Pre-Frontal Fishing with David and Pastor PJ — 116 Fish @ Stillhouse

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday morning I fished with Mr. David Lynn and his pastor, Pastor PJ Condit, of Community Christian Church in Round Rock.  David had been trying to treat PJ to such a trip since before the flooding began in mid-October and I kept putting him off until we turned the corner and the fishing got solid once again.  We eased into that situation going into the week of Thanksgiving, and the fishing has steadily improved.

David is a small business owner, operating Hallmark Services in Georgetown.  His company specializes in installing flooring, doing bathroom and kitchen remodeling, decking, doors & windows, and other miscellaneous repairs.

Since both Belton and Stillhouse are fishing well right now, I laid out the pros and cons of each lake and listened to David’s input, leading us to agree upon fishing Stillhouse.  The pros of Stillhouse: less traffic, bigger white bass, good fishing grounds protected from the forecast north wind.  The pros of Belton: more but smaller white bass, the possibility of landing hybrid stripers.

As we fished during the arrival of a mild, dry cold front which hit around 9:45am, the white bass bite spiked and stayed strong right up until the winds began to subside around 11:30.  During this time we landed 115 white bass and 1 drum.  The white bass had good bodies —  plump bellies, good width across the back, and were generally in very good shape.  They are, no doubt, beginning to develop eggs and milt for the spawn.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning,  December 03, 2018

HOW WE FISHED:   We found scattered but active fish over a 25′ flat using Humminbird side-imaging on the 1.2 MegaHertz frequency with CHIRP activated.  I observed groups of 10-20 white bass in all directions, so, we Spot Locked with the Minn Kota and began throwing bladebaits.  We scarcely went more than 2-3 casts without one, two, or all three of us hooking up on white bass from ~7:45 through about 9:15.  The action lulled a bit as the usual low-light, early morning bite began to die.  However, the bite was re-energized as a mild, dry cold front pushed in on a sudden wind velocity increase right around 9:45.  Fishing stayed solid through 11:30.  After the flats fishing died down, we relied on vertical tactics with a smoking tactic far out-performing easing or snap-jigging this morning.  We relied on the Cicada for our flats work and on my own Hazy Eye Shad slab/stinger hook combos for the vertical work.

OBSERVATIONS:    The gull/tern population, though still paling in comparison to that at Belton, has about doubled on Stillhouse over this past week.  The white bass are definitely showing signs of fattening up for the spawn.  Fish caught today had excellent body conditions, were defecating grey feces indicating they’ve been feeding well, and several regurgitated partially digested shad, indicating they were feeding hard.

TALLY: 116 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 49F

Water Surface Temp: 57.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm at trip’s start, turning light N by 7:45, then increasing suddenly at 9:45 with the arrival of a mild, dry cold front.

Sky Conditions:  Bright and cloudless at trip’s start, clouding up to 90+% grey clouds in a “snowmobile track” pattern.

Water Level:  8.84′ high with a 0.39′ overnight drop and a flow of 1,539cfs

GT = 50

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0068C to SH0075C – bladebaits on a mid-depth flat

**Area SH007C to SH0071C – smoking slabs

**Area SH0076C – smoking slabs while the bite was still strong, then slowing down to slow easing as the fish shut down

 

 

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

 

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle