WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning I fished with Yvette Garcia, her 5-year-old daughter, Lilee, and Lilee’s friend from church, Lilli Moss. This trip was in celebration of Lilee’s 5th birthday which took place on August 13th. This same trio came aboard on August 1st last year in celebration of Lilee’s 4th birthday. Last year the girls lasted about 3 hours and landed 48 fish. This year, with a bit more age and experience under their belts, they hung in there for the full 3 1/2+ hours of their “Kids Fish, Too!” trip, and landed 77 fish.
That’s the birthday girl, Lilee Oliver, with a pair of fish she caught as a “double” (two fish on the same rod at the same time) as we used a 3-armed umbrella rig down between 33-36′ feet to target hungry, suspended white bass. Beside Lilee is her buddy, Lilli Moss, and that’s the birthday girl’s mom, Yvette Garcia, in the background.
…and here’s the same crew celebrating Lilee’s birthday this time last year!!
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on sunfish & white bass.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 25 August 2018
HOW WE FISHED: This morning, no matter how good the fishing, we “kept it moving” so that young Lilee was sure not to lose interest. We began fishing for sunfish up shallow using bream poles and slipfloats with live bait. We fished two distinct areas and landed a total of 3 species of sunfish while tallying 21 fish, all from less than 3 feet of water near thick beds of hydrilla. By 7:45am, we were moving out to deep, clear water — the domain of the white bass — and using downriggers to target schools of these pelagic shad-eaters. After the downrigging worked its magic (and was still working its magic), we changed up to keep things interesting and used spinning rods equipped with tailspinners over top of a particularly thick school of white bass. We landed a handful of white bass in this way, but Lilee expressed a preference for the downrigging, so, we returned to downrigging for a spell until the white bass action was past peak. We wrapped up the white bass effort with exactly 30 of that species boated. We closed out our trip fishing in a third location for sunfish once again, and topped off the trip with a final 26 additional sunfish before calling it a good morning and heading on in while the girls were still energetic and the sun was not yet blazing.
OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: We fished atop the only surface action I witnessed since Wednesday morning. This morning’s topwater action was fueled by schoolie largemouth popping young of the year shad over ~40 feet of water with white bass in great numbers hanging below them. We experienced our fastest, most productive white bass bite during the 35 minutes or so when this topwater action was taking place. As the surface feed went, so went the white bass fishing.
TALLY: 77 fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 10:35a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F
Water Surface Temp: 84.6F
Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were calm at sunrise, building to SSE5-7 by 7:45, then shifting slowly and increasing to S8-9, then SSW9-11 by trip’s end.
Sky Conditions: 30% cloud cover.
Water Level: 7.68 feet low and falling
GT = 0
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 201 & vic 423 for 21 sunfish early
**Area 1440-SH0040C downrigging & tailspinners for 30 white bass
**Area SH0038C – for 26 sunfish late
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