Day: March 11, 2017

No Potlickin’ !! — 106 Fish, Stillhouse, 11 March ’17

by Bob Maindelle

This past Saturday morning, March 11th, I fished with U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Jay Bruns, his 16 year old son, Robbie, and Robbie’s buddy, 16 year old Trent Fly, all of Harker Heights.

GROUP

 

From left: Robbie Bruns, Jay Bruns, and Trent Fly, all of Harker Heights, put 106 fish in the boat this March 11th morning on Stillhouse using a combination of fishing bladebaits for shallow fish, and slabs for deeper fish.

Jay is branched military police and currently serves with the 1st Cavalry Division’s “Blackjack” Brigade on Fort Hood.  Jay is a regular reader of my weekly “Guide Lines” column in the Killeen Daily Herald and, when considering how he might celebrate Robbie’s 16th birthday with him, gave me a call.
We got off to a timely start after covering safety and fishing tactics at dockside before we launched.  Although many of the wintering birds on Belton and Stillhouse have headed back north already, there are still a few helpful birds around and it was a handful of 5 gulls and 2 terns that drew my attention to the first area that produced well for us.  We cast bladebaits on a mid-depth flat in 24-28 feet of water for actively feeding white bass, and caught over 30 1 and 2 year class fish on bladebaits before this action died.  I noted both pre- and post-spawn fish in the mix of fish we landed.  By 8:30 this bite was done and the conditions were tough.
We struggled to fish fish for about 30 minutes before a SSE wind began to push and a blanket of thin, grey clouds began to move in and change our situation for the better.   Just 15 minutes after the winds began, the fish turned on and we enjoyed the fastest fishing of the morning, easily doubling our catch of 34 to 68 in about 26 minutes, and then continuing to catch for another 20 minutes or so.
As we entered the last hour on the water, the fish began to slowly apply the brakes and we had to spot-hop and really pay close attention to detail in our presentations to continue to get bit.   A few times when things got slow, I noted that Robbie would see either Jay or Trent catch a fish and would move from where he was, right next to the successful angler.  I explained that on the Texas coast this behavior is called potlicking, and that there are actually bumper stickers (or I should say, transom stickers) that show the term ” Potlickin’ ” in a red circle with a red slash running through the word, letting would be potlickers know they are NOT welcome to stop nearby for a visit.
When all was said and done, we landed 106 fish in just a tad over 4 hours, and, by the time we made our last stop, the fish had run their morning course and were done biting.  Our take of white bass included mainly 1 and 2 year class fish, with a handful of 3 year class fish, and one specimen caught by Robbie that was even older.  Our bycatch included about 10 largemouth bass, but no drum today.

TALLY = 106 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm at sunrise and until 8:45a, then quickly ramping up to SSE12

Sky Conditions: Morning began with 30% clouds on a sunny skies at sunrise, slowly transitioning to grey skies to just shy of the point of drizzle by trip’s end

Water Level:  0.40 feet above full pool

GT =  15

WX SNAPSHOT:

04MAR17

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Span of bottom between Area 089 and 1682 for first light white bass on bladebaits in 26 feet — 34 fish by 8:30a
 
**Area 1305 easing with slabs in 36′ after SSE winds began — took tally to 84 in ~45 minutes (strongest action of the morning)
**Area vic 786 easing with slabs in 40′ to close out the trip — took tally to grand total of 106

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

Hybrid Fever Rising on Belton — 145 Fish, 10 March ’17

by Bob Maindelle

This past Friday morning, March 10th, I fished with Jaime Gonzalez, José Chapa, and Ruben Cavazos, all U.S. military retirees who had the opportunity to fish with me once before this past winter as we did some deep vertical jigging for white bass over on Stillhouse.

HYBRID TAG

 

From left: Jaime Gonzales, Ruben Cavazos, and Jose Chapa, each with one of the many 18″+ “legal” hybrid we landed today on live shad.

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Ruben Cavazos with a 7 pound bluecat that came up and chomped his live shad intended for a hybrid striper.

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Jaime Gonzales with one of the three 22.75″, 6+ pound hybrid we boated today.

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Jose Chapa with his first keeper hybrid of the morning.

This past Friday morning, March 10th, I fished with Jaime Gonzalez, José Chapa, and Ruben Cavazos, all U.S. military retirees who had the opportunity to fish with me once before this past winter as we did some deep vertical jigging for white bass over on Stillhouse.

During that trip, the trio asked me about different fishing opportunities on our local lakes through the various seasons. I let them know that the “next big thing” would be the tremendous hybrid striped bass bite that coincides with the threadfin shad spawn each spring.

Based on my recent successes in fishing “experimental” trips for hybrid using live shad last Thursday, and the Thursday before that, I felt confident in offering a live shad trip targeting hybrid at this point in the season.

Today was the first day this spring that I actually witnessed spawning threadfin shad. These fish were “running the bank” in shallow water and for quite some distance, thus, there is no doubt that they were truly spawning.

In hindsight, catching shad actually proved to be more difficult than catching the gamefish we landed with those shad, as I spent a good bit of time on the water prior to seeing this spawning activity attempting to collect sufficient bait for the trip.

I picked my crew up at 6:45 AM, and thanks to very calm conditions, we only picked up three fish in our first hour on the water. I made a move to more open water to try to take advantage of the little bit of movement the light breeze we had was creating. What I found was evidently sufficient, as once we buckled down on top of fish, we never had to move for the remaining three hours of our trip.

With our baits suspended between 25 and 27 feet deep over a deeper bottom, the hybrid bite started before all three men could get a single rod down. We never had a chance to put in a second rod at any point in the morning. The action was nonstop and the vast majority (over 75%) of the fish we caught were keeper hybrid striped bass. Very few hybrid we caught were undersized, and we caught a number of long, but thin, white bass, numerous smallish largemouth from 12 to 14 inches, two drum, a single smallmouth bass, and two catfish that measured 7 and 8 pounds respectively.

Our largest three hybrid all went 22.75 inches and just barely topped 6 pounds.

By the time 10:45 rolled around, the bite was waning, and my three guys were ready for lunch and a break. In summary, we landed three white bass in our first hour on the water under very calm conditions, and 142 quality fish on live shad with just the lightest of breeze blowing and some light gray cloud cover in the east when these fish started biting. Once they started, they simply would not quit. I am expecting good things to come for the next several weeks now.

TALLY = 145 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm at sunrise, then light ESE breeze at under 5mph for rest of AM

Sky Conditions: Under 10% white cloud cover on fair skies

Water Level:  0.40 feet above full pool

GT =  25

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Netted bait at Area SHAD003 – one and done on spawners
**Area vic 816 – 3 white bass on slabs under calm conditions
 
**Area 1827 – 142 fish from 7:45 – 10:50am, all on large, live shad

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