WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning I fished with Mr. David Hudgens of Belton, accompanied by his 13-year-old son, William, and his 11-year-old daughter, Kaylee.  David works in the information technology department at McLane’s in Temple, William is headed to 8th grade where he’s looking forward to continuing to play tennis, and Kaylee heads into 6th grade where she will continue to pursue the sport of soccer.  This fishing trip was a birthday gift to David from his folks, Bill and Debra Hudgens.

Miss Kaylee took the “big fish award” hands down!  This nice largemouth went just shy of 4 pounds and came on a Pet Spoon fished at 34′ over a deeper bottom while we were targeting white bass.  Although it is difficult to tell from this photo, the bass appeared to have recently fed on a single, large fish, possibly a small white bass, as its abdomen was bulging noticeably out to the sides (look at the tip of the pectoral fin).

Although a “triple” eluded us today, the kids landed multiple doubles and singles as the 3-armed umbrella rigs worked their magic behind the Cannons.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED:  Wednesday morning, 08 August 2018

HOW WE FISHED:   We spent our first 90 minutes throwing Cork Rigs to smallish, schooled white bass feeding on young-of-the-year shad in shallow water.  These were young-of-the-year white bass and 1 year class fish, but provided lots of visual, engaging action for the kids and really gave them an opportunity to practice casting with spinning gear under “real-world” conditions.  After this action died, we headed to deeper, clearer water to downrig for the remainder of the morning, visiting 3 distinct areas and catching fish at each one.  As the lack of topwater action by schoolie-sized largemouth would indicate, the fish were not really jazzed this morning, thus, we had to work for the fish we caught.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:  There was a noticeable lack of topwater action by largemouth bass this morning, hence, to find large concentrations of bait and the white bass hanging near them, we had to visit a number of areas and do a lot of looking with sonar.

TALLY: 59 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp:   83.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW under 5 through 8:15a, then building to SSW12

Sky Conditions: ~10% cloud cover

Water Level: 7.58 feet low

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 117 white bass on Cork Rigs under low light; young of the year whites

**Area SH0049C white bass on Cork Rigs under low light; one year whites

**Areas 1968 thru SH0041C, 1440, and 1448 – white bass on downriggers with Pet Spoons on 3-armed umbrella rigs

 

 

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

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