90 Fish with Two Fine Young Americans — Stillhouse, 30 Sep. ’17 (AM)

WHO I FISHED WITH: 13-year-old Zach Schaeffer and 10-year-old Jeremiah Schaeffer, both of Ft. Hood

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13-year-old Zach Schaeffer is a student at Audie Murphy Middle School on Ft. Hood where he plays offensive right guard for the school’s football team.

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10-year-old Jeremiah Schaeffer:  “I can tell you one thing for sure: This was a lot of fun!”

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 30 September

HOW WE FISHED: Although we caught fish over the entire 4 hour trip, the third hour of the day, from 9a to 10a, was most productive.  We had to cover a lot of water with downriggers to keep fish coming in the boat during the first hour as the skies remained dim as the grey cloud cover of the past few days began to dissipate.  The second hour saw an uptick in our downrigging results and fish showing strongly enough near bottom to allow for us to begin some vertical jigging.  Once we began jigging, we continued with either slabs or tailspinners right up until we had to pull the plug to honor our finish time and meet the boys’ mom back at the ramp.  We landed 4 drum, 4 largemouth, and 82 white bass in the 0 to 3 year class.

OTHER NOTES/OBSERVATIONS: This was a Ft. Hood SKIESUnlimited program trip conducted for the stepsons of U.S. Army mechanic Nathan Baker and his wife, Kayla.

TALLY: 90 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Water Surface Temp: 79.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: N under 10mph

Sky Conditions: 60% grey cloud cover slowly thinning to 30% cloud cover by trip’s end. First day of clearing after a mild cool front passed and then stalled, bringing cooler temperatures and about 2 days’ worth of rainy, humid weather.

Water Level: 1.32 feet low

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

30SEP17

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

 

**Area vic 1993 downrigging to find fish, then working tailspinners to capitalize on the find

**Area 1998 downrigging to find fish, then working tailspinners to capitalize on the find

**Area 1996 found fish on sonar occupying the entire lower half of the water column in ~40 feet. Worked slabs with stingers to begin, then slowed down with tailspinners as the fish slowed down, then “mopped up” with downriggers until the action died.

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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