WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning I fished with Dave K. and his family from Round Rock, TX, including his wife, his 6-year-old daughter, and his twin 3-year-old sons.  Dave requested I not post photos/last names, so, instead of the normal family photos I typically illustrate these posts with, I’ve included some sonar screen shots, instead.

Topwater action generated by schoolie-sized largemouth led us to find white bass feeding on the same bait in the same general area on a deep flat.  Downriggers were very effective at presenting multiple baits which imitated the forage size well.  Multiple baits yielded multiple hookups.  This DownScan screenshot taken from my Lowrance HDS16 Carbon shows just a small patch of the bottom which was blanketed with hundreds of white bass.

This screen shot was also taken off of my Lowrance HDS16 Carbon with the FishReveal technology turned on, thus placing colored sonar images overtop of the DownScan screen.  All the fish are shown by the DownScan in light blue, and those fish directly under the boat showed in shades ranging from green (most intense echo) to yellow, then red, then purple-blue (in order of decreasing return-echo strength).

After the bite died and I dropped my clients off at the end of their trip, I returned to the area where we had found our white bass.  I found that the fish moved off the flat they were feeding on and were holding, suspended, over the river channel totally disinterested in feeding.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED:  Wednesday morning, 01 August 2018

HOW WE FISHED:   We fished for the first 2 of 3 hours in three distinct locations for sunfish, catching a total of 40 sunfish of 3 different species: redear, bluegill, and longear.  In our third and final hour I spotted largemouth bass herding bait to the surface over open water.  I moved into these fish, found white bass in the lower third of the water column feeding on the same small shad the largemouth were pushing around and deployed twin downriggers with 3-armed umbrella rigs set to present just a few feet above the white bass.  We landed 28 white bass in right at an hour’s time as they came in as multiple singles, multiple doubles, and multiple triples.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:  

TALLY: 68 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 9:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Water Surface Temp:   82.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm through 8:15am, then starting NNW building to 7mph

Sky Conditions: 0% cloud cover

Water Level: 7.18 feet low

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 201, 888, 420 – sunfishing for the first 2 hours or so under low light, and while waiting for wind to build; 40 sunfish

**Area vic 1512 to 1951 – very aggressive, schooled, suspended white bass holding in lower third of the water column beneath schoolie-sized largemouth; caught 2 largemouth and 26 white bass coming in singles, multiple doubles, and multiple triples

 

 

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@HoldingelleTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH:    This morning I fished with AJ Cotto.  AJ is a 12-year-old whose parents are both in the military.  AJ and his sister fished with me last July 4th, on a Kids Fish, Too! trip, accompanied by his parents.  This morning, his college-aged brother, Jose, came along as a spectator while AJ did all the fishing.  Due to some recent travel in from the west coast which involved a lot of hotel-hopping, AJ’s body and sleep patterns were all a bit off.  By request, we began the trip 30 minutes later than normal and (again, by request) fished for only 2.5 hours.  Regardless, AJ did very well, and, thanks to an incoming cold front, enjoyed the best fishing of the day in the shortened time we were on the water.

 

ABOVE: White bass were forcing young-of-the-year shad (top half of photo) to the surface this morning very aggressively in a pre-frontal feed which lasted for 2 hours before the wind shifted to the north.  Most fish we landed regurgitated shad they had eaten.  Once particularly successful white bass actually belched up 16 such shad.  We used  hand-tied streamers (bottom half of photo) to very closely mimic this forage and AJ proceeded to “wear ’em out”.

AJ Cotto with one of the many white bass he landed during a topwater feeding spree after quickly learning to use spinning gear to cast our “float ‘n’ fly” rig.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, 30 July 2018

HOW WE FISHED:  We enjoyed 2+ solid hours of topwater fishing for white bass feeding on young of the year shad on the surface.  These small baitfish were about 0.75 inches in length, so, I rigged a weighted popping cork (to provide weight for casting distance) with a hand-tied streamer selected to match the forage size, and a fluorocarbon leader.  I then provided AJ with instruction on how to cast a spinning outfit (which he’d not done before).  AJ’s distance and accuracy slowly improved and, in the end, he wound up putting 54 fish in the boat before an incoming cold front shut the fishing down hard.  After that occurred, we downrigged for 3 more fish before his mom arrived back to pick him up around 9:30am.  These fish we caught on topwater were smaller yearling fish, but just right for our scenario.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:  1) A mid-summer cold front moved in around 9:10am, shifting the wind suddenly.  The north winds blew for 2 more days before returning to the SE on Thursday, 02 Aug.  The pre-dawn temperature on Wednesday morning, 01 Aug. was 66F. 2) This week’s temperature profile was as follows:

0 feet 86.5°

5 feet 86.5°

10 feet 86.5°

15 feet 86.5°

20 feet 86.5°

25 feet 86.5°

30 feet 85°

35 feet 80.3°

40 feet 74.3°

45 feet 68.4°

50 feet 65.1°

55 feet 62.8°

60 feet 61.1°

TALLY: 68 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 9:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Water Surface Temp:   86.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW4-5 through 9:10am, then shifting suddenly NNW12-13 with the arrival of a summer cold front’s leading edge

Sky Conditions: 20% cloud cover prior to the front’s arrival, then 100% grey cloud cover as the front arrived, with partial clearing to 80% cover within 20 minutes after the front’s arrival

Water Level:  7.09 feet low

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:  (which did not accurately forecast the timing of the cold front’s arrival)

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0049C – two solid hours of non-stop surface action by 1-year class white bass.

**Area vic 1888 – downrigging in deeper, clearer water after the cold front’s wind shift killed the topwater bite; 1 white and 2 largemouth in 3 passes

 

 

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@HoldingelleTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle