THAT’S MY MOM!! … 100 Fish, Presidents’ Day 2017

This past Presidents’ Day Monday I invited my mom, Charlotte Maindelle, and brother, Andy Maindelle, out on a white bass fishing trip on Stillhouse. The weather situation was very hard to predict thanks to a Pacific low pressure system that was to pass overnight, so, I avoided booking a paid trip not knowing if the weather was going to clear in sufficient time to get a full 4 hours on the water.

Yep! That’s my mom, Charlotte Maindelle, at (almost) 72 years young. She landed the largest fish of our trip this morning with this nice largemouth that we found mixed in with a school of large white bass. We caught both species using bladebaits.

My brother, Andy Maindelle, pulled this nice 15.125 inch white bass out of the same patch of water that mom landed her outsized largemouth from, also on a bladebait.

All four of these white bass taped 13.75 to 15.00 inches and were taken on a combination of slabs and bladebaits.

A low pressure system’s passage usually bodes well for fishing, and this morning was no exception. I fueled up the boat and drove to the ramp in the rain, seeing that we were on the clearing edge of the front, which was moving quickly east.

By the time we launched right at 7am, the rain had ended, just leaving cool, damp, breezy conditions.

The feed began slowly, but then ramped up right around 8:30, as evidenced by increasing fish, bait, and bird activity. I noted that the fish fed in short spurts today. We would pull up on fish, catch them well for a few minutes, only to have them not only stop biting, but disappear from sonar. No sooner would the school we were over die down than another spurt of activity would pop up a few hundred yards away, all over about a 2 mile stretch of lake.

We worked slabs upon arriving at an area, then, once the fish throttled back a bit, we’d throw bladebaits to cover the bottom all around the boat. We caught two drum, 4 largemouth bass, and 94 white bass in exactly 4 hours’ time.

Later, mom treated us all to lunch at Papa’s Cafe in Harker Heights. Our waitress, Flo, saw that I was a fishing guide by the logo on my shirt. I showed her the photo of my mom’s fish and Flo complimented my mom on the nice catch and told Flo that I take people fishing for a living. Mom then added, “Yeah, I taught him everything he knows.” A classic Maindelle family line then repeated in my head, “Robert, don’t argue with your mother!”

This was a great time to enjoy some low-stress fishing with family before what is about to become a very, very busy season thanks to the mild winter, steady spring warmup, and approaching public school Spring Break.

TALLY = 100 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Water Surface Temp: 61.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: <10ENE until 8:30, then slowly tapering back and shifting to 8E

Sky Conditions: >100% cloud cover following 1.6″ of rain overnight brought in by a Pacific low pressure system that passed W to E just as we were getting launched.

Water Level: 1.3 feet above full pool (flotsam present on the surface this morning due to hard rains overnight, with colored water coming in from Trimmier Creek.

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 092 – slow action for small whites under dark, calm conditions early

**Area 108 – easing with slabs and casting blades

**Area vic 131 – easing with slabs in the deepest water we would fish this morning

**Area 1176 – easing with slabs and casting blades

**Area -1049 – easing with slabs and casting blades

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com