Personal Best — 85 Fish, Stillhouse, 11 Feb. 2017

This morning, February 11th, I fished welcomed aboard Brent Teller of Harker Heights for a morning in pursuit of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.

IMG_0817

Retired U.S. Army cavalry scout Brent Teller landed his personal best freshwater fish today.  This largemouth bass inhaled his 3/8 oz. slab equipped with a Hazy Eye Stinger hook.  This fish weighed 4.75 pounds and came out of 22 feet of water.

IMG_0824

75 of our 85 fish caught were white bass.  These were the largest of the bunch, each taping 14 3/8 inches.

Brent, originally from the Newport News, Virginia area, is a retired U.S. Army Cavalry scout who served most recently with the 1st Cavalry Division.  Brent tallied 4 deployments to Iraq and now makes a living selling and installing HVAC systems with a small company based out of Belton.  Most of Brent’s prior fishing experience came in pursuit of striped bass on the Chesapeake Bay, with some more recent pond fishing experience using artificials for largemouth from his own aluminum bass boat.  As he has reviewed his freshwater experiences, he’s seen where he does well on small waters, but often falls short of his hopes when fishing larger bodies of water like Belton and Stillhouse.

As we got going today, knowing that Brent wanted to learn, I spent a bit more time explaining things than I would for a client just wishing to catch fish.  I pointed out a lot about the fish we were pursuing, the forage they eat, the use of sonar, and the reason for the lure selection and presentations we were making.

As is typical for a grey, cloudy morning, the fishing got off to a slower start due to a slow brightening of the skies.  Once the fishing started around 7:45a, we found active fish in increasing deeper water right up until the finally turned off around 11:10a.  Our first fish were caught in 18-22 feet, then in 35 feet, then in 47 feet.

At the first and shallowest area we fished, we enjoyed the very first horizontal blade bait fishing via casting of the 2017 season.  Fish were aggressive and well spread along a slow slope from 18 to 25 feet.  We positioned the boat so as to retrieve our baits upslope with the help of the Minn Kota Ulterra’s Spot Lock feature.  A nice, steady retrieve kept near bottom got us a fish on every 2nd, 3rd or 4th cast for a span of time.

Otherwise, an easing tactic did the trick for the rest of our fish, primarily using the 3/8 oz. white Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180.   For a short span of time while fishing under aggressively feeding terns (which were feeding over aggressively feeding white bass), we bumped up to 3/4 oz. slabs, mainly to get to bottom more quickly in the nearly 50′ we were in.  The fish fell for these, but then turned off to them as the bite died down.  On numerous occasions we had white bass regurgitate the shad they had eaten just a few minutes earlier.  These shad were all the same size, and that size was just a bit smaller than the profile of the smaller 3/8 oz. slab we were using.

Once again, all of our largemouth (6 of them) and about 60% of the white bass were hooked on the Hazy Eye Stinger hook affixed to the line tie of the slab.

We landed a total of 85 fish, including 6 largemouth, 4 drum, and exactly 75 white bass.  Our largest fish was Brent’s personal best freshwater fish — a largemouth bass that fell for a 3/8 oz. slab.  It weighed in at 4.75 pounds on a certified Boga Grip scale.

 

TALLY = 85 FISH, all caught and released

Wx SNAPSHOT:

11FEB17

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Water Surface Temp:  57.4°F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW9 at sunrise, tapering up to SSW14

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover until 10a, then quickly clearing to 10% white cloud cover on a fair sky

Water Level:  0.19 feet above full pool

GT =  0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 092 – easing and working blades horizontally for 33 fish

**Area 303 – easing for 14 fish

**Area vic 1513 – easing for 38 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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/