ON THE OCCASION OF THEIR 43RD ANNIVERSARY – 48 FISH WITH THE ROBINSONS

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Tuesday, February 26th, I fished Mr. Marcus Robinson and his wife, Kim.  The two left their home near Austin to spend a few days at a cottage nestled along the banks of Lake Belton to celebrate their 43rd wedding anniversary. Over the years, Marcus has worked in industry, including stints with Nabisco and Texas Instruments, then at age 33, went into full time ministry from which he has recently retired.  Kim, after raising two sons, now serves as a nanny.  Marcus is transitioning from kayak angling to fishing from a boat and so had a keen interest in the sonar, trolling motor, battery, and flooring setup I have in my boat, as well as in the vertical tactics we used, which were very new to him.

 

Marcus landed this old gal in the opening minutes of this morning’s trip.  This battle-scarred baby took a 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slab with Hazy Eye Stinger Hook in 30 feet of water and then gave a real good account of herself on the light spinning tackle we were pursuing white bass with.

 

Something is going on with Stillhouse bluecat.  I’ve now had a blue cat over 5 pound come aboard on each of my last 4 trips, which is more blue cat than I’ve seen in the last decade!  Either someone did some “midnight stocking”, or the zebra mussels are fueling a bluecat revival.  Regardless, Kim was glad this rascal obliged!

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
 
WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 26 Feb., 2019

HOW WE FISHED: The Robinsons were limited to either Monday or Tuesday this week, so, come Saturday, I studied the weather closely and made my best estimate that today’s weather would produce better than yesterday morning’s bright, calm conditions.  In hindsight, I feel that was a good call, as yesterday was, indeed, bright and calm and, as I scouted around the lake I saw no birds flying in search of bait during the most critical first 2.5 hours following sunrise. Additionally, Marcus had a concern about the impact of the cold and damp on Kim; today was 10 degrees warmer at sunrise than the day before.

All of that, however, still doesn’t mean today was a red-letter day.  We had only a 6-7mph breeze through 9:50, which then died until around 11:50, and we also experienced a thin fog from around 8:00 until 10:00, so we did not have either the brightening of the sky or a sudden wind shift/increase to trigger the fish.

The fish and birds were both fairly lackadaisical this morning, forcing us to move routinely and permitting us to pick up just a few fish at each stop we made with no more than 8-10 caught at any one area.  In general, the fish were in 27-32′ during the time the breeze blew, then we had to search deeper, 50+ foot water to get bit once the wind died.

All but 8 of our fish were landed on the Hazy Eye Slab with Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached, in color white and 3/8 oz. size.  Those other 8 came on bladebaits.

OBSERVATIONS:  We observed no suspended fish today, in fact, most all of the fish we observed were nearly flat to bottom.  The fish really did not respond all that well to the thumper; I think it kept the resident fish resident, but didn’t draw other fish in. The bird action, though helpful, involved a lot more flying than feeding this morning.

TALLY: 48 fish caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 1:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Water Surface Temp: 53.8-54.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were ESE6-7 thru 9:50, calm from 9:50 thru 11:50, then E7 from 11:50 thru 1p

Sky Conditions:   ~50% cloud cover at sunrise, clearing to under 10% cloud cover by 10am, then with a high, thin, grey layer of clouds moving in as the winds spiked around 10am.

Water Level:  622.68 ASL, with a 0.07′ rise in the last 24 hours.

GT = 40

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1518  first stop, low-light bite with moderate action on snapjigging

**Area vic 1892 moderate action on snapjigging

**Area vic 745 shallow fish on blades

**Area 1195 moderate action on snapjigging at edge of channel

**Area  1690-1302 – this expanse of water had small wolfpacks of whites and drum working in 50+ feet of water

**Area 052 – midday action for smaller whites

**Area 1195 moderate action on snapjigging at edge of channel (2nd stop here)

 

Bob Maindelle

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

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