WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning I fished a multi-species trip with Adam Cox of Cedar Park, TX, accompanied by his two sons, 13-year-old Jackson, and 11-year-old Addison. Adam works in the information technology department at Yeti (as in ice chests, etc.), and runs his own 18′ fishing boat, primarily on Lake Travis. Aside from catching fish, Adam wanted to see my overall approach to summertime fishing after realizing he and the boys do a lot more fishing than catching.
Big fish honors this morning when to Addison who landed this well-proportioned 8.00 pound largemouth on a tailspinner from out of 36 feet of water. The fish was mixed in with a group of white bass we spotted on sonar and stopped over top of to work vertically for. Because the fish put up a great fight and Addison had no choice but to reel it in slowly, it decompressed on its way to the surface and released cleanly with no fizzing required and no signs of barotrauma.
In our final hour on the water, Adam landed this nice 15+ inch white bass built more like a purebred striper.
Jackson stayed focused the entire trip and landed fish consistently via both downrigging and vertical jigging. This was one of his largest white bass of the morning.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass,
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday morning, 14 August 2018
HOW WE FISHED: Our approach from start to finish this morning was to use sonar to find fishable populations of white bass in the vicinity of large concentrations of bait, then to use downriggers to both catch them and to find active, bottom-oriented schools of white bass which we could hover atop of using the Minn Kota’s Spot Lock feature and catch them using tailspinners. We enjoyed steady action all 4 hours with the first hour being slowest, with moderate action the second hour, the best action in the third and into the fourth hour, and a rapid slowdown in the final half of the last hour. We landed only one 1-year-class white bass — all others were 2 and 3-year-class fish. Of the 75 fish landed, 2 were freshwater drum, 4 were largemouth bass, and the balance were white bass. We fished three distinct areas but found fish from 32-36 feet deep at all three areas as this is where the “band of life” at the top of the thermocline positioned this morning.
OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: Stillhouse’s brief rise from the weekend’s rains ended today as evaporation took back over and reversed the rising water. We’re now at 7.25 feet low.
TALLY: 75 fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 11:00a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F
Water Surface Temp: 84.3F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW wind at 8-9 through 8am, then ramping up another 3-4 mph to S13-14 thereafter.
Sky Conditions: ~25% cloud cover
Water Level: 7.25 feet low and now once again falling
GT = 40
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area SH0040C thru 1569 thru SH0052C – first hour
**Area 1239 thru 1969 – second hour
**Area 1222-1970 – final 2 hours
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