Gaines is a carpenter by trade and, given his years of experience in construction, often serves as superintendent of commercial construction projects. The two married sisters and now live on the same piece of family land between Salado and Georgetown.

An overnight storm cell passed from west to east between 3:30am and 7:00am.  The last few drops of rain fell as I prepped the boat for our 7:15am start.  There was a distinct break in the clouds where the grey storm cell ended and the clearing skies behind it began.

Our weather for the trip was good, with a consistent westerly breeze rippling the water in the absence of any cloud cover.

We got right down to business showing Clayton and Gaines the various vertical tactics it would take to put fish in the boat this morning, and then we got out there after fish.

The fish were pretty cooperative this morning, thus allowing us to catch fish at each of the four places we stopped and searched with sonar.

Area 142 produced our first fish early in the morning.  My attention was drawn to this area by some gulls and loons working actively over this 30 foot deep area.  As was the case all morning, the 3/8 oz. jigging spoon (slab) with a Hazy Eye Stinger hook did the trick..

Three other areas, each progressively deeper as the sun climbed higher, would produce on the same easing presentation.

Aside from catching several dozen white bass that easily surpassed 13 inches, and a few more that surpassed 14 inches, we also landed two other notable fish.

First, Gaines landed a 6.00 pound largemouth (one of about 15 largemouth over the course of the trip).  This came on the small, 3/8 oz. white slab with (you might have guessed it by now) the fish caught right in the center of the upper lip with the Hazy Eye Stinger hook.  The treble hook was located outside the mouth.  I’ve mentioned many times now since I began using stinger hooks several winters ago that for some reason 1) nearly all winter largemouth are hooked on that stinger, and 2) the percentage of white bass and hybrid caught on the stinger increases as the water temperature decreases.

The second noteworthy fish was a 4.50 pound channel cat landed by Clayton.  This fish was caught right around 11am from near bottom after we had been working over a school of smaller white bass in 46 feet of water for a while.  I suspect that the commotion caused by these hooked fish, and the feces and regurgitated shad they produced acted like chum to bring this catfish in for a look.

We finished up this morning’s trip with exactly 131 fish caught and released.

TALLY = 131 FISH, all caught and released

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15am

End Time:  11:25am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Water Surface Temp:  57.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  WSW9-12

Sky Conditions: 10% thin white cloud cover on blue sky following overnight storm cell passing W to E

Water Level:  0.26 feet above full pool

GT =  10

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 142 –  white bass action on a breakline with 3/8 oz. slabs using an easing tactic

**Area 103/549 –  white bass action on a breakline with 3/8 oz. slabs using an easing tactic

**Area 092-  white bass action on a breakline with 3/8 oz. slabs using an easing tactic

**Area 724 –   white bass action on a breakline with 3/8 oz. slabs using an easing tactic

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

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